Henry Out At Indy Aug. 1

Barbara Henry is retiring Aug. 1 as publisher of the Indianapolis Star.

It's anybody's guess if the retirement is her decision or the decision of the Gannett Co.

Henry [pictured at the right] is a former publisher at the Des Moines Register. When she worked in this town, she was nothing to write home about.

A number of people [this columnist included] hope the editor of the Indianapolis Star follows Henry out the door.

Meanwhile, the Register and Gannett said today that Laura Hollingsworth, president and publisher of the Register, has been named group president for Gannett’s west region -- whatever that means. Hollingsworth will oversee 16 markets, including the Register, the Iowa City Press-Citizen and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

The news of Hollingsworth's added responsibilities didn't seem to cause much of a stir with readers of the Register's website, as far as any journalistic impact was concerned. But a couple of people who contributed to the "reader reaction" segment wrote that Hollingsworth [pictured at the left] is "hot."

Something tells me they weren't referring to her newspapering skills.

That's modern journalism for you, folks.

Here's Henry's retirement memo, courtesy of Jim Romenesko:

To: Indianapolis Star employees
From: Barbara Henry

Dear Colleagues,

After 34 years in the newspaper business, I have decided to retire on Aug. 1. I have loved every minute (well, mostly every minute!!) of those three-plus decades. The last eight years in Indianapolis have been especially gratifying. Because of your commitment, innovation and hard work, we accomplished so much, and continue to do so. Even as our industry goes through a major transformation and we operate in a very challenging economy, The Star has continued to grow our audience. Star employees showed what can be done despite these challenges by not letting any obstacles get in the way of progress. Just a few examples:

We increased readership of our printed newspaper by making it more local, more colorful (with the help of a $72 million investment by Gannett in presses!!) and more engaging. As a former reporter and editor, I am very proud of the excellent work our newsroom has done to make a difference and, at the same time, allow our readership to grow. The Star's reports on child abuse and neglect, Indiana's economy, how tax money is spent (or misspent), Indiana's broken property tax system -- to name just a few -- have resulted in positive changes for our community and state. When I hear some say newspapers are a media dinosaur, I know they are wrong. The Star has proved that by providing make-a-difference journalism, informed and agenda-setting editorial pages, countless stories about local people and trends and top-notch sports reporting and commentary in this sports-crazed town.

Indystar.com's reach is phenomenal. We developed IndyStar.com into the No. 1 website in audience penetration in the Gannett Co. IndyStar.com has long been (and always will be) the No. 1 media website in Indiana with 45 million pageviews a month and 2.3 million unique visitors. These amazing statistics didn't just happen. The Star has been a leader in digital innovation -- with deep local content and searchable databases that draw people in (like looking up their new property taxes with the click of a mouse and seeing why the police car is at a neighbor's house in real time!)

It was The Star that started the moms revolution, with the introduction of Indymoms.com. We were so successful that Gannett is making this a national business -- starting up dozens more sites, with plans for even more, The Wall Street Journal wrote about this last week.

Our zoned community newspapers in Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville, Westfield, Hendricks County, Noblesville, North Indy, East Indy, Greenwood and South Indy have allowed a large metro paper to continue to serve our readers who crave intensely local news about their communities. They are a big reason for our growing readership.

The Star added magazines to our product line: Carmel Magazine, Fishers-Geist Magazine, Hendricks County Magazine and Indymoms.com magazine. All have allowed us to increase our reach in these fast-growing suburbs and among very busy women with children.

We introduced ShopLocal, a mailed, total market coverage advertising product that allows our advertisers to reach every household in our market using The Star and ShopLocal. They also can reach every household in a specific zip code.
We introduced INtake -- now Indy.com, the magazine -- four years ago and it was an enviable success right out of the gate. Our entertainment website, Indy.com, came last year -- again, another success.

I could list many more, as you know. A statistic that all of you should be especially proud of -- because you made it happen -- is that Indianapolis Star Media Group products reach 82% of adults in the 8-county metro area 5.2 times every week. In just 18 months, we grew our reach by almost 10%. That is an incredible success story, created by employees who decided what we needed to do to grow and prosper, and just did it. You should all be very proud. I am proud of you.

Thanks for all you have done. I have gotten to know many of you well and will always cherish the many memories, good times and great laughs we had during these past eight years. I will be in the job for another month, and look forward to personally thanking you during the next four weeks.

Barbara

P.S. My successor will be named in the next couple of weeks.

The Guy Is a Bum

I wrote several months ago -- long before the Iowa Barnstormers today suspended linebacker/defensive end Jason Berryman indefinitely -- that it was a mistake to sign him.

But the Barnstormers, an outfit loosely referred to as a football team, didn't listen.

Berryman -- a former Iowa State player who spent 258 days in jail earlier in his life -- is a bum, and will continue to be a bum.

I wouldn't want the guy anywhere near my team or my arena.

He got a second chance -- or was it a third or fourth chance? -- to rehabilitate his life and his football career, but he flopped.

Now he's gone.

Good riddance.

Here's what John Gregory [pictured at the right], the Barnstormers' coach and director of football operations, said today about the situation:

“We gave Jason every opportunity to showcase his talent and get his professional football career back on track. Unfortunately, that opportunity with the Barnstormers ended today. Today’s decision is in the current and future best interests of the entire Barnstormers organization. Now, we can turn our full attention to winning Saturday at Arkansas.”

