Ashley Judd vs. Ashton Kutcher: How the universities of Kentucky and Iowa compare

Comparing the universities of Kentucky and Iowa — whose football teams will meet in Saturday’s VRBO Citrus Bowl:

IOWA

Enrollment: 31,206

Budget: $4.45 billion

In-state tuition: $9,942

U.S. News Ranking: No. 83 among best national universities

President: Barbara Wilson

President’s salary: $600,000

Athletics budget: $117 million

NCAA team championships won: 26 — men’s wrestling 24 (1975, ‘76, ‘78, ‘79, ‘80, ‘81, ‘82, ‘83, ‘84, ‘85, ‘86, ‘91, ‘92, ‘93, ‘95, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98, ‘99, 2000, ‘08, ‘09, 2010, 2021); men’s gymnastics 1 (1969); women’s field hockey 1 (1986).

Iconic coach: From 1977 through 1997, Dan Gable coached the Hawkeyes to 15 men’s wrestling NCAA championships.

A way with words: Writer John W. Irving, author of “The World According to Garp” and “A Prayer for Owen Meany,” earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Iowa in English in 1967.

Old Hollywood: Gene Wilder, star of movies “Young Frankenstein” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” graduated from Iowa in 1955 after majoring in theater. Wilder died in 2016.

New Hollywood: Actor Ashton Kutcher, star of TV shows “That ‘70s Show” and “Two and a Half Men” and movies “No Strings Attached” and “Jobs,” enrolled at the University of Iowa in August 1996, but left before graduating after he was discovered by a modeling scout.

Science is cool: James Van Allen, the physicist who discovered two radiation belts that surround the Earth (subsequently known as “the Van Allen Belts”), earned his Master of Science (1936) and Ph.D. (1939) from Iowa.

NBC Tom: Tom Brokaw, long the face of NBC News, attended the University of Iowa in 1958-59, but ultimately graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1962. Iowa conferred an honorary degree on Brokaw in 2010.

The pageant life: Katie Wadman, Miss Iowa USA 2021, studies psychology, journalism, and mass communications at the University of Iowa.

Alumnus who is now an FBS head football coach: Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops played defensive back for Iowa (1986-88) and served as a Hawkeyes graduate assistant from 1990-91.

KENTUCKY

Enrollment: 31,536

Budget: $5.079 billion

In-state tuition: $12,610

U.S. News Ranking: No. 127 among best national universities

President: Eli Capilouto

President’s salary: Effective Jan. 1, $1.035 million

Athletics budget: $148.5 million

NCAA team championships won: 13 — men’s basketball 8 (1948, ‘49, ‘51, ‘58, ‘78, ‘96, ‘98, 2012); coed rifle 3 (2011, 2018, 2021); women’s cross country 1 (1988); women’s volleyball 1 (2020-*)

* — won in spring of 2021 due to coronavirus

Iconic coach: From 1930 through 1972, Adolph Rupp won the first four of Kentucky’s NCAA men’s basketball titles (1948, ‘49, ‘51, ‘58).

A way with words: Writer Bobbie Ann Mason, author of “Shiloh and Other Stories” and “In Country,” earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from UK in 1962.

Old Hollywood: Former UK student Harry Dean Stanton played Molly Ringwald’s craggy-faced, down-on-his-luck dad in the iconic 1986 teen romance “Pretty In Pink.” Stanton died in 2017.

New Hollywood: Actress Ashley Judd, star of “A Time to Kill,” “Double Jeopardy” and “Frida,” attended UK from 1986 through 1990 but earned her French degree from Kentucky in 2007.

Science is cool: Thomas Hunt Morgan, who attended the State College of Kentucky (as UK was once known) in the 19th century, won the 1933 Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries in the role chromosomes play in heredity.

NBC Tom: Tom Hammond, long one of the most prominent voices of NBC Sports, graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1967 with a degree in animal science with an emphasis in equine genetics.

The pageant life: Elle Smith, a 2020 graduate of Kentucky with a degree in broadcast journalism and minor in political science, won the 2021 Miss USA pageant. Smith is a reporter for WHAS-TV in Louisville.

Alumnus who is now an FBS football coach: New Troy Trojans head man Jon Sumrall, former Kentucky linebacker and assistant coach, earned a Finance degree from UK in 2005. (West Virginia Coach Neal Brown played for UK but earned both his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Massachusetts).

Saturday

No. 22 Kentucky vs. No. 15 Iowa

What: VRBO Citrus Bowl

When: 1 p.m.

Where: Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla.

TV: ABC-36

Records: Kentucky 9-3, Iowa 10-3

Series: First meeting

This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 2:55 PM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-444-4731

Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription