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

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

No Reunion At Drake for Bob Ortegel and His 1975 NCIT Champions

By RON MALY

In my newspaper years, I wrote a lot about Bob Ortegel.

Ortegel was a good guy, a fun-loving guy and a hard worker.
Bob Ortegel

I enjoyed being around him.

He was Drake's basketball coach from 1975 through 1981. He was in charge of the university's only national championship men's basketball team.

In Ortegel's 1974-75 break-in season, he coached his Bulldogs to a 19-10 record and won something called the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament at Louisville, Ky.

I covered many of the Bulldogs' games that season, including the victories over Southern California [80-70]; Bowling Green [78-65] and Arizona [83-76] in the NCIT,  an event put together by the NCAA in an attempt to kill the National Invitation Tournament in New York City.

The NCIT lasted only a few seasons, and the NIT is still going, and now it's run by the NCAA.  Go figure.

Anyway, I've written about Ortegel a number of times recently, wondering what it was going to take to get him back to the Drake campus so university officials and the city could honor him after 40-plus seasons.

I then heard that Ortegel and the players from the 1974-75 Drake championship team would be coming back to Des Moines for a reunion this month. 

The idea was to introduce them to the crowd at the Knapp Center during the Nov. 21 game against Missouri-Kansas City at the Knapp Center.

Now I find out it's not happening.

No reunion. 

Ortegel isn't coming back, and neither are the players from the team that won the NCIT championship.

Evidently, not enough players could make arrangements to make it back for a reunion. Hopefully, Ortegel and the players were receiving cooperation in the planning of the event from Drake's present administration.

Sad, that's what it is.

I was looking forward to seeing and talking with Ortegel and players such as Terry Benka, Ken Harris, Larry Haralson, Terry McKissick and Andy Graham 40 years after they brought back the NCIT trophy.

I've still got one of the tournament wristwatches Ortegel gave me after the victory over Arizona.

Thanks again, Bob.  Nice watch. 

It still keeps time, too.

Oh, well.  Maybe they can arrange a reunion next season.

If they do, I'll be there.