UWEC Athletics Hall of Fame
Clay Iverson was a bookend tackle to Hall of Famer Luke Burger during the three-year head coaching stint of Bob Nielson that included a run to the semifinals of the 1998 NCAA championship.
As a senior, Iverson was listed at 6-5, 325. He was recruited out of New Berlin Eisenhower by Greg Polnasek in 1994 but played his final three seasons for Nielson, starting for teams that went 5-5 in 1996, 7-3 in 1997 and 10-3 in 1998 after a 2-8 finish in 1994 and a 1-9 record in 1995. Iverson redshirted his freshman season. The Blugolds were an offensive juggernaut in 1997, breaking the school single season records for points, first downs, rushing offense and total offense. They went over the 600-yard mark in total offense three times and had a “worst” game of 414 yards. The Blugolds scored 40 or more points in eight of 10 games that season. Iverson blocked for Hall of Fame quarterback Sean Hoolihan and record-setting running back Chad Hoiska during the 1997 campaign. The 1998 team became the first in school history to qualify for the NCAA championships and continued to be a prolific offensive machine behind Iverson, who was named to the All-Conference team, the All-Region First Team and the Football Gazette All-America First Team. Iverson served as a co-captain for a team that defeated Central College, Iowa (28-21) and St. John’s (10-7) in the first two rounds of the playoffs before falling to Rowan, New Jersey (22-19) on a late field goal in the semifinals. The Blugolds were forced to play all of their playoff games on the road. The Blugolds did set school records that season for victories in a season, yards rushing in a game (483) and total offense in a game (690).
Iverson graduated from UWEC in 1999 with a major in marketing. He later obtained his master’s degree in education from UW-Whitewater. He played football two seasons beyond the college level as a player-coach with the Franken Knights in Rothenburg, Germany. He began his career in education as an offensive line coach at Muskego High School (2001-03). In 2004, he took a position as business/marketing educator and defensive coordinator at Pewaukee High School. After two years, he became the head coach at Pewaukee and held that position for seven years. In 2012, he took a position as head football coach and business/marketing educator at Mukwonago High School, serving as their school to work coordinator. In 2018, he accepted an assistant football position at Carroll College. Realizing he missed the high school athletes, he stepped down after one season and took the head football and educator position at Sauk Prairie High School for the 2019 season. Iverson has been extremely successful as a head football coach, compiling an 84-33 record heading into the 2019 season. His teams had won four conference titles in three different leagues with five second-place finishes. He has produced two state players of the year, six conference players of the year, 60 all-conference players and nine all-state players. Eight of his players have gone on to play NCAA Division I football including All Big Ten and NFL draft selections, brothers JJ, TJ and Derek Watt. While coaching the Watts at Pewaukee, the program won 22 consecutive regular season games and in 2009 was ranked No. 1 in the state for eight straight weeks. Iverson has received four conference Coach of the Year awards and twice has been selected to coach in the WFCA All-Star game. In 2017, he received the WIAA’s Marge and Dick Rundle Positive Influence Coaching Award. Iverson is a national and international clinician and motivational speaker and he has served as a Generations against Bullying consultant and speaker. In his time at Mukwonago, he served as the district fundraiser and has been involved in multiple capital projects. During his career, he has been involved in various charity events including Relay for Life, Coaches vs. Cancer, Justin James Watt Foundation, Children’s Hospital, Wounded Warrior Project and Make A Wish Foundation.