Something Else To Worry About At 8th & Locust

Bud Appleby of Des Moines says in an e-mail, "A newspaper in California is sending editing jobs to India.

"As you know, the Newspaper Iowa Depends Upon has already put some Iowans out of work and sent their jobs to India," points out Appleby, a former Des Moines Register editor and writer. "Those were ad layout jobs, if I remember correctly.

"This should give the copy editors there reason to be concerned. They will probably be the next to go."

Here's a story from Editor & Publisher that is the basis of Appleby's comments:

"An Indian company will take over copy editing duties for some stories published in The Orange County Register and will handle page layout for a community newspaper at the company that owns the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily, the newspaper confirmed Tuesday.

"Orange County Register Communications Inc. will begin a one-month trial with Mindworks Global Media at the end of June, said John Fabris, a deputy editor at the Register.

"Mi"Mindworks' website says the company is based outside New Delhi and describes its work as providing "high-quality editorial and design services to global media firms ... using top-end journalistic and design talent in India."

"Editors at Mindworks will work five shifts a week for one month, performing layout for the community paper and editing on some stories in the flagship Register, Fabris said. Staffing at the company will not be affected, he said.

Fabris did not specify which community newspaper would be laid out by Indian designers.

"This is a small-scale test, which will not touch our local reporting or decision-making. Our own editors will oversee this work," Fabris said in an e-mail to the Associated Press.

"In a time of rapid change at newspapers we are exploring many ways to work efficiently while maintaining quality and improving local coverage."

"The company declined to release the financial terms of the deal.

"Orange County Register Communications has struggled in recent months with circulation declines. The Register recently dropped from the third-largest newspaper in California to the fifth-largest, behind the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune and Sacramento Bee.

"The company has been through three rounds of layoffs in the past year, most recently in April when up to 90 employees lost their jobs. Employees were also offered a voluntary severance program in 2006.

"Orange County Register Communications is the umbrella brand for the Register newspaper, Web sites, magazines and other community publications."

*

Rick Fromm, managing editor of Decorah Newspapers, writes about an MTV documentary that features two standout Iowa high school baseball coaches -- Decorah's Dennis Olejniczak and Kee of Lansing's Gene Schultz [pictured at the left]:

"It was just a matter of time before the story drew national attention -- and that moment has arrived.

"When Decorah High School hosts rival Kee High of Lansing Saturday at noon, the top two coaches in prep history -- as in the entire United States -- will square off against each other and MTV will be on hand to record the historic moment. Why MTV and not the more logical sports venue ESPN? That's a good question.

"MTV's critically acclaimed and Emmy-award-winning documentary division -- News & Docs - is currently producing a pilot for a new series that focuses on the positive influence high school sports have on kids and towns all over the country.

"And what better way to launch the series than by telling the remarkable story of Decorah's long-time coach Dennis Olejniczak and Kee High's legendary Gene Schultz.

"Located just 35 miles apart, the two communities boast arguably the best high school coaches in the history of the game. The statistics support that claim - and then some.

"To this point in the season, Schultz ranks No. 1 in the nation in total wins with 1,550. He has lost just 327 games (and one tie) during his illustrious career from 1969 through 2008 (82.6 winning percentage), and has captured more state championships than the trophy case at Kee High can hold.

"Olejniczak is No. 2 alltime in total wins with 1,195, while losing just 434 (two ties) for a winning percentage of 73.4. The tough-minded Viking mentor began his coaching career with Decorah in 1969, and has won three state titles along the way, including two in a row in 1990 and 1991. The Vikes also won the crown in 1970 and finished second in both 1989 and 1992. When Iowa crowned a spring tournament champion from 1928 through 1972, Decorah finished as state runnerup in both 1970 and 1972.

"For those who may be interested, it's extremely doubtful anyone will ever overtake Schultz. According to statistics compiled at the end of the 2007 season, Bobby Moegle of Lubbock Monterey High School in Texas ranked third with a record of 1,115-266-1 during his career from 1960 to 1999.

"Vince Meyer of Bancroft St. John in Iowa was fourth with 1,105 victories, and rounding out the top five were Jack Curran of Jamaica Archbishop Molloy in New York with 1,075. Moegle, Meyer and Curran have all hung up their spikes...."

I'm Hoping 'The Avenue' Can Hang On

I've written about the Czech Village area of Cedar Rapids several times since the horrible flooding damaged buildings and businesses there recently.

Now I have a depressing update from a guy who knows Cedar Rapids well and is familiar with the Czech Village.

"My wife and I drove around town," he tells me. "We got our first up-close look at Czech Village, and I don't see it coming back."

The man says the Czech & Slovak Museum & Library [which is pictured at the right] is "salavageable," but he wonders about the older businesses -- some of which have been hanging on by a shoestring for years.

Indeed, Sykora's Bakery -- the source of kolaches and rye bread for many decades -- had already been boarded up and was closed long before the flood.

[A photo of Sykora's in better days is shown at the left].

When I was a kid in Cedar Rapids more than 60 years ago, the Czech Village was known simply as "The Avenue."

That meant 16th Avenue on the southwest side of town. Another name for it -- one my grandmother used -- was the "Lower End."

There were bakeries, at least one meat market, a barber shop, a number of taverns, restaurants, a saddle shop, a dentist's office, a pharmacy and other businesses.

