By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

Athletes from the three state colleges in Iowa will be the companion sculptures to the Iowa State Fair butter cow this year.

Fair spokesperson Mindy Williamson says the three have each forged a legacy at their schools. “Nothing could be butter — we’re using the pun there — then creating these iconic Iowa athletes in butter,” Williamson says. “We have Jack Trice, from Iowa State, Kurt Warner from UNI, and then Caitlin Clark, from the University of Iowa.”

Putting Caitlin Clark in with the butter cow may be the only way to cool her off — as she has become one of the hottest draws in Iowa, and a national figure as well,  after leading the Hawkeye women to the runner-up finish in the national championship game. “We did reach out to her family and they are Iowans through and through. And, you know, Iowans love their Iowa State Fair. And so we could not be more proud to showcase her likeness and butter at the fair and, and she was also pretty excited about it,” she says. Jack Trice was the first African-American athlete at Iowa State, and he died from injuries he received during a football game in 1923.

“The message and his legacy is just an inspiration, not only to us in Iowa, but just athletics overall, you know, in the changes that we’ve made in the better people that we’ve become, because of what unfortunately happened to him,” Williamson says. “And this is 100-year commemoration by Iowa State, and they have a bunch of different programs going on, to honor his legacy.”

Kurt Warner is another Iowan who gained national fame after going from sacking butter and other groceries to become an NFL Hall of Famer. “A story of unbreakable spirit and drive in. That’s basically what Iowans are all about. And so he has lots of accolades to his name as well. We know he’s out broadcasting sports, but I don’t know that he’s ever been in butter before,” Williamson says.

Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines took over sculpting the butter cow in 2006 after serving as an apprentice to Norma Lyons for 15 years. Williams says visitors to the State Fair in August will get to see the athlete’s sculptures. “She typically does, the people that she does likenesses of, she’ll do them to size,” she says. Williamson says they always look for an Iowa connection for companion sculptures, and then can branch out to famous events. The 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for example, was the companion sculpture in 2009. “Then we also sort of defer to Sarah as far as the armature that she can make. So we don’t want to make anything that won’t fit in a cooler or anything. That would take way too long to sort of put together. Believe it or not, not everything can be sculpted in butter, although Sarah makes it look pretty easy,” Williamson says.

The athletes and butter cow will be on display when the 2023 Iowa State Fair opens on August 10th.