Spencer Petras Wins Slater Golden Gavel

Iowa senior quarterback Spencer Petras was announced as the second winner of the Duke Slater Golden Gavel Award, which was voted upon by a group of Iowa media members who cover the program on a regular basis.

Petras, a San Rafael, Calif., native, received 88 percent of the votes by local media. During a team meeting Friday morning, Petras was presented with an engraved gavel by Scott Dochterman of The Athletic.

By description, “The Golden Gavel will go to the Iowa football player, who not only is most cooperative with local media, but exhibits themself with professional integrity in all interactions.”

“Few athletes have handled themselves with more professionalism in the face of adversity than Spencer Petras,” Dochterman said. “Spencer set an example of accountability that everyone should emulate, and few ever will attain.”

The award is named after Duke Slater, who was a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame and a 2021 inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Slater earned his law degree from the University of Iowa while playing in the NFL, and he became the first African American elected to the Cook County Superior Court. The playing surface at Kinnick Stadium was renamed Duke Slater Field in summer 2021.

Safety Kaevon Merriweather was the inaugural winner in 2021.