maly, too: Those Front Pages

Monday, May 1, 2017

Those Front Pages

By RON MALY

There are a couple of reasons why I liked yesterday's paper.

One was the fact that there was a special section titled Historic Front Pages.

The other reason was that my byline and my story were on one of those pages.

In all, there were 9 front pages in the section, including those documenting the ends of both World Wars I and II, a man walking on the moon, Richard Nixon resigning as president and the Pope visiting Iowa.

All were tremendously significant accomplishments.

But the one that caught my eye was the only sports section front page that was included.

It was from the Sept. 18, 1977 paper.. The headline on Page One of the sports section read:

DEFENSE! IOWA WINS, 12-10

Chronicled below that headline were 4 stories detailing Iowa's victory over Iowa State the day before in the renewal, after 43 years, of the football series played between teams representing our state's two largest universities.

And, at the top of the page, were these words:

THE BIG PEACH

For all of you longtime readers of the Des Moines Sunday Register, you know what those words meant.

At that time, the Sunday paper's sports section was called The Big Peach because the pages were colored peach.

The peach-colored paper has been gone a long time, but I'm still asked by folks who miss The Big Peach why it went by the wayside and if it's ever going to come back.

The reason it died was that peach-colored paper cost more money than white paper.

And, no, I don't look for The Big Peach to return.

For the same reason.

Money.

I recall that Sept. 17, 1977 Iowa-Iowa State football gave vividly.

I had spent the week leading up to the game living in Iowa City, interviewing coaches, players and athletic department officials, visiting bars, visiting restaurants, attending press conferences and detailing everything that went on from the Hawkeyes' perspective leading up to The Big Game.

So, naturally, I covered the Iowa aspect of the game when it was played Saturday afternoon, Sept. 17, 1977.

Buck Turnbull covered the Iowa State angle, Chuck Offenburger and Larry Eckholt wrote about the fans and Maury White wrote the game story.

If it seemed like we had most of the newsroom staff in Iowa City that day, you're right.

I think almost everyone, including two copy girls and the night janitor made the trip.

Hey, don't forget, the Hawkeyes and Cyclones hadn't played since 1934, and it almost took an Act of Cngress to make it happen.

So, yes, it was a big deal.

As the banner headline in the Sunday paper said, defense was a key for underdog Iowa in the football slugfest that was televised by ABC.

Indeed, neither team scored in the last half after Iowa had taken a12-10 lead--thanks to a 77-yard touchdown scamper by Dennis Mosley..

Iowa's quarterback was Bob Commings, jr., the son of Hawkeye coach Bob Commings.

I don't know who was happier when the game ended--the dad or the kid.

I had forgotten that Iowa's fans tore down the goalposts following the game, but I saw it happen on some videotape of the highlights I just saw.

The crowd was absolutely electric. Iowa's fans were loud, Iowa State's fans were loud.

For all I know, my friend Paul Glahn might've been there, wearing his black-and-gold outfit while screaming for the Hawkeyes. I'll check with him the next time I see him at church.

An aspect of the game, and something that motivated Iowa throughout the afternoon, was the uniforms Iowa State's players wore.

Printed across the front of their jerseys were the words BEAT IOWA, shown in the accompanying photo.

So on every offensive and defensive play, the Hawkeyes had to stare at those words before the football was snapped.

In retrospect, Iowa State's players should never been outfitted with those uniforms by Earle Bruce, their coach.

Keep in mind that Bruce was a very good coach. Indeed, one of the best Iowa State has ever had.

But, following that game, those jerseys never surfaced again.

Rumor at the time had it that the BEAT IOWA jerseys could've been thrown out of the windows of the team bus by the players on the trip back to Ames following the game, given away at a garage sale near the campus the day after the game or torched at the homecoming bonfire later in the 1977 season.

All in all, it was quite a day and quite a week for me in Iowa City nearly 40 years ago.

And it was quite a football game the Hawkeyes and Cyclones played.

I'm glad Page One of the Sept. 18, 1977 sports section was chosen as one of the paper's Historic Front Pages.

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.