Those of Czechoslovakian heritage, and their friends who had the courage to build businesses in the ethnic area, are proud people. If there's a way for them to rebuild, they'll get it done.

I wish them the very best. It would be a shame to lose what took so long to build.

*

As for the museum, which is located at 30 16th Avenue SW, officials of the place say on their website, "Crews of staff, board members, volunteers and friends old and new have been working non-stop since they were allowed to begin clean-up efforts last Thursday.

"Two semi-loads of artifacts were moved to high ground before the flood and many artifacts were moved to attics in the museum and its collections facility. "We moved as much as we could before we were ordered to evacuate," stated president/CEO Gail Naughton. "Of course, along with everyone else around us, we are coping with losses. Nobody predicted a flood of this magnitude."

*

Speaking of depressing things, it's not easy handling news of the death of a 46-year-old man in the triathlon they held here Sunday.

My heart goes out to the family of Jim Goodman of Urbandale, who ran into trouble when he was swimming at Blue Heron Lake in Raccoon River Park.

Forty-six is too young to die, whether someone is competing in a swimming, cycling and running event or not.

I assume people who are in such events get regular physical checkups before they enter, but hardly a bicycle race across this state goes on without someone dying, too.

So who knows about checkups?

Goodman is survived by his widow and three young daughters.

*

By the way, a better headline on the front of today's paper would have been this:

Urbandale father
of 3 dies
after swim
at triathlon

Instead, the headline that was used said Goodman was a "D.M. business leader."

Who cares?

Who cares if he was a business leader or a business anything?

I sure don't.

What I care about is that he's no longer around to care for his wife and three young girls. Being a "business leader" comes in a very poor second to being a father of daughters 11, 7 and 3.

*

Anyway, the New York Times is saying this will be the worst year ever for newspapers.

Some aren't going to make it.

Some newspapers, I mean.

I can see why.

For instance, the San Francisco Chronicle is losing $1 million a week.

Take that to your next noontime computer chat with readers and see how it plays.

*

Somebody named Jim Romenesko reports that somebody named Steve Gosset wonders if newspapers should dump their Saturday editions.

Probably because there's nothing in them.

Hell, how about dumping the Monday editions, too?

There's less in them.

Then you've almost got a weekly.

You can get through Monday's paper in 30 seconds.

All I can say is it's a good thing the paper here has the stories in Juice -- the throwaway rag that's given away free -- so it can reprint everything.

*

All right, it's settled.

The Chicago Cubs swept their three-game series from the Chicago White Sox.

So that makes them the best team in baseball.

Rats, Pigs and Ozzie

If this keeps up, I may have to fly to Chicago so I can get a closer look at Ozzie Guillen.

I hate to miss out on all that fun the Chicago baseball writers are having.

Guillen manages the Chicago White Sox and says things because he thinks he's a comedian and he likes to get attention.

He reminds me a little of Ken Trickey and Jim Walden, two minor leaguers I used to deal with at Iowa State.

Trickey coached the Cyclones' basketball team for a very short time and Walden coached the football team for longer than both he and I care to remember.

Neither Trickey nor Walden coached very well.

Both guys tried to be funny, but their teams were funnier.

Right now, Ozzie Guillen [pictured] isn't managing the White Sox very well.

I was going to start this column by saying I don't write much about Guillen because I try to deal only with big leaguers.

But that wouldn't be fair.

Guillen knows something about managing ballplayers because he's already won a World Series with the White Sox.

There's no man alive who can claim that distinction with the Chicago Cubs, the team Guillen enjoys ridiculing.

And, oh, yes, for some reason Ozzie is very jealous of the Cubs.

The Cubs and White Sox have played two games of a three-game series they're scheduled for this weekend at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs have won both games, and Guillen has been outmanaged by Lou Piniella in both of them.

The man they call the Blizzard Of Oz took his starting pitcher out too early in Friday's game and took his starter out too late yesterday.

The Cubs won both games, 4-3 and 11-7. The third game is tonight, and it'll be telecast by ESPN.

Guillen wasn't content with blowing both games.

He also saw fit to talk about the rats in the rightfield batting cage at Wrigley Field -- a place he refers to as a museum.

He said they the rats were bigger than pigs. Who the pigs are, I don't know. He didn't say Maybe he was talking about the wives and girlfriends of the Cubs' players.

After yesterday's game, when the Cubs' Jim Edmonds hit two home runs in the same inning, Guillen told reporters he wasn't going to be concerned with a guy who was hitting .218.

Edmonds was hitting .238, but facts mean nothing to Ozzie.

He's an entertainer. He doesn't care for the truth.

I don't know if he's said it this weekend or not, but Guillen usually likes to calls Jay Mariotti, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, a homosexual or other things.

Mariotti writes all the time that Guillen should be fired.

I see no reason to do that. Then we wouldn't have any fun.

Iowa State fired Ken Trickey and Jim Walden. Since then, it's been far too calm in Ames.

'In Cedar Rapids, Some Things Will Never Be the Same'

It's not every day that a sports columnist from our state writes something that appears in the Wall Street Journal, but that's what happened today.

Mike Hlas, an award-winning sports columnist for the Cedar Rapids Gazette, wrote about the horrible flooding that has had such a devastating effect on his city.

