maly, too

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Being Naive In 2015

Webster's definition of the word naive:

adjective na·ive \nä-ˈēv, nī-\

having or showing a lack of experience or knowledge : innocent or simple

By RON MALY

I guess there was something in the paper today that labeled tonight's Iowa-Michigan State football game the biggest in Hawkeye history.

Sec Taylor

To borrow one of the favorite words of Sec Taylor, who knew a few things about being the sports editor at a newspaper:

Horseshit.

Tonight's game in Indianapolis that will decide the Big Ten championship is the biggest game of Iowa's 2015 season so far, and that's the extent of it.

I've lived through more than a few of the biggest games in Hawkeye history.

Yes, sir, and yes, mam, dozens of 'em.

When you're on the scene, you always think the game you'll be attending or reviewing for the paper is the biggest.

The 1958 Hawkeye team that is still regarded by many as the best in university history had a pretty big game on Jan. 1, 1959.

Talented guys like Randy Duncan, Willie Fleming and Bob Jeter were on that team, and all the Hawkeyes did was cruise past California, 38-12, with an offensive explosion in the Rose Bowl.

Forest Evashevski and His Hawkeyes

Forest Evashevski, one of the best coaches in the history of collegiate football, coached that team.

Evashevski also was the coach in 1956 when Iowa's Big Ten champions steamrolled Oregon State, 35-19, in the Rose Bowl.

Big game.

Another big game in that same season came on Nov. 17 when Iowa seized the Big Ten championship with a massive defensive effort that produced a 6-0 victory over Woody Hayes' Ohio State squad.

I was there.

The emotions filling the stadium on that crisp afternoon in Iowa City that day will rival those in any stadium anywhere.

Yes, what a big game that was.

Kirk Ferentz is Iowa's outstanding coach now,

Kirk Ferentz and His Hawkeyes In 2002

and he's been involved in more than a few big Hawkeye games.

One that stands out was certainly the Nov. 16, 2002 game at Minnesota in which his Hawkeyes buttoned up an 8-0 Big Ten record and a share of the conference title with a resounding 45-21 victory at Minnesota.

Hayden Fry [his 1981 team went 8-4 and played in the Rose Bowl to end a streak of 19 straight losing seasons at Iowa] had big games.

Howard Jones [he had 7-0 records in 1921 and 1922] had big games.

Eddie Anderson had big games [every one of those games played by The Ironmen in 1939 were big ones, and their star attraction was eventual Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick].

Hell, even Bob Commings had a big game on Sept. 17, 1977.

Bob Commings

That was the day his son, Bobby, quarterbacked the Hawkeyes to a 12-10 upset victory over Iowa State in the renewal of the series between the two universities.

My point in all of this is to stress that there have been many big games played by Hawkeye football teams.

Tonight's game is certainly one of them.

When I'm asked to name the biggest, I always say it was that Jan. 1, 1959 game in Pasadena, Calif., when Evashevski's wonderful offensive juggernaut thrashed Oregon State, 38-12, in the Rose Bowl.

Iowa hasn't won a Rose Bowl game since, so that'll do until something better comes along.
[Photos courtesy of Google]

Friday, December 4, 2015

Valley Freshman Standout Zoe Young Treats Fans [Including Collegiate Coaches] At Bill Coldiron Fieldhouse In West Des Moines To a 16-Point Show As the Tigers Roll To a 74-44 Victory Over Roosevelt

By RON MALY

A sizable crowd showed up tonight at the Bill Coldiron Fieldhouse on the Valley High School campus in West Des Moines to watch Zoe

Zoe Young courtesy of ESPN

Young and her Tiger girls' basketball team hang a 74-44 thumping on Roosevelt of Des Moines.

Zoe, who scored 16 points in the victory, is Young in more than her name.

She's a 5-foot 9-inch freshman [that's right, a freshman!] guard for Valley who has already attracted the attention of numerous Division I coaches and scouts around the nation.

Joe Sigrist

Joe Sigrist has built his Valley's girls' basketball program into one of the strongest in the state.

His team finished second in the class 5-A state tournament last season, and the addition of Zoe Young is a huge addition to his program.

Being a freshman, Zoe doesn't even attend Valley yet.

She shows up for her ninth-grade classes at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School in West Des Moines.

Among the collegiate coaches on hand for tonight's game, Sigrist told me, were Iowa State's Bill Fennelly, as well as an assistant on Iowa's staff.

