maly, too: Iowa Winds Up Spring Football Practice Saturday

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Iowa Winds Up Spring Football Practice Saturday

Iowa's final spring football practice is open to fans Saturday at Kinnick Stadium, with the workout and scrimmage starting at 2 p.m.. Gates open at 1 p.m. for the session that is expected to last approximately two hours and will include a controlled scrimmage near its conclusion.

The Hawkeye Sports Network will be on the air from 1 to 2 p.m., with Gary Dolphin and Ed Podolak calling the action and discussing spring football. Stations carrying the broadcast include KXIC-AM (800) Iowa City, WMT-AM (600) Cedar Rapids, WHO-AM (1040) Des Moines, WOC-AM (1420) Davenport, KDTH-AM (1370) Dubuque, KGLO-AM (1300) Mason City, KBUR-AM (1490) Burlington, KCZE-FM (95.1) New Hampton, KUOO-FM (103.9) Spirit Lake and KSCJ-AM (1360) Sioux City.

In addition, the practice session can be viewed live on BTN2Go. BTN will broadcast the practice on a tape-delayed basis at 7 p.m. CT, on Sunday, April 28. Brent Balbinot and former Hawkeye Sean Considine will call the action, with sideline reports and interviews with former KCRG-TV sports director John Campbell.

There is no admission charge. Fans are invited to join forces with the Iowa athletic department, the Iowa Farm Bureau, and the Johnson County Crisis Center in the second annual ANF Food Bank Drive. Fans are invited to bring non-perishable food items to the annual open practice. To encourage donations, the first 5,000 fans who make a donation of canned food itemswill receive a souvenir ANF “Farm Strong” poster featuring Casey Wiegmann, who last fall was the first former Hawkeye to be named to the ANF Wall of Honor inside ANF Plaza at Kinnick. Collection trucks will be located near the Krause Family Plaza, just south of Kinnick Stadium.

The west and south grandstands will be open for spectators. Gates A and G will open at 1 p.m. Due to heightened safety and security concerns, fans are discouraged from bringing purses and bags to the event. Purses and bags will be subject to search or may be denied entry. Patrons should expect delays if they are attempting to carry bags into Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. There is no autograph session following the practice.

Parking will be available in all university parking lots adjacent to Kinnick Stadium. Fans with recreational vehicles will be able to park Friday after 7 p.m. in UI Lot 75 south of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Please note: normal daily parking rates will be in effect in the parking ramps adjacent to UI Hospitals and Clinics.

Pre-event activities will be held from noon to 2 p.m. in Krause Family Plaza at the south end of Kinnick Stadium. Roster cards for Saturday’s practice will be available in Krause Family Plaza, along with limited schedule posters for the 2013 season. Selected members of Iowa’s men’s basketball team will be available for autographs between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m.

Herky’s Locker Room – the official team store of the Iowa Hawkeyes -- will stage its annual clearance sale on the southeast concourse of Kinnick Stadium from 8 a.m. until the conclusion of the football team’s practice. Fans should enter Gate M for access to the clearance sale, which will feature 50 percent discounts. The event will move into the east concourse in the event of rain. In addition, Herky’s Locker Room will have a trailer located at the Krause Family Plaza.

Fans are reminded that Iowa City ordinance prohibit the consumption of any alcoholic beverage on UI and public property, which includes UI parking lots and parking ramps. As in the past, the ordinance is in effect on the day of the annual open-to-the-public spring football practice.

Fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes who were general public and/or UI faculty/staff season ticket holders a year ago are reminded that the priority deadline to order their 2013 season tickets is Friday, April 26. Fans should note that away game ticket orders must also be submitted by April 26.

Fans who did not purchase general public and/or UI faculty/staff seasons tickets a year ago, but are interested in purchasing tickets for the 2013 season, should note that the UI Athletics Ticket Office is currently accepting requests for new season ticket holders and that the supply of season tickets available for purchase is limited. Requests must be made online at hawkeyesports.com and should be submitted by April 27.

The UI Athletics Ticket Office is currently accepting orders for 2013 UI student season tickets from current UI students. Students must place their order online and can do so at hawkeyesports.com. Students ordering their 2013 UI football season tickets will also have the opportunity to order their 2013-14 men’s basketball season tickets this spring.

Questions concerning the purchase of general public, UI faculty/staff and UI student seasons tickets by current UI students should be directed to the UI Athletics Ticket Office. The office is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The office telephone number is 1-800-IA-HAWKS.

Iowa opens the 2013 football season Aug. 31, hosting Northern Illinois. The Hawkeyes host Missouri State the following Saturday before traveling to Iowa State on Sept. 14. The Hawkeyes close the non-conference portion of the schedule Sept. 21, hosting Western Michigan.

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Iowa sports information director Steve Roe].

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.