Hlas [pictured at the left] has worked for the Gazette since 1981 and has been the paper's No. 1 sports columnist since 1987.

In a way, Cedar Rapids is also my city. I was born there and spent the first 22 years of my life there.

I attended Lincoln Elementary School, Wilson Junior High School and Wilson High School. I began my newspaper career as a 15-year-old kid at the Gazette, covering high school football, basketball and baseball games.

Just like Hlas and everyone else in Cedar Rapids, it hurts me to see what has happened to the city.

"I hope people outside Iowa don't forget us," Hlas tells me. "The destruction the flood left behind is beyond words."

Here's what Hlas wrote in today's Wall Street Journal:

In Cedar Rapids, Some Things Will Never Be the Same

By MIKE HLAS
June 21, 2008

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

If you've ever seen a postcard of Cedar Rapids, it was likely of City Hall and Linn County Courthouse. Their Roman and Greek architecture make them distinctive. And their location, on Mays Island in the center of the Cedar River, give the city something in common with Paris, France and Osaka, Japan – municipal buildings placed midstream in a river that both breathes life and can carry destruction.

We knew for several days that the Cedar was going to flood. We worked hard day and night, and many people bused in from points across the city, filling sandbags and building levees with one thought in mind: that doing so would make recovery all the more possible.

Last week, the Cedar washed into City Hall and covered the rest of Mays Island. It rose to flood the county jail, the police station and downtown businesses, the lifeblood of the community. The river crested at over 31 feet on Saturday, 15 feet above flood stage.

On Thursday, President George W. Bush visited the city to try to boost morale for the cleanup ahead. We will rebuild. But to believe that the city will simply return to its preflood self is to discount the severity of what has transpired here.

Cedar Rapids, home to about 120,000 people, is Iowa's second largest city. It was settled by Europeans in the early- to mid-19th century. And like many towns, was built along a river that came to define it. It tends to be a blue-collar town, though there are more white-collar jobs than there used to be. Defense contractor Rockwell Collins, Inc., is Cedar Rapids's largest employer with 7,300 employees.

Quaker Oats has operated a plant here for more than 100 years. It's touted as the world's largest cereal factory. People who haven't been to Cedar Rapids in 20 years will ask if the city still smells like oatmeal. Locals like to respond, "That's the smell of money."

But Quaker isn't making Cap'n Crunch in Cedar Rapids today. The plant has been shut for over a week. Its 15-acre property along the east bank of the river was flooded, idling most of its 1,100 workers.

Thousands of homes were flooded too. Many may be irreparable. About 25,000 residents were evacuated, people on both sides of the river in the city's 100-year flood plain, its 500-year flood plain, and even a few who lived beyond that. The flood left every downtown bridge except for the highest one, on Interstate 380, unusable for several days. Hundreds of businesses on both sides of the river were severely affected. More than nine square miles were under water.

City Manager James Prosser said that "If it were an earthquake, it would be a 9.2." The early estimates are that the city sustained $1 billion in damages.

The city began allowing residents and business owners to return to their flood-stricken properties on Tuesday, and many owners were surprised by the extent of the damage. One example is the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library, which was dedicated in 1995 with joint appearances by Presidents Bill Clinton and Czech President Vaclav Havel and Michal Kovac of the Slovak Republic. It was the jewel of a commercial district that has been home to many Czech and Slovak butchers, bakers, barbers and bartenders since the early 1900s. The museum and neighborhood were completely swamped, with only the roofs showing for days.

Another example: The newly renovated Paramount Theatre, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was under eight feet of water. Its Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ, which has been in the theater since it opened 80 years ago, was tipped over, caked in mud.

One business after another on First Avenue West was gutted, from Blimpie to Jiffy Lube to Dairy Queen. Affordable Plumbing & Remodeling's showroom was savaged. But it wasn't just water damage. When Don Karr arrived at his store for the first time after the flood, he thought items perched above the water were salvageable. He soon realized that fumes from gasoline mixed with the muck damaged those items as well.

Mr. Karr and other business owners have organized Cedar Rapids Small Business Recovery (www.crsmallbusinessrecovery.com) this week. Hundreds of registrants filled a local union hall on Thursday to strategize on how to save their businesses and the jobs of their employees. Many sound determined to battle their way back. But a few owners say they may not reopen because of the debt they would have to incur.

David Allick, a second-generation owner of Emil's Deli, said he isn't sure if rebuilding his lunchtime eatery in the basement of the U.S. Bank building is worth the effort. He's 61. But his main concern is that downtown may now have a smaller customer base, and therefore it will be hard to turn a profit.

In recent years, city leaders have worked to revitalize the riverfront. They've secured private and public investment to rebuild the area, and have held special events downtown hoping to attract new businesses and new customers. And they proclaimed 2008 the "Year of the River."

It was that, of course, as the Cedar turned on an American city like few rivers have before. The smell of money will return. But as photographer and local historian Mark Hunter told the Cedar Rapids Gazette, the flood "is the big, big story in the history of Cedar Rapids. This is the big one."

[The Associated Press photo shows the Cedar Rapids City Hall and Courthouse]

6-6 Vlastuin Won't Be a Bulldog

Jared Vlastuin will not be playing men's basketball at Drake after all, according to ArgusLeader.com. Drake athletic department spokesman Mike Mahon said the 6-6 forward from Lennox, S.D., has asked for and been granted his release.

