maly, too

Friday, February 21, 2014

By RON MALY

Courtesy ofhttp://kinnick138.wordpress.com/classic-views-from-kinnick-138/

Thank goodness it's finally over. The suspense has been driving me crazy since midweek. You see, Iowa had this basketball game it was trying to get played at Indiana. But the Hoosiers' athletic department decided too much of the gym was falling apart to risk the safety of the players, coaches, ballboys, referees, hot dog vendors and fans--listed not particularly in order of importance. Indiana isn't very good this season, but Iowa is. If neither team was any good, maybe they would've just called the whole thing off. But the Hawkeyes have a Big Ten title and NCAA tournament seeding to be concerned with, so I'm very happy the game has been rescheduled. Matt Weitzel, Iowa's basketball sports information chief, emailed me today, telling me that the game has been rescheduled for 8:05 p.m Thursday, Feb. 27 at the Indiana gym. Evidently, the metal plates that were falling off the building will be tended to by then. What's more, Iowa's home game against Purdue, which was supposed to be played March 1 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, will now be played at 1 p.m. March 2. That'll give the boys some more time to rest up after their game at Indiana. It wasn't just me who was in pins-and-needles form while waiting for the decision as to when, or where, the Iowa-Indiana game would be played. Newspapers around the world [well, at least the one in Des Moines] kept readers in suspense for several days with screaming headlines and long stories at the top of page 1 of the sports section with the latest news on when, or where, the game might be played. Those stories about a game that wasn't played pushed stories about important games that were played to the back of the paper. It's a good thing Babe Ruth didn't die again or that Olo Jones didn't finally win an Olympic medal [even an honorary medal]. Because of the attention being paid to the Iowa-Indiana game, The Babe and Lolo would've been put in the agate on page 12. Frankly, I was breathless during the whole ordeal. Like I said earlier, I am very happy we can all relax now. Weitzel sent me quotes from Iowa athletic director Gary Barta and coach Fran McCaffery about the situation. “Thanks to great teamwork, we were able to find a solution,” Barta said. “I appreciate the work of [Indiana athletic director] Fred Glass and his staff, Jane Meyer from our staff, the cooperation we received from Purdue to move our game, as well as the efforts of the Big Ten Conference staff and our television partners. Our coaches and student-athletes have been resilient all year. I'm confident Fran and his staff will have us ready to play. Both teams will be playing games on the 25th, so the playing field is level from that important perspective.” Said Fran McCaffery: “We appreciate the efforts of all those involved in working together during this process, I especially would like to thank Purdue’s administration and Matt Painter for agreeing to move our game. Being able to move the Purdue game to Sunday allows us to have two days of preparation for both the Indiana and Purdue games next week. Our players have conducted themselves with a great deal of maturity and have had a professional approach all season long, and expect that to continue the remainder of the year.” Now onto other important news. Iowa plays Wisconsin Saturday at 11 a.m. in Iowa City .Iowa tells me that fans [at least Hawkeye fans] are encouraged to wear gold for “Be Bold, Wear Gold” and arrive early for Carver-Hawkeye Arena’s inaugural card stunt, which will take place before the tipoff. Earlier in the week, Weitzel sent this memo to me: "Fans who will be attending the Wisconsin at Iowa men’s basketball game on Saturday are encouraged to wear gold clothing [Be Bold, Wear Gold] and be in their seats by 10:45 a.m. for instructions on Carver-Hawkeye Arena’s inaugural card stunt. Hawkeye fans participated in their first card stunt in 2011 during the Iowa-Northwestern football game in Kinnick Stadium. Fans are encouraged to arrive at the arena 15 minutes early so they can become familiarized with the cards and listen for instructions on the two card stunts that will take place prior to tipoff. Note: Reporters sitting in the media section on Saturday will be asked to participate in the card stunt as well, as media seating is in the middle of sections BB and CC." I am particularly interested in that note to reporters. In the old days, when newspapermen were men and newspaperwomen were women, they wouldn't be caught dead wearing a team's school colors. I was aware of only a couple of guys who broke that rule. Al Grady of the Iowa City Press-Citizen regularly wore black-and-gold Hawkeye jackets and T-shirts with Iowa logos on them to games and press conferences. Paul Hornung of the Columbus Dispatch thought nothing of wearing Ohio State's colors to the press box for football games. Scarlet pants and a gray sportcoat, or vice-versa. Both Grady and Hornung are covering games in the big press box in the sky now, but I figure some of the reporters at Saturday's game will follow instructions and wear gold in the press area. Indeed, I've always wanted to see Pat Harty, Mike Hlas and Don Doxsie in gold outfits. In honor of Be Bold, Wear Gold tomorrow, I'm ordering my printers to make the type in this column gold. How's that for team spirit?

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.