Iowa

‘Fearless’ 96-year-old Husband Calling Contest winner and Iowa State Fair mainstay dies

Published

9 months ago

March 30, 2025

‘Fearless’ 96-year-old Husband Calling Contest winner and Iowa State Fair mainstay dies

The Iowa State Fair’s Husband Calling Contest is marked by caterwauling and squawking and booming threats of Ohhhhh, you better get in hereeeeee, so help meeeeee …

But amidst all that boisterous screaming, 95-year-old Bonnie Eilert’s high-pitched reminder, hooked onto the end of her yowling and yelping for her husband “ROYYYYYYY” like a perfect little period, will always stick with me: “I Love You!”

Bright and punchy. Delivered with a little mischievousness, maybe. Or lovesickness. Definitely a smile.

“I Love You!”

She was the only contestant — out of the 17 participating in 2023 — who thought to add a little bit of tenderness. “You win more friends with honey than vinegar,” said Rob Sand, part-time Iowa State Fair judge and full-time state auditor.

Eilert’s choice of endearment reaped reward. In front of the largest crowd to ever watch the contest, a result of an old Iowa PBS segment going viral on TikTok the winter previous, Eilert won — a highwater mark in a year stained with grief.

“It feels wunderbar,” she told me. “I love it. I have other blue ribbons, too, but, oh, this is precious.”

Eilert — a State Fair mainstay on par with the chainsaw carvers and the 4-H stage volunteers — died March 22, 2025, on her “beloved farm,” according to her obituary. She was 96.

Born, raised and forever rooted to the land of Jasper County, Eilert graduated from Newton High in 1947 and married her sweetheart, Roy Eilert, in a ceremony at her parents’ home in 1949. The key to their loving marriage, she told me without a whiff of irony that day at the fair, was communication.

With a strong sense of community honed at an early age, she was a “lifelong advocate for agriculture and rural life” and a stalwart member of the Jasper County Chorus and the Farm Bureau, once serving as the group’s chairwoman.

“Her warm spirit, resilience and dedication to family and community left a lasting impression on everyone who knew her,” her family wrote in the obituary.

And, for more than 40 years, Eilert was the keeper of the First Church key at the State Fair, a volunteer position that let her visit about her cherished fair with tourists from far and wide. A replica of (you guessed it) the first Christian church built on Iowa land in 1834, the First Church was “a place dear to her heart,” her obituary says.

Indeed, the whole fair was much loved by Eilert. In her older years, she was known to wear old-timey clothes — lace stoles and pillbox hats — and tool around the grounds on her scooter. Hills be damned!

All day, every day, there was never too much fair for Bonnie, a legacy her family is honoring by asking for memorial contributions to the Iowa State Fair in lieu of flowers.

Find an excerpt of Courtney Crowder’s column on Bonnie Eilert and the Husband Calling Contest below, and read the full story here.

IOWA STATE FAIRGROUNDS — At 95 years old — or as Bonnie Eilert likes to classify: “I’m older than dirt” — she’s been coming to the State Fair nearly as far back as she can remember. Her parents were farmers, and she married a farmer, so, in August, it’s just what you did, you came to Des Moines, she says.

About four decades ago ― when she first started getting unsteady on her feet ― her daughter Sheryl bought a camper so they could stay on the fairgrounds instead of making the hike back and forth to Newton. She’s been spending her nights at the same site ever since, and passes her days tending to the First Church, a historical prairie church in the fair’s Heritage Village area.

Eilert has been entering the Husband Calling Contest since it began about 40 years ago, she says. But it’s hard to keep track, she admits. This contest is just one of many she enters, one of many of her “adventures,” as she calls them.

“I’m fearless,” she says. “My husband was so against it. He says, ‘Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare.’ ‘I’m going to do it,’ I said.”

So she entered and won: “He left me alone after that. He was proud of me.”

Roy died nearly a decade ago, and Sheryl ― Bonnie’s State Fair sidekick and her live-in caretaker ― died very suddenly this year. Being at the fair without her has been “pretty horrific,” she says.

But attending some of the contests that Sheryl loved so much has been a bit of salve.

“Yes, it’s brought me some comfort because people ask about my dear, charming child,” she says, clutching her ribbon and her winnings, a whopping $15. “Everybody’s just made my day.”

Read the full story here.

Courtney Crowder, the Register’s Iowa Columnist, traverses the state’s 99 counties telling Iowans’ stories. Her State Fair food must-get is the Bauder’s Peppermint Bar. Don’t be ashamed to have seconds! Reach her at ccrowder@dmreg.com or 515-284-8360. Follow her on Twitter @courtneycare.

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Iowa

Iowa State Cyclones’ Jimmy Rogers Must Retain Impact Wide Receiver

Published

6 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Iowa State Cyclones’ Jimmy Rogers Must Retain Impact Wide Receiver

With the Jimmy Rogers era starting up for the Iowa State Cyclones, he will be hoping to retain some of the talent for the program after the departure of Matt Campbell.

