maly, too: The 1974-1975 Drake Team Coached By Bob Ortegel That Had a 19-10 Record and Won the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament Is the Only One from the University Ever To Win a National Basketball Championship. Those Bulldogs Want To Hold a Reunion Next Season In Des Moines, and I Hope They're Able To Pull It Off. After All These Years, They Deserve To Be Honored Again

Friday, March 13, 2015

The 1974-1975 Drake Team Coached By Bob Ortegel That Had a 19-10 Record and Won the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament Is the Only One from the University Ever To Win a National Basketball Championship. Those Bulldogs Want To Hold a Reunion Next Season In Des Moines, and I Hope They're Able To Pull It Off. After All These Years, They Deserve To Be Honored Again

By RON MALY

Bob Ortegel, the only guy ever to coach a national championship basketball team at Drake, has told friends in Des Moines that players from his 1974-1975 title squad would like to have a reunion sometime next season.

Bob Ortegel

Many Drake fans either have forgotten that Ortegel's team won the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament championship, or aren't aware of it.

Over the years, the NCIT title has gotten lost in the shuffle at Drake and in Des Moines.

There is always lots of mention [certainly in my columns] of Maury John's three successive teams--1968-1969 [a Final Four squad], 1969-1970 and 1970-1971--that played in NCAA tournaments, and of Keno Davis' 2007-2008 squad that went 28-5 and made it to the Big Dance.

But Ortegel's team in 1974-1975 tends to be back-page stuff.

However, I've often wondered why Drake officials didn't bring Ortegel and players from that 1974-1975 squad back to be recognized.

The National Commissioners Invitational Tournament was the idea of the NCAA, and it was meant to get rid of the NIT.

But that didn't happen. The NCIT lasted only two seasons, and the NIT is still hanging around after all these years.

The NIT is something players and coaches like to avoid.

It's where teams wind up that aren't good enough to play in the NCAA tournament.

Most players would rather go on spring break rather than play in the NIT.

In 1974-1975, Ortegel was in his first season as Drake's coach. He had been Howard Stacey's top assistant, and was named the Bulldogs' head coach after three forgettable [7-19, 14-12 and 13-13] seasons by Stacey, who had the unenviable job of trying to replace Maury John following Drake's three consecutive trips to the NCAA's Big Dance.

Ortegel's team went 16-10 overall and 9-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference during the 1974-1975 regular season.

But his Bulldogs won their last six games, including three in the NCIT.

The victories in the NCIT at Freedom Hall in Louisville, KY, were over Southern California [80-70], Bowling Green [78-65] and Arizona [83-76].

I covered all three games for the paper, and the victory on March 13, 1975 over a USC team that then was ranked No. 13 nationally is still regarded as one of the greatest in Drake history.

When basketball press guides were still being published by the university, this is what was written about that game:

"The Bulldogs shot a sizzling 61 percent and knocked off the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament-favorite Trojans, who enered the game ranked No. 13 in the nation.

"Larry Haralson and Andy Gsraham each scored 20 points for Drake, while Terry McKissick netted 19 and Ken Harris added 12.

"USC, with two 6-10 players in the frontline, was the tallest team Drake had played all year, but the Bulldogs even managed a 31-31 tie in rebounding.

"USC owned a 55-49 lead with 12 1/2 minutes to play. But Drake, employing the "four-corner" offense that had been so good late in the season, outscored the Trojans, 20-7, in the next 9 1/2 minutes. McKissick and Haralson slammed in successive baskets to make it 69-62.

"Drake got some ridiculously easy shots from the side while using the four-corner offense. Graham may have played his best game ever, making 10 of 13 shots. A couple of times he stormed in to climb above the USC players to tip in shots.

"'USC was seeded No. 1 and nobody talked about us,' said Graham. 'We play well when we need to.'"

I hope Ortegel, whose 7-season record at Drake was 91-103, and his players from that 1974-1975 team get cooperation from Drake officials and are able to have their reunion sometime next winter. They deserve 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.