State champion jumper Ian Collins leaps from Iowa to UNI to play football for Panthers

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Cats are known to land on their four feet even after falling from great heights.

After achieving great heights as a state-champion jumper for Charles City and then for the University of Iowa, Ian Collins has landed as a UNI Panther to play football.

“I went into the transfer portal on May 8 and on May 23 I committed to play football for UNI,” Collins said during the past holiday weekend days before leaving for the University of Northern Iowa to play wide receiver for the Panthers football team.

“I just missed playing football,” Collins said. “That’s my true love.”

Collins may have a heart for football, but he seemed to grow wings when he took to jumping for the Comet track and field team. After a “breakout” freshman season that ended with Collins placing second in the high jump at the State Track and Field Championships, Collins went on to win two state HJ titles after being deprived of the 2020 season due to the pandemic as well as a Drake Relays HJ title. Collins also won a long jump state title his junior season before placing second in the event his senior season.

Collins is Charles City’s all-time boys record holder in the high jump (6 feet, 9 inches) and the long jump (23 feet, 1 1/2 inches).

During his redshirt season with Iowa, Collins won the high jump event at an indoor invitational hosted by the Hawkeyes while competing as an unattached athlete with a clear of 6 feet, 11 inches.

In practice at Iowa, Collins cleared heights greater than seven feet.

Collins himself stands at six feet, not short by regular standards yet Collins usually was one of the shorter HJ competitors at state and Drake Relay events.

This often made Collins the “rock star” at big meets — liken to the way fans got behind Spud Webb and Nate Robinson when they won NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contests — as his diminutive size highlighted his “hang time”.

But Collins also excited Comet fans with his football exploits which included Lynn Swann-like circus catches as a receiver and Fran Tarkenton-like scramble elusiveness when he played quarterback.

UNI football is a NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision program.

“I don’t know if I’m ever going to go back to jumping again … maybe I will,” Collins said, “but I believe this move is going to make me a better athlete and a better person.”