Since Campbell took the job with the Penn State Nittany Lions, there has been a barrage of recruits leaving the program. That was always to be expected with the coaching change, but the Cyclones’ class went from being one of the best in the history of the program to a bit of a problem.

Fortunately, Rogers is expected to bring some of his recruits over from Washington State as well, and that recently started with Malcolm Watkins committing to Iowa State. With the transfer portal set to open in a couple of weeks, there is undoubtedly going to be a lot of player movement.

For Rogers, there will be a couple of key players that he should be focused on trying to retain. Furthermore, keeping some of the younger talent who might be around for multiple years could also help them sustain success.

Alec Busse of 247Sports recently wrote about some essential players for Jimmy Rogers to try and retain that could help the program long-term. Unsurprisingly, sophomore wide receiver Brett Eskildsen was named.

Eskildsen Could Be an Impact Player for Multiple Years

Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In 2025, the wide receiver position for Iowa State saw a lot of changeover following the departure of some talented players to the NFL. The position group wouldn’t be considered a strength of the program last year, but there was some young talent that showed promise.

One of the top players for the passing offense was the talented sophomore receiver who ended up finishing with a strong campaign. Overall, Eskildsen totaled 30 receptions, 526 receiving yards, and five receiving touchdowns.

The sophomore led the team in both receiving yards and yards per catch, while finishing third in receptions and second in receiving touchdowns. With it really being his first year playing, it was an outstanding start to his career.

For Rogers, keeping the talented receiver for the next couple of years would be a big boost for the program. Fortunately, there are a couple of factors that could help with that. Recently, his brother signed as a preferred walk-on, and his family also has some connections to the program. Those factors could be key for Rogers to retain him, and it would be a significant boost for the offense if he were able to do so.

More Iowa State Cyclones News:

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Iowa

Check the Powerball numbers. 28,000 Iowa Lottery tickets won prizes.

Published

18 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Check the Powerball numbers. 28,000 Iowa Lottery tickets won prizes.

The Powerball Jackpot keeps getting bigger. No one was the winner on Wednesday, Dec. 17, which means $1.5 billion is now up for grabs.

This is now the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.

How many Iowa Lottery tickets won prizes in latest Powerball drawing?

Iowa Lottery players won 28,677 prizes in Wednesday’s drawing, and this time, no one got close to winning the grand prize. Prizes ranged from $4 to $400.

What were the winning Powerball numbers in Wednesday’s drawing?

The winning numbers in Wednesday’s drawing were 25-33-53-62-66 and Powerball 17. The Power Playmultiplier was 4.

When is the next Powerball drawing?

The next Powerball drawing will be on Saturday, Dec. 20. The game has drawings on Mondays, Wednesday and Saturdays each week.

The Powerball jackpot has been growing since early September, and Saturday’s drawing will mark the 45th in the current jackpot run, a record for most drawings in a single jackpot cycle, according to the news release.

How many Iowa Lottery Powerball tickets were sold?

Iowa Lottery players bought nearly $1.75 million in Powerball tickets for last night’s drawing, including $1.24 million in tickets on Wednesday alone. But the average Powerball purchase in Iowa for Wednesday’s drawing remained around $6, or about three plays per ticket.

Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at lcheng@gannett.com or 515-284-8132.

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Iowa

Arizona baseball to hire Iowa’s Sean Kenny as pitching coach

Published

1 day ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Arizona baseball to hire Iowa’s Sean Kenny as pitching coach

Arizona got caught up in the swirl of college baseball coaches leaving for professional jobs this offseason, losing pitching coach John DeRouin to a coordinator position with the New York Mets organization. But the Wildcats didn’t take long finding a replacement, one with a strong pedigree in the collegiate ranks.

Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com is reporting the UA will hire Iowa’s Sean Kenny as pitching coach. Kenny will techincally be Arizona’s fourth pitching coach in five seasons under Chip Hale, though DeRouin only served in that role during the offseason following Kevin Vance’s departure in June to become San Diego State’s head coach.

Kenny, 53, spent the 2025 season at Iowa where his staff ranked 16^th in the country in ERA and 11^th in strikeouts per nine innings. The Hawkeyes went 33-22-1 but missed the NCAA Tournament.

Prior to Iowa, Kenny spent the 2023 season at Iowa and before that was at Georgia from 2018-23. He’s also coached at Michigan, Maryland, Pepperdine and San Diego. The 2026 season will be his 30^th in college baseball.

Arizona, which is coming off a trip to the College World Series, returns weekend starters Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey and NCBWA Stopper of the Year Tony Pluta among several other pitchers from the team that went 44-21.

The UA opens the 2026 season on Feb. 13 in Surprise against former Pac-12 foe Stanford, part of a tournament that also includes Oregon State and Michigan. The home opener is Feb. 17 vs. Omaha at Hi Corbett Field.

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