Marquette hasn't played a down of football in 58 years, yet the school has three times as many first-round NFL Draft picks as Iowa State.
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Marquette began playing football in 1927 and found immediate success under head coach Frank Murray. Murray led the Golden Avalanche to an undefeated season in 1930 and their first (and only) bowl game in 1936, the inaugural Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1937.
Three weeks before Marquette lost to TCU in the Cotton Bowl, quarterback Ray Buivid — who finished third in 1936 Heisman Trophy voting — was selected third in the NFL draft by the Chicago Bears. He threw for 500 yards in two seasons before retiring to join the U.S. Navy for World War II.
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Nine years later, the Green Bay Packers took Golden Avalanche halfback and Milwaukee native Johnny Strzykalski with sixth pick in the 1946 NFL Draft, and in 1955, Ron Drzewiecki, another Milwaukee native, was taken 11th overall by the Bears. The program disbanded in 1960, and while additional Marquette players were drafted, none were first-round picks.
Despite not fielding a team since the Eisenhower Administration, Marquette has two more first-round picks than Iowa State. The Cylcones are the only current Power Five program with fewer than three first-round picks. Their lone first-rounder came in 1973 when running back George Amundson was taken 11th by the Houston Oilers.