Iowa State and Iowa are among the growing number of universities around the nation that want to recruit Young.

Fennelly obviously needs to start attracting such talented players as Young. His team has been on an early-season skid, losing noteworthy non-conference games to Drake, 74-70; Duke, 86-48, and Idaho, 97-65.

"Michigan State is sending its top assistant coach in a week or two," Sigrist said.

Before she's much older, there will be many more coaches and scouts watching Zoe.

It's going to be an interesting [and eventful] season for Sigrist and his Valley girls.

The Tiger boys aren't bad either. They defeated Roosevelt in the second half of tonight's doubleheader, 61-42.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

I have decided that, when I grow up, I am going to become a major league baseball pitcher. I made that decision tonight after learning that 30-year-old David Price has agreed to sign a 7-year contract with the Boston Red Sox that will pay him $217 million. Many of you may consider that an obscene amount of money to be paid to a man for simply throwing a ball. Not me. I'm calling my travel agent right now, looking for the first flight available to Arizona so I can work on my curveball.

David Price

Kirk Ferentz of 12-0 Iowa has been named the Big Ten football coach of the year by coaches and reporters. No surprise to me. No one else deserved it. Had anyone else gotten the award, I would've suggested the voters be subjected to a urine examination.

Kirk Ferentz

When Coach Maury John and His Drake Basketball Teams Were Enjoying Their Glory Years At Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Talented Organist Bill Henderson Pepped Up the Place With 'Three Blind Mice' and Other Famous Music

By RON MALY

My condolences to the family of Bill Henderson, whose funeral will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Grace Lutheran Church, 3010 52nd Street in Des Moines.


Bill Henderson. Courtesy of Hamilton's		.

Bill died on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 85.

He was a talented musician who entertained fans as an organist at Veterans Memorial Auditorium when Drake basketball games were played there.

Maury John was the best basketball coach the university ever had.

He was in charge of the Bulldogs' program from the 1958-59 season through the 1970-71 season, coaching his 1968-69 team to the Final Four and taking his squads to three straight NCAA tournaments.

It was Maury John who arranged for organist Bill Henderson to perform at games in the Auditorium.

The organ music was in addition to music provided by the Drake pep band, giving atmosphere at the arena a big-city feel when Drake basketball was in its heyday during the Maury John coaching era.

Henderson always had fun with the fans, the coaches and the players.

John loved it.

The savvy coach, of course, was looking for any home-court advantage he could get in the 14,000-seat arena.

Henderson had fun with the fans and the teams.

The officials? Well, Bill had fun, the zebras probably not.

When Henderson thought the officials gave Drake a bad call, he'd play "Three Blind Mice" on the organ.

Henderson's obituary, provided by Hamilton’s Funeral Home, 605 Lyon Street in Des Moines, said he played the organ for 25 years at the Auditorium., meaning he continued performing after Maury John left Drake following the 1970-71 season.

John took the Iowa State job prior to the 1971-72 season, and persuaded Henderson to be the organist at Hilton Coliseum, which had just opened.

John was able to coach at Iowa State for only two full seasons and part of a third. He developed inoperable cancer in his third year, and died shortly thereafter.

With John's passing came the end of the organ music at Hilton Coliseum.

Henderson's obituary said he skillfully played a number of musical instruments including piano, trombone and tuba in addition to the organ for the Des Moines Symphony, Maple Street Jazz Band, and Veterans Band. Bill was a lifetime member of the Des Moines Musician’s Union.

Bill Dwyre, who got his start in the newspaper business as a sports copy editor at the Des Moines Register, has retired from his job as a sports columnist at the Los Angeles Times. Dwyre was a longtime sports editor at the Times before writing columns. I worked with Bill in his years at the Register. He's a good guy, and did wonderful work wherever he was employed.

Bill Dwyre

Iowa, Memphis, Providence and Virginia headline the eight-team field for the 2016 Emerald Coast Classic basketball tournament. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Savannah State and St. Francis Brooklyn also are playing in the tournament with one more team to be announced within the next month. Iowa, Providence and Virginia competed in the 2015 NCAA tournament, with Iowa and Virginia advancing to the third round. First and second-round games will be played at on-campus sites Nov. 12 through Nov. 23, with the third round and championship round scheduled Thanksgiving weekend Nov. 25-26 at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla. Iowa State captured the 2015 Emerald Coast Classic title by beating Illinois, 84-73, in the championship last Saturday.

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.