maly, too

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

What an embarrassment it is to collegiate football that three teams with 5-7 records--Nebraska, Minnesota and San Jose State--will play in bowl games. I wonder how many players from those losing teams actually want to play another game. Even more embarrassing is the fact that Minnesota will play in something called the Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 28 in Detroit. I know that if I were invited to Detroit for anything, I'd say thanks, but no thanks.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Everything Is Coming Up Roses for the Hawkeyes. They'll Play Stanford In the Rose Bowl On New Year's Day. Iowa Hasn't Been To the Rose Bowl Since 1991 and Hasn't Won At Pasadena Since Forest Evashevski's Outstanding 1958 Team Walloped California, 38-12

By RON MALY

Hey, so what if the Hawkeyes lost their first game of the 2015 football season last night and didn't make it to the collegiate playoffs?

They're headed to the Rose Bowl for a Jan. 1 game against Stanford.

Not a bad consolation prize for an Iowa team that has a 12-1 record.

Iowa will take a No. 5 national ranking into the game at Pasadena, Calif., against a Stanford team that's No. 6.

Stanford [11-2] rode a sensational performance by Christian McCaffrey to a 41-22 victory Saturday over Southern California in the Pac-12 title game.

Afterward, David Shaw, his coach, called him the best player in the nation. Indeed, by the time Iowa and Stanford tee it up in the Rose Bowl game on New Year's Day, McCaffrey could be the Heisman Trophy winner.

McCaffrey ran for 207 yards and a touchdown, threw a touchdown pass, caught a a touchdown pass and broke Barry Sanders' one-season all-purpose yards record in the victory over USC.

Iowa lost to Michigan State, 16-13, in the final half-minute of the Big Ten championship game at Indianapolis.

The Hawkeyes haven't been to the Rose Bowl since 1991 and haven't won a Rose Bowl game since the 1958 team coached by Forest Evashevski walloped California, 38-12.

Iowa set Rose Bowl records for total offense and rushing offense in that game, and I regard that team as the best in university football history.

Evashevski's 1956 Hawkeyes defeated Oregon State, 35-19, in the Rose Bowl.

Three of coach Hayden Fry's Iowa teams lost in Pasadena. His 1981 squad was beaten by Washington, 28-0; his 1985 team lost to UCLA, 45-28, and his 1990 team lost to Washington, 46-34.

I'd say it's about time Iowa won one out there.

I'm in shock. Drake's women's basktball team isn't supposed to lose games like this. Not by this type of score anyway. Green Bay walloped the Bulldogs, 86-61, today at the Knapp Center. Not the Green Bay Packers. The Green Bay women's basketball team. "We just weren't all there," said Lizzy Wendell of her team's second consecutive loss. "I think our mindset is to get better, but we have to take it possession by possession." Drake coach Jennie Baranczyk said, "We had too many breakdowns...some uncharacteristic turnovers."

I'm Distancing Myself From Last Night

By RON MALY

Getting back to whether last night's Iowa-Michigan State football game was big.

Big enough, that is, to lead off--or even be on--Iowa's all-time highlight reel.

Big enough to be classified alongside the Rose Bowl victories by the Hawkeyes' 1956 and 1958 teams that were coached by Forest Evashevski.

Big enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the 45-21 shellacking Kirk Ferentz's 2002 Iowa squad put on Minnesota to clinch a tie for the Big Ten championship.

Big enough to equal or surpass the nail-biters Nile Kinnick and his 1939 Ironmen had with Notre Dame [a 7-6 victory] and Minnesota [a 13-9 victory].

Big enough to match two or three Iowa-Iowa State games from past seasons.

You can think about the Hawkeyes' 16-13 loss to Michigan State all you want.

Me? I'm planning to forget the game as quickly as I can.

If it's going to wind up on somebody's highlight reel, it will be Michigan State's, not Iowa's.

As far as I'm concerned, Iowa can burn the game film or the videotape, whatever it is they use these days to chronicle football happenings.

I want to think about pleasant things.

Like how Iowa won its first 12 games this season.

Like how Kirk Ferentz, in 2015, proved that he hasn't forgotten how to coach.

Like the Hawkeyes' upcoming Jan. 1 Rose Bowl game against Stanford.

In retrospect, last night was pure misery.

Someone once said moral victories are for losers.

I agree.

I'm pretending last night did not happen.

It was not a game for the ages.

Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you differently.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Sickening

     By RON MALY

     Sickening, that's what it was.

    Michigan State's 9-minute 4-second, 22-play, 82-yard drive for the winning touchdown was sickening enough.

To make matters worse, Iowa football fans had to watch Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany hand the league's championship award to Spartans coach Mark Dantonio after the winning drive.

Fittingly, Delany was booed loudly in a building brimming with people when he was introduced.

Add all that sickness up and you've got a 16-13 Michigan State victory over a previously-unbeaten Hawkeye team that deserved better.

You had to feel for Iowa's heartbroken players, the thousands of Hawkeye fans who made the trip to Indianapolis and the many others [millions maybe?] of black-and-gold faithful who watched the agony on TV.

Minutes after the game ended, a longtime Iowa fan summed up Hawkeye emotions with these comments:

"That's worse than a bummer. What a heartbreaker. A sad way to end a record-breaking season. It ended up to be more of a defensive battle than the Hawkeyes had left in them."

That echoed the feelings of Hawkeye fans everywhere.

Gone was the unbeaten record.

Gone was the opportunity to be in the national football playoffs.

But a bowl game remains in warm weather somewhere.

Iowa had been clinging to a 13-9 lead after C. J. Beathard unloaded a tremendous pass to wide receiver Tevaun Smith for a touchdown that covered 85 yards.

Michigan State's winning touchdown [and the only one the Spartans scored all night] was scored by freshman running back L. J. Scott with 27 seconds remaining in the game.

Iowa's defenders tried desperately to keep Scott out of the end zone as precious seconds ticked off the clock.

Scott desperately fought and stretched his way over the goal-line. The critical play is pictured above, courtesy of USATSI.

Like I said, sickening.

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.

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.