Former Hawkeye football standout Ike Boettger is using lessons learned at Iowa — and support from the Hawkeye network — to grow Stally, his Iowa-based apparel company.

Story: Darren Miller
Photography: courtesy of Ike Boettger and University of Iowa Athletics
Published: June 17, 2026
 

Ike Boettger learned the value of teamwork while playing football at the high school, college, and professional levels. Now, teamwork of a different kind is helping the former Hawkeye standout build momentum as an entrepreneur.

Boettger graduated from the University of Iowa in 2017 with a degree in enterprise leadership. Before receiving his diploma, he started at right tackle for the Hawkeye football team that won the Big Ten West Division in 2015. The next season, he moved to left tackle and was named honorable mention all-Big Ten. He went on to play 36 NFL games and spent time with five teams, most of that with the Buffalo Bills.

In 2024, as Boettger transitioned out of the NFL, he came up with the idea for an apparel company. Named Stally, the company blends country lifestyle, athletics, and entrepreneurial spirit into apparel that fits in anywhere from a county fair to a football tailgate or startup pitch competition.

The name started as a nickname teammates used for the 6-foot-6, 300-pound lineman — think “stallion.” Now, Boettger hopes Stally can become an up-and-coming apparel brand that one day rivals alo, lululemon, and Vuori.

Shortly after hatching the idea, Boettger benefited from another form of teamwork: the Hawkeyes-helping-Hawkeyes variety.

During a charity golf outing in February, Boettger was explaining his plans for Stally to Chuck Hartlieb, who played quarterback for the University of Iowa from 1984 to 1988. Hartlieb immediately thought of a former teammate who could help.

“Chuck said I needed to talk to his college teammate, David Murphy,” Boettger says. “I found out that David grew up in Dike, Iowa, 10 minutes from my hometown. I went to his showroom in Los Angeles, and it was a match made in heaven from the beginning. He has been helpful teaching me everything I need to know.”

Murphy, who was a letterwinner for the Hawkeye football team in 1985 and ’86, is president and CEO of Spruce International/Jingying Textiles in Los Angeles.

“As a business, we don’t take on many new entrepreneurs because it’s a heavy lift with little return, but Ike was different,” Murphy says. “From the moment I met him it was obvious he wasn’t just dabbling in an idea. He had a vision, a sharp point of view, and a clear plan for what he wanted Stally to become.”

The Hawkeye connection helped Boettger find a key mentor, but entrepreneurship had long been part of his story. Growing up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Boettger always had a passion for sports. Even though he didn’t recognize it at the time, he also was surrounded by entrepreneurship. His father, a pastor at Nazareth Lutheran in Cedar Falls, had a side hustle raising pigs so Boettger’s mother could stay home and focus on her own entrepreneurial venture, Barn Happy, an Iowa-themed gift shop. For the Boettgers, entrepreneurship still is a family affair.

Boettger also took several entrepreneurship classes at Iowa, including Foundations in Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Finance, and Entrepreneurial Marketing. He recalls working on a final project with Hawkeye wide receiver Connor Keane, where they completed customer discovery for an idea for a combo seasoning shaker.

“I was swamped by sports all the way through college,” Boettger says. “Being at Iowa in general, you learned how to network. The entrepreneurial program showed you the process and now that I’m doing it, I have really become a generalist. By that I mean, don’t focus to get great at one thing, be dangerous at a lot of things, that’s how you can be a successful founder and entrepreneur.”

Boettger says that broad foundation has helped as he works to grow Stally deliberately. In terms of raising funds to scale the company, he says he has more than 10 potential investors who have says, “Let me know when you’re ready.”

“I’m scaling slowly, organically,” Boettger says. “I’m trying to lay a super solid foundation so it can scale. That is what David has been extremely helpful with. I have a network across the country, and I have the mentors and help to scale it if it gets to that.”

The Stally brand has already been worn by notable NFL athletes George Kittle, Jack Campbell, and Desmond King, and AJ Green of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. Country music artists Cole Swindell and Tucker Beathard also have been photographed in Stally gear.

“Feedback has been awesome,” Boettger says.

For now, Stally’s headquarters are in the basement of the Boettger house, where Boettger and his wife, Katie, are raising three young children. The family roots of the business are already showing: Boettger says his children help package hats. Stally is moving into a warehouse to accommodate increased demand.

Murphy says he is proud to work with Boettger and raved about Stally’s potential.

“My team and I feel fortunate to work with Ike and to be part of building something that’s going to resonate far beyond Iowa,” Murphy says.

There is another twist to what Stally represents. Not only is it a Western lifestyle brand, but it also is faith-driven. Boettger says 23% of all profits will go to Kingdom Building Ministries, which has already started.

For Boettger, Stally is about more than sales or building a recognizable brand. While the company gains traction through support from athletes, musicians, and word-of-mouth, he says the long-term mission is creating impact and staying grounded in the values that shaped him growing up in Iowa.

“It’s not just another brand,” Boettger says. “We’re doing a lot of other cool stuff that is more important than making money.”