Vlastuin signed a national letter of intent in November, but Drake coach Keno Davis left the school in April to take over at Providence. Nonetheless, during last month's state track meet, Vlastuin said he had met with the Bulldogs' new coach, Mark Phelps, and planned to honor his commitment. What changed is unclear, as Vlastuin did not return calls seeking comment.

Named to South Dakota's class A all-state team, Vlastuin averaged 20.2 points and 8.3 rebounds as a senior in 2007-08. He also won the high jump at the state track meet and defended his title in the long jump. Earlier in the season, he broke the all-time state record in the long jump with an effort of 23 feet 8 1/2 inches.

Save a Seat At the Table for Delany

I think it's about time Jim Delany made another trip to Des Moines.

Delany, of course, is the Big Ten commissioner who came here last summer, met with reporters in the Des Moines Register newsroom and told them that his conference could very well be expanding to 12 schools.

Forget that the Big Ten already had 11 schools. I can't do anything about the league's faulty math.

Anyway, a short time after Delany made his comments about expansion while raving about the merits of the Big Ten TV network, he said at the conference football meetings in Chicago that there was no immediate plan to add a 12th team.

I guess he took Iowans, especially those he fed the expansion story to at the paper, for a bunch of dummies.

The Big Ten network so far has been a huge flop. People in Iowa can't get Hawkeye football and basketball games unless they have a satellite dish or the games are on networks such as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or CBS.

Viewers who have Mediacom are out of luck.

But now that Comcast and the Big Ten network have reached an agreement, maybe there's hope for Mediacom subscribers.

So I think Delany should come to Des Moines and tell reporters at the paper again that the Big Ten plans to add a 12th team, hoping the network can swing a deal with Mediacom

*

Speaking of the Register, Mark Robinson of Iowa City did, too, in this e-mail:

"My old friend at Black Heart Gold Pants got this e-mail from the local paper [in Des Moines] after posting a video from said local paper in an effort to help out flood victims.

http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2008/6/16/553237/des-moines-register-sinks

"A cease and desist?

"I wrote my friend a little note saying that it would be OK; in about 10 years time, there will be no local paper.

"Keep writing,"

Mark Robinson
Iowa City

DES MOINES REGISTER SINKS DISASTER RELIEF [UPDATED]

by Oops Pow Surprise on Jun 16, 2008 11:02 PM CDT

As you may recall, we posted an article about the unprecedented flooding ripping through Iowa City and Cedar Rapids this weekend. The sole purpose of the post was a call for our readers to donate either time or money to the efforts, and to drive the point home, we embedded a video from the Des Moines Register's website.

You may also notice that the video is no longer up, and instead a benign reference to the Register posting said videos. Why's that? Well, you may certainly ask Kathy Hickman of the Register. Or better yet, let's let her tell the story. Here is her note, in completely unedited form:

Subject: Copyright
Department: General Information
Name: Kathy Hickman
E-mail: khickman@dmreg.com

Comments:
"It has recently come to the attention of the Des Moines Register that you have improperly posted a video, the rights to which are held by The Register. A copy of your unauthorized use can be found at www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2008/6/15/552422/the-flood.

"As the copyright owner of that video, The Des Moines Register has the exclusive right to its reproduction and distribution. We therefore ask that you immediately remove the posted article from your website and cease any and all further use of the material. Any continued posting or use will be considered willful copyright infringement.

"Within 24 hours of your receipt of this e-mail, you should reply to this message by confirming that: 1) each and every posting of Des Moines Register material has been taken down and 2) you will not engage in any further unauthorized copying of Des Moines Register materials.

"If you do not take the steps outlined above, this matter will be turned over to our attorneys for further action."

We shit you not. Consider the following facts:

1. The page on which the video was originally posted provides code for blogs to embed said video;

2. Nowhere on the page (or anywhere on the path from DesMoinesRegister.com homepage to the destination page) is there listed any terms of use, much less anything related to copyright infringement;

3. The footage was being used to call for donations to charity in the wake of a local natural disaster, in hopes that a visual representation would further stir the emotions of viewers;

4. We linked back to the Register in the original version of the article, well before the C&D letter arrived;

5. The Register provided the embed code (Sorry, but it bears repeating).

Ms. Hickman did not respond to SBN's request for more information, unfortunately, so we can't apprise our readers of the situation any more than this. We're pretty sure you've got all the information you need, though.

We don't particularly care for legal battles (especially over a video that automatically plays, which is its own pain in the ass), so the video's down now. Congratulations, Des Moines Register. You won't be bothered by us utilizing your Embed feature anymore. Nor will you worry about any increased bandwidth charges from us linking to you. As a matter of fact, we'll not cite, source, or in any way allude to anything you folks do from here on out.

We, after all, have standards.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: From Des Moines Register Assistant Managing Editor Chris Snider:

"This was a misunderstanding. I apologize on behalf of The Des Moines Register. Simply an employee trying to do their job but not completely understanding our new technology (we recently got embed code on our videos). I take full responsibility for not making this clear to everyone on staff."

So that, my friends, is that (though Bucketochicken's point in the comments is not without merit). Thanks to Brian, Holly, Orson, Peter, Will, and anyone else who wrote a post, sent an email, or - most importantly - sent a donation. And thanks to the DMR, who took an otherwise innocuous post asking for flood assistance and, through its actions, brought it to the attention of the entire sports blogging community. The Red Cross certainly appreciates it.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: This isn't the first time Kathy Hickman has come across in a heavy-handed manner to someone. I've read other comments she's written to people on the Internet. If she doesn't watch it, she may soon be working for City View. Hickman and Mike Gartner deserve to be in the same newsroom.]

