maly, too: Bernie Bennett Dies At 82. He Was a 3-Sport Standout At Mason City High School, Then Lettered 3 Times In Football As a Halfback and Fullback At Iowa--Leading the Big Ten In Punt Returns As a Senior

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Bernie Bennett Dies At 82. He Was a 3-Sport Standout At Mason City High School, Then Lettered 3 Times In Football As a Halfback and Fullback At Iowa--Leading the Big Ten In Punt Returns As a Senior

I heard from my friend Jay Cookman again this morning.

He had some sad news in his email.

"I was just checking the obituaries from the Mason City Globe Gazette, my hometown newspaper, and saw that Bernard Bennett, 82, passed away," Cookman wrote. "I believe he was a star football player at Mason City High School, as well as an all-around great athlete. I also believe that he played at the University of Iowa. Just wanted to let you know, so that you can scoop the Register again."

Bernie Bennett, courtesy Globe Gazette

Indeed, following an outstanding athletic career at Mason City, Bernie Bennett earned three football letters and one baseball letter as a Hawkeye athlete in the 1950s.

He is to be installed into Mason City's first athletic Hall of Fame class on Aug. 29.

Here's the obituary that was published in today's Mason City Globe Gazette:

Bernie Bennett, 82, who enjoyed an incredible high school career as a multi-sport star in Mason City, died Monday in Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

Bennett, who graduated in 1949, was listed as one of Chuck Offenburger’s top 25 male prep athletes in Iowa history in his book, “Bernie Saggau & the Iowa Boys: The Centennial History of the Iowa High School Athletic Association.”

He will be inducted into the first Mason City Athletic Hall of Fame on Aug. 29 for his achievements as a prep athlete.

Bennett was a three-sport star in Mason City – baseball, football and basketball.

“It just came natural to me, and I played all the time,” Bennett told the Globe Gazette of his athletic ability when he was in Mason City in 209 for the 60-year reunion of the class of 1949.

In baseball, Bennett was a star catcher on Mason City’s American Legion Junior team that won the 1948 state title under legendary coach Elmer Starr.

On the football field, Bennett earned all-state honors twice as a halfback.

In basketball, Bennett was a guard for the Mohawks. He also went on to play on a team that won the Iowa AAU basketball title.

“He was a good athlete, very well-coordinated, and he was just a nice fella, all the way around,” Bill Moore, who coached Bennett in football and basketball at Mason City, said in a 1999 interview with the Globe Gazette. “Easy to coach. He had a lot of ability.”

Funeral arrangements for Mr. Bennett are incomplete with Fullerton Funeral Home, 123 Second St. S.E., Mason City, 641-423-8676, www.Fullertonfh.com.

Jeremy Koenigs wrote this very nice story about Bennett in the June 14 edition of the Mason City Globe Gazette:

The summer of 1949 was when the National Basketball Association formed.
In Major League Baseball, 1949 marked the first time the All-Star Game had African-Americans in the lineup.

Jackie Robinson, who broke MLB’s color barrier in 1947, started for the National League at second base. His Brooklyn Dodgers teammates, catcher Roy Campanella and pitcher Don Newcombe, also played for the NL.

Meanwhile, Larry Doby played in the game for the American League.
In December 1949, a merger agreement between the National Football League and the All-America Football Conference was announced, with three AAFC teams – the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts – set to join the NFL for the 1950 season.

While there were many changes going on in professional sports, a local star named Bernie Bennett had just ended his brilliant high school career for Mason City.

“He was a good athlete, very well-coordinated, and he was just a nice fella, all the way around,” Bill Moore, who coached Bennett in football and basketball at Mason City, said in a 1999 interview with the Globe Gazette. “Easy to coach. He had a lot of ability.”

Now, as 65 years have passed since Bennett last sported a Mohawk uniform, his athletic achievements as a multi-sport star will forever be remembered on Friday, Aug. 29, when he will be inducted into Mason City’s first athletic Hall of Fame class.

“He was the best athlete I ever saw play and I idolized him,” said 81-year-old Eddie Kline, a 1953 graduate of Mason City who won three state wrestling titles and will also be inducted into the Mason City athletic Hall of Fame. “Bernie could do anything on the football field, on the basketball court or on the baseball field. He was a heck of an athlete in all three sports.”

Kline certainly isn’t the only one who shares that opinion.

Bennett was listed as one of Chuck Offenburger’s top 25 male prep athletes in Iowa history in his book, “Bernie Saggau & the Iowa Boys: The Centennial History of the Iowa High School Athletic Association.”

So what made Bennett such a great athlete?

“It just came natural to me, and I played all the time,” Bennett told the Globe Gazette of his athletic ability when he was in Mason City at The Music Man Square for the 60-year reunion for the class of 1949 in 2009.

Bennett’s natural athletic ability showed up on the football field as a Mohawk, where he earned all-state honors twice in football as a halfback.

“He was so elusive,” Kline said. “He was so quick, could cut and change directions at any time.”

Bennett’s talents led him to the University of Iowa, where he lettered in 1950, ’51 and ’52 for the Hawkeyes, who were 7-17-3 during his three seasons.

He played halfback and fullback for Iowa – helping desegregate football and society as a member of the Hawkeye football team.

Bennett also led the Big Ten Conference in punt returns as a senior.

Bennett went on to play semi-pro football and later coached Iowa’s freshman football team.

In basketball, Bennett was a guard for the Mohawks. He also went on to play on a team that won the Iowa AAU basketball title.

Kline had several memories of watching Bennett on the basketball court, from a game against Fort Dodge that he helped lead Mohawks to a two-point victory over the Dodgers, to his ability to glide through the air.

“He was just fantastic to watch on the basketball court,” Kline said. “It seemed like he could just stay in the air.”

While he excelled in football and basketball, baseball may have been Bennett’s best sport.

He was a star catcher on Mason City’s American Legion Junior team that won the 1948 state title under legendary coach Elmer Starr.

Bennett later helped Starr coach American Legion teams and worked with youngsters in playground programs in Mason City.

Also after graduating from high school, Bennett earned a letter at Iowa and played semi-pro baseball for Mason City.

It was said he was good enough, but Bennett never received a professional baseball contract in an era where very few African-American baseball players earned that distinction.

“They weren’t signing too many black ballplayers at that time,” Bennett said in a 1999 interview with the Globe Gazette.”

Sixty-five years after graduating, Bennett is still remembered as one of Mason City's finest athletes.

“He had a great arm and to get him out at the plate was something,” Kline said. “He could hit the ball so hard. I remember playing in a softball game with him after high school. I was playing third base and he hit a ball that I caught. The ball was hit so hard that it spun me all the way around. I don’t know why I even tried to catch it.”

*

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.