June 20, 2005
IOWA CITY, IA – A member of the famed 1939 University of Iowa Ironmen football team, Erwin Prasse, has died at the age of 87. Prasse passed away Saturday in Naperville, IL., his home for the last 52 years.
Visitation will take place tomorrow (Tuesday) from 3-9 p.m. at Friedrich-Jones Funeral Home (44 South Mill St.) in Naperville. Services will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home, followed by a church service at the SS Peter and Paul Church (36 North Ellsworth Street).
Prasse was Iowa’s second nine-time letter-winner (Aubrey Devine was the first). He lettered three times in football, basketball and baseball and was the captain of the famed “Ironmen”.
Prasse was an all-American end his senior year (1939) in football after having been named all-Big Ten as a junior and senior. He was also a prominent starter at second base for two Iowa Big Ten title baseball teams.
He was taken in the ninth round of the 1940 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions and was drafted by major league baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals. He even played professional basketball for a few years.
He was a veteran of World War II who was wounded in action. He worked for an insurance company most of his life.
Prasse and his wife, Norma, had 10 children.
There are believed to be only three remaining members of the Ironmen team. They are “Red” Frye, Richard Evans and Henry Vollenweider.