maly, too

Saturday, November 21, 2015

I'm Picking Iowa To Win the Big Ten Championship

By RON MALY

I'm well aware that the East Division of the Big Ten Conference is considered stronger than the West Division by those who pay considerable

attention to major-college football.

Indeed, Michigan State, Ohio State and Michigan of the East Division play outstanding football.

But I firmly believe that Iowa, the best team in the West Division, has an excellent chance of beating Michigan State in the conference title game Dec. 5 in Indianapolis.

The Spartans will be in the title game if they defeat Penn State in their regular-season finale next week.

I know Michigan State is a very good, well-coached team.

I watched the Spartans on TV today when they upset Ohio State at Ohio Stadium, 17-14.

Frankly, I couldn't believe how poorly Ohio State played in its 2015 home finale.

Or how poorly Michigan State made the Buckeyes play.

But I also saw the Spartans lose at Nebraska earlier in the season, and I think Iowa can beat them in the Big Ten championship game, advance to the national playoffs and perform well there.

This is an outstanding Hawkeye team.

It's a group that plays well on both sides of the ball, it is a team with wonderful chemistry, and it is the best team Kirk Ferentz [the dean of Big Ten coaches] has had.

Anyone who overlooks Iowa in the Big Ten championship game is foolish.

The Hawkeyes are for real, and they improve every week.

I'm picking them to win Dec. 5.

11-0 and [Still] Counting: Marvelous Quarterback C. J. Beathard engineer Iowa's 40-20 Victory Over Purdue]. And Forget About Ohio State Being the Hawkeyes' Opponent In the Dec. 5 Big Ten Conference championship Game. Michigan State and Smiley, Their Coach [Just Kidding, Mark Dantonio], Took Care Of That With a 17-14 Victory At the Horseshoe In Columbus. I'd Take My Chances Against Smiley Anytime Over the Buckeyes' Urban [You've Got To Be Ashamed Of Yourself Over That No-Show Performance In Your 11th Game Of the Season] Meyer.

Coach Smiley Of Michigan State

Nice going, UNI Panthers! You not only made it an unhappy homecoming for Marcus Paige of Marion, you also made sure Paige's North Carolina team wouldn't be ranked No. 1 in next week's collegiate basketball polls with a stunning 71-67 victory today. UNI's Ben Jacobson offered further proof that he's one of the nation's best [though underrated] coaches.

The Grim Reaper is lurking. I realize the pressure is mounting on Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads--especially after the Cyclones blew a 35-14 halftime lead, then lost, 38-35, today at Kansas State. But I know there are folks in places like Norman and Stillwater, OK, Lubbock and Waco, TX, Manhattan, KS, and Iowa City who hope the powers-that-be in Ames find some way to bring back Rhoads for the 2016 season.

Grim Reaper

Thursday, November 19, 2015

I'd like to read a sports story in the paper one of these days that doesn't contain the word takeaway.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Remembering Las Cruces & Other Stuff

By RON MALY

I've been writing a lot lately about Bob

Ortegel, a former Drake basketball coach.

Now Ortegel, whose 1974-1975 Bulldogs

had a 19-10 record and won the 
National Commissioners Invitational

Tournament in Louisville, is writing
to me and about me.

Here's the copy if an email, written in upper-case type no less, I received from Ortegel:

 RON,

 HOW IN THE WORLD ARE YOU? I WANT TO

 THANK YOU FOR AN ARTICLE THAT YOU WROTE

 ABOUT SOME OF OUR TIME TOGETHER

 WHEN I WAS AT DRAKE. I DO APPRECIATE THE

 KIND WORDS AND THE MUTUAL RESPECT WE HAD

 AT THAT TIME AND STILL HAVE TODAY. YOU

 WERE VERY GOOD AT YOUR JOB. AFTER

 STARTING TO PLAY AT AGE 8 IN GRADE SCHOOL,

 THEN H.S., THEN 4 YEARS AT BRADLEY,

 18 YEARS OF COACHING AND 33 YEARS IN

 TELEVISION (THAT IS 66 CONSECUTIVE B.B. 
 SEASONS) I ELECTED TO TAKE THE 2015-2016

 SEASON OFF. WILL SEE HOW THAT GOES.

 I HAVE REMARRIED AND NOW LIVE IN FT.

 WORTH. ALL IS WELL AND I HOPE THE SAME

 IS TRUE WITH YOU. BE WELL AND BE SAFE.

 COACH ”O”

 P.S.--REMEMBER THOSE MARGARITAS IN LAS

 CRUCES? HA!!! ENOUGH SAID.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Great hearing from

you, Bob, and congratulations to you and

your new bride. The best to both of you.

This was supposed to be the week you and

the players from that wonderful 1974-75

Drake team that won the National

Commissioners Invitational Tournament

title [the only national basketball

championship the Bulldogs have ever won]

were hoping to have a reunion in Des

Moines. Too bad it didn't work out. I still think Drake should bring you back to town one of these days to again be recognized for winning that championship. And, hey, Bob, I certainly do remember those wonderful margaritas at the Double Eagle Restaurant in Las Cruces, N.M., on the nights before Drake-New Mexico State games when that university was a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. Bob, I owe you one. A margarita, I mean].

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Media critic Jim Romenesko passes along a tale that says Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch] publisher Brad Harmon instructed people at his paper to wear Ohio State crimson-and-gray clothing Friday--the day before the Buckeyes' football game against Michigan State "Let’s support our Ohio State Buckeyes," Harmon told the employees in an email. "Wear your OSU gear to work on Friday, November 20th in support of the game with Michigan State on Saturday. If you have appointments with clients then accompany your OSU shirt with business casual attire. Let’s have some fun! --Brad Harmon." That shocked a lot of folks, but not me. Hell, I remember sitting in the press box at Ohio Stadium during a game a number of years ago, and the sportswriter covering the game for the Columbus paper was wearing gray pants and a scarlet sports coat. I think the guy's name was Glenn Miller, and I'm fairly certain he's now residing in the big press box in the sky. I was told that Miller was a personal friend of Woody Hayes, the controversial Ohio State football coach, and certainly was not impartial the way sportswriters were supposed to be then [but certainly aren't now]. For all I know, Woody bought Miller's outfit. Anyway, Miller certainly wasn't the only sportswriter who wore school colors in the press box. Al Grady, the late Iowa City Press Citizen sports columnist, usually wore Hawkeye jackets, shirts and caps to Iowa athletic events and press conferences.

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.