Don't Take This Seriously

Bud Appleby of Des Moines sent a couple of photographs titled "Disaster Relief Pictures."

"The picture at the right is of the Cyclone football team helping out after the Parkersburg tornado," Appleby explained. "The picture at the left is of the Hawkeye football team helping out with the recent flooding in Cedar Rapids."

'I Think He Should Just Close Up. He's No Kid Anymore'

You've certainly read or heard about the flooding in Cedar Rapids.

Maybe you're living through it as I write this.

A 78-year-old Cedar Rapids woman, whose son owns the company his father and grandfather formerly owned sent me an e-mail today about conditions in the city [shown in the Olson/Getty photo].

The woman has lived in the city most of her life. Here's her message:

"I got up enough courage to put on my boots and go to the shop yesterday. In the warehouse, the big garage door was damaged and the side door which they used when the trains came through between the buildings was gone. They had removed all of the inventory from the first floor and put it in semis. What was left over, they put upstairs. Upstairs is OK. I imagine the water was about 7 1/2 to 8 feet high in the warehouse.

"In the shop, I suppose the water rose to about 5 feet since it is built on a higher foundation. We didn't expect that!!!! My son had help taking everything from the basement up to the second floor or above on Wednesday. But now we have no elevator. Another $200,000 expenditure!!!

"Yesterday, when I was there, they were still pumping water out of the basement. Remember, this is an old building. The hardwood floors were buckling up and every so often. You would hit something with your foot, and it was a little stack of the boards which had no place else to go when they got wet.

"They had pulled the drawers out of the desks and placed them up on top, but this was not high enough. Everything including the inside stuff in the safe is wet. I kept telling my son he would have to move and not fix up this building, but the more I thought about it last night, I think he should just close up. He is no kid anymore to start over. But I guess this is up to he and his wife. She had a couple of brothers there helping move stuff."

[MORE FROM RON MALY: Maybe George Bush will get get this whole thing straightened out. Oh, sure. That and a nickel will get me a ride on the streetcar that used to stop in front of our house on 18th Avenue on the southwest side of town back when I was a kid].

*

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta made these comments today after Comcast and the Big Ten Network announced their TV agreement:

“Earlier today the Big Ten Network and Comcast, the nation’s largest cable television provider, announced a long-term multimedia agreement that more than doubles the number of homes in which the Network is available inside the eight Big Ten Conference states.

“While Comcast does not deliver cable television inside the state of Iowa, this agreement nonetheless is very positive news for all friends and fans of the University of Iowa and the other 10 member institutions of the Big Ten Conference, and, specifically, those who could receive their cable television service from Comcast. Included in this latter group, for example, are more than 30,000 alumni of the University of Iowa and parents of current UI students who live in the greater Chicagoland area.

“As a result of today’s agreement, the Big Ten Network is now available on 'expanded basic' or the most widely penetrated level of service offered by cable and satellite television companies in more than 13 million homes in the 'Big Ten Country.'

“Nationally, the network is now available in more than 55 million homes. The Big Ten Network now has more than 230 agreements with cable television companies, including 88 locally owned and locally operated cable television companies in the state of Iowa. The Network also has distribution agreements with the nation’s two largest satellite television companies, DirecTV and Dish Network.

“My peers in the Big Ten Conference believe the Comcast agreement –- like all the agreements that preceded it –- clearly demonstrates the Big Ten Network’s flexibility and willingness to reach an agreement where everyone benefits: consumers, Big Ten universities, and cable and satellite television companies.

“We also believe this agreement further validates the quality and the consumer demand for the programming offered by the Big Ten Network.

“I know that the fans who have the network love it –- and during the past nine months they were able to watch approximately 80 events involving University of Iowa teams representing more than 160 hours of programming. During the 2008-09 academic year, the Big Ten Network will not only will continue to deliver the same quantity of University of Iowa programming as it did a year ago, but will broadcast more than 400 total events while also making an additional 400 events available via streaming video."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: This is a start. Let's hope it all works out for TV viewers].

They're Back!

A dozen pilots from the 132nd Fighter Wing were greeted by their families after returning to Des Moines in their F-16 jets following another outstanding tour of duty in Iraq. One of the pilots was my son, Lt. Col. Mark Maly. The 132nd Fighter Wing was based north of Baghdad, and had what was termed a very successful couple of months in Iraq, despite battling the constant dangers of war and the sometimes-awful dust storms in a country where it's normal for temperatures at this time of year to be 110 degrees or higher. A large crowd was present for the pilots' joyous return, including adults and children waving American flags in front of Internet, TV and newspaper reporters and photographers. Needless to say, it's great to have everyone with the Des Moines Air Guard back safely again.

Pardon Us, America

I never thought I'd see the photograph of an Iowa trooper pointing a gun at a Cedar Rapids man after the guy drove around a security checkpoint during an emotional time in Monday's flooding.

But there it was, an Associated Press photo by Seth Wang, on page 15 of the paper that was on my doorstep this morning.

A version of that same photo was on the paper's website, and is published at the top of this column.

