RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Bob Dyer, Basketball Games, Wrestling Tournaments, Hot Dogs, Popcorn and the Vietnam War


Ron,

I haven't touched base with you for quite some time, but I sure enjoy reading your site.  Thank you for sending along news of the passing of some notable people, including Bob Dyer.



I had to weigh-in on Dyer.  Back in 1978, when I was the ISU correspondent for The Des Moines Register, I had the opportunity to work for people like Raffensperger, White, Turnbull, Maly, etc.  You can certainly add Dyer to that list.

One time he came up to Ames to cover an Iowa State basketball game.  After we packed everthing up, we headed to Campustown and he told me some very interesting stories.  I think we were talking about the pressure of covering athletics and he said it did not compare to his time in the Vietnam War.  He told me about a serviceman who had thrown himself on a grenade, I believe.  So, sports coverage sure didn't seem so daunting.

Another time, at a wrestling tourney in Hilton Coliseum, I believe his lunch consisted of hot dogs and popcorn.  He made a remark about the kind of stuff he put into his body as a sports writer.  He also really knew wrestling.  Covering the Iowa State wrestling team was a real eye-opener and tremendous training. 

When he left The Register to go into the financial business, I remember Maury White penned a nice farewell, wishing him "good luck, huckster."

But, of course, Dyer had to come back to the sometimes strange Des Moines sports talk radio wars.

I draw on those experiences back in the student days many times.  They supply what I think is a lot of valuable information for the young people I can help instruct today. 

My students are getting ready to broadcast and cover a women's holiday basketball tourney up the road.  But I just wanted to take a little time and look back at what I considered the heyday of sports journalism at The Register.


Mike Swan
Students Sports Media Adviser
Butler Community College
El Dorado, Kan.
ISU '79, '98


[RON MALY'S COMMENTS--Great hearing from you, Mike. Thanks for your thoughts on the late Bob Dyer. I, too, remember lots of hot-dogs-and-popcorn meals at sports events. It's a good thing people with  expertise in proper food consumption didn't take notes on what sportswriters included in their diets in those days. Probably these days, too.  Keep up the outstanding work at Butler Community College.]