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

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

At 5 feet 9 Inches and 155 Pounds, Murray Wier Was a Standout Basketball Player for the Hawkeyes In the 1940s, and Now Dave Buhr Thinks His Jersey Number Should Be Retired By the University Of Iowa. 'Wier Is the Only Iowa Player Who Earned Consensus First-Team All-America Honors [By Four Sources] Who Doesn't Have His Jersey Number Retired,' Buhr Tells Me

By RON MALY

The first Hawkeye basketball game I saw was on Feb. 9, 1946 in Iowa Fieldhouse.
Murray Wier

The nickname of one of the coaches was Pops. 

The nickname of the other coach was Piggy.

I went there with a classmate of mine from Lincoln Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, and his dad. 

We made the Cedar Rapids-to-Iowa City roundtrip on the old Crandic Railway.

I recall the game vividly. Pops Harrison was coaching Iowa and Piggy Lambert was coaching Purdue.

It was fun watching Harrison orchestrate the behavior of Hawkeye fans throughout the game.

Pops would grab the emotions of the fans by screaming at the officials a lot and at his own players occasionally.

The Hawkeyes wound up winning the game, 43-41, and they finished the season with a 14-4 overall record, 8-4 in the Big Ten.

The Iowa player with whom I was fascinated that night was Murray Wier,  a 5-foot 9-inch, 155-pounder from Muscatine, IA, who, remarkably, was a starting forward in Pops Harrison's lineup.

These days, the only spot a 5-9, 155-pounder would have on a Division I basketball team would be that of student manager.

But Wier was something special.   

As a senior, he averaged 21 points, set a then-Big Ten record with 272 points in conference games, was a first team all-league pick, the Big Ten's most valuable player and a consensus first-team all-American.
 
After a professional career, Wier coached high school basketball at East Waterloo, where he had a 374-140 record and his 1974 team won a state championship.

Now Dave Buhr of Waterloo, a former high school player for Wier, is campaigning to have Murray's jersey number [3] retired by the University of Iowa. 

Wier, 88, now lives in Texas.

Buhr sent me a copy of the letter he is circulating. 

In it, he writes:

"The recent health issues of Roy Marble prompted an outcry to have the jersey number of Iowa's all-time leading scorer retired. But I want to bring attention to another Iowa standout basketball player who is long overdue in having his jersey number retired....

"Murray Wier is the ONLY Iowa player who earned consensus first-team all-America honors [by four sources] who DOESN'T have his jersey number retired."

Good luck, Dave and Murray.

I'm all for it.