It should have been on the front page of the paper, but wasn't.

The man apparently was trying to get to his home.

The cutlines under the picture on the website say, "An angry resident that tried to drive around a security checkpoint is stopped by one police officer, right, while another tries to break his window to extract him in Cedar Rapids...."

Not good stuff. Pardon us, America.

*

I've been wondering about the future of the Czech Village, the historic part of southwest Cedar Rapids that has been hit tremendosuly hard by the flooding.

I'd heard that Sykora's Bakery, the place my parents introduced me to poppyseed, apricot and every other kind of kolache and rye bread, was already closed and boarded up long before the flood.

Now I wonder what's going to happen to Polehna's Meat Market [pictured, courtesy of www.polehnas.com] and the other businesses that have been hanging around down there, fighting for survival.

"We are not taking orders for the forseeable future due to the current flood," Polehna's says on its website.

The market says it's "a full-service meat market and deli, specializing in Czech meats and delicacies. Our Czech specialty meats include buski, lenti salam, klobasy, parek, jelita, jaternice and, of course, we offer both Czech potato and Czech bread dumplings. We hand-cut and hand-trim all meats, and use a genuine woodburning smokehouse. We are in the heart of nationally-known Czech Village at the same location since 1931.

When I was a kid, it was never an official visit to what we called "The Avenue" [that's 16th Avenue] unless we stopped in Polehna's for hot dogs [forget me on the jaternice!] and in Sykora's for kolaches.

A poppyseed kolache or several, and a baseball game at Riverside Park or Hayes School made for a perfect afternoon 60 years ago.

*

Something else I never thought I'd see was a headline in the sports page that included the word "comfy" in a story about a professional baseball player.

Somehow, I can't see Felix Pie ever being "comfy."

On rhe field or off the field.

That's a word Mary Bryson might've used when she was writing about furniture a number of years ago, but it's not something that should be used to describe an outfielder who can't hit the breaking ball.

I can't see Pie [pronounced PEA-ay] ever playing regularly at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The guy can't hit major league pitching, and never will.

*

The Boston Herald reports that "an ESPN.com columnist is apologizing for likening cheering for the Boston Celtics to Adolf Hitler and nuclear war.

"In her original column railing against the Celtics, Jemele Hill wrote, 'Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It’s like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan,' the Herald said.

"Hill’s piece was posted on ESPN.com late Saturday, and a spokesman for the sports powerhouse said yesterday that the crude comparison was edited out within hours.

"The newly edited version of the piece, 'Deserving or not, I still hate the Celtics,' is still online. Hill did not respond to an e-mail for comment yesterday. ESPN.com released a statement.

“'The column, as originally posted, made some absolutely unacceptable comparisons,' the statement said. “We’ve spoken with Jemele, and she understands that she exercised poor judgment.”

“'Both Jemele and ESPN.com apologize. Within hours of its posting on Saturday evening, the inappropriate references were removed from the site, and we are thoroughly reviewing the entire situation,' the statement said."

Inexcusable stuff.

*

A guy sent me this e-mail:

"Did you see the bankruptcies in the paper Monday? A Kenneth Fuson was listed:

"Kenneth Fuson, 3013 Woodland Ave., Apt. 104. debts $144,519, assets $5,635.

If that's the Ken Fuson all of us know, my sympathies are with him. I'd like to help.

*

In a successful effort to keep the story out of the Des Moines Register and other newspapers with horribly early deadlines, the Internet says manager Willie Randolph finally got the ax early this morning as manager of the New York Mets.

After weeks of speculation that his job was in jeopardy, Randolph was fired while most fans were sleeping. Bench coach Jerry Manuel takes over on an interim basis for Randolph, who led the Mets to within one victory of the 2006 World Series. They got off to a strong start again last year, but plummeted down the stretch and have been unable to rebound.

Preseason favorites to win the National League pennant, the $138 million Mets [34-35] had won two in a row when Randolph was dismissed early this morning -- making him the first big league manager to get fired this season.

Pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto also were cut loose in an overhaul that was revealed in a fact-of-the-matter news release at a stunning time -- 2:15 a.m., Cemtral Time, nearly two hours after New York's 9-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Ken Oberkfell, the manager at Triple-A New Orleans, and Dan Warthen, pitching coach for the Zephyrs, will join the major league staff along with Luis Aguayo, a Mets field coordinator.

Shame On Piniella and His Cubs

It should come as no secret to you that today's overpaid professional athletes are some of the most coddled, spoiled people in the world.

Basically, I'm talking about baseball players.

Next time, I'll get around to the football and basketball players.

They're spoiled and coddled, too.

There was a time when I wouldn't have called the Chicago Cubs professionals, but that's changed now that they're in first place in the National League Central with a record 20 games above .500.

I'd like to be able to report that the Cubs are headed to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., this morning with a positive attitude.

But I can't.

First of all, I'm certainly not saying any of the Cubs will wind up in the Hall of Fame in the years ahead.

The Cubs are going there today -- or at least were going there -- to play in the final Hall of Fame exhibition game against the San Diego Padres.

The Cooperstown game used to be a fairly big deal in baseball, but the players' union has stepped in and decided that the game isn't a good thing for the millionaires who are now in uniform.

The players don't want to spend their day off playing in an exhibition game, even if it's at the Hall of Fame.

Ever since today's game was scheduled, the Cubs have complained about it.

The worst complainer of all is manager Lou Piniella, who was pulled off the managerial scrapheap by the Cubs prior to the 2007 season.

Most people in this world would consider it a privilege to go to the Hall of Fame.

Piniella and his players hate the trip.

First of all, they had an early wake-up call in Toronto this morning. Then they had a bus trip to Cooperstown.

Then they were to have played an inning or two of the game.

Yes, just an inning or two.

Piniella was bringing a number of class A players to Cooperstown to play the rest of the game.

Here's what I think. Piniella and his players -- all of 'em, from the major leaguers down to the class A kids -- ought to at least act like they enjoy the trip to Cooperstown.

For 99 percent of them, this will be the only time they'll be at the Hall of Fame.

Most of them aren't good enough to be elected.

Ask Ron Santo, the Cubs' third baseman in the 1960s. He's now a Cubs radio broadcaster and so far hasn't gotten enough votes to get into the Hall.

Piniella has made no secret of the fact to Chicago reporters that he'd prefer to be in Tampa, Fla., today instead of Cooperstown.

His off-season home is in Tampa, and he'd like to spend the day there before the Cubs open a series tomorrow night against the Tampa Rays of the American League.

But it didn't bother Piniella that he had to spend part of a previous day off by filming a TV commercial with Ozzie Guillen, the White Sox manager.

Of course, he and Guillen got paid for the commercials, so that made it all right. And I'm sure both guys have the use of Chevy "loaners" during the year.

The Chevrolet commercials [shown in the photos, courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times] will run this week before and during the Cubs-White Sox interleague series.

Guillen has already been bitching about the series. He doesn't like it that Sunday's game will be played at night so it can be telecast by ESPN.

Like I say, all of those clowns are spoiled rotten.

*

Here's an update: Piniella and his players got their way as far as not playing the Hall of Fame game was concerned.

The game was called off because of heavy rain and hail at historic Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. Officials called off the game just after 1:30 p.m.

So onto Tampa the Cubs went.

*

It wouldn't be a perfect world unless the paper here got the word "deadly" into a headline every day of the week. It happened again this morning in a story about a shooting. Like I said, the people in that newsroom are watching far too much cable TV.

*

Actually, the copy editors writing those "deadly" headlines had better enjoy their newspaper lives while they can. They're a dying breed. In the next generation of newspapers, there won't be any copy editors. Hopefully, no editors, period. I consider that a good thing.

'Sad and Pathetic'

R. H. of Des Moines weighs in on the bush league operation that's masquerading as a Triple-A baseball franchise here:

Ron,

I've been anxious to write this, but for me to do so would be taking away from what all of our fellow Iowans have been going through over the last several months. I'm throwing my two cents in on the idiotic, stupid, mind-blowing decisions that No-Name Owner and General Manager displayed over the last 48 hours with respects to No-Name Team.

On Larry Cotlar's show Friday morning (KXNO 1460 AM), Sam Bernabe announces that the team will start their eight-game homestand versus Nashville at No-Name Ballpark. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it was impossible to play a game, with downtown under the threat of a flood. I felt that they were best suited to stay in Memphis. They wouldn't lose any games, and the team wouldn't be in the way of the efforts being done by authorities, volunteers, and regular citizens in fortifying the levees downtown.

Sure enough, the Raccoon River rose and crested, on top of the Des Moines River rising, causing flooding all around No-Name Ballpark. They bring the team back to Des Moines at 10 a.m. Friday, only to be told that the parking lots were under water. They had to cancel Friday's game. The Quad City River Bandits offered No-Name Team the use of John O'Donnell Stadium (I'm not calling it by their new name) to play the Nashville series. Not only did the Diminutive Little Napoleon rebuff that offer, but he and his lackey decided to play the game Saturday...in front of an empty stadium as everyone stayed away due to the floods.

I wonder how the radio guys got to No-Name Ballpark, on an ark loaned by Noah? Did they have to kick off a pair of parrots to squeeze in?

These buffoons screwed up a great opportunity to teach the New Orleans Saints a lesson in how to handle an adverse situation correctly. The Waterloo Bucks and the Cedar Rapids Kernels did it right. They moved the teams out of town and other teams offered their stadiums for them to use. What is surprising and encouraging is that even though it was "home" game at a different venue, the Bucks and the Kernels didn't whine, point fingers at their league, and played their games. Too bad that the Saints, a team full of selfish, spoiled, million-dollar athletes, whined and bitched all season about being displaced for one game in New York. One football game. To this day, they are still whining about it.

Sad thing was, everyone felt sorry for them and ripped the NFL. The NFL may have made missteps, but the Saints didn't do their jobs in sucking it up and dealing with it. LSU didn't complain. They played their games and they won a National Championship, uh, I mean the BCS Title.

I'm sure the players on No-Name Team were more than willing to be good sports and play in Memphis or in Davenport, but their owner and general manager decided to monkey around and embarrass themselves.

Very sad and pathetic. But you know how the myopian No-Name fans are. They'll show up anyway, pay $5 to park their cars, and think that the Diminutive Little Napoleon is the greatest man ever to own this team.

Ken Grandquist and the late Tim Russert would have pulverized him for being this greedy and stupid.

R.H.
Des Moines

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks, as usual, for your excellent thoughts, R. H. You continue to make sense while others continue to look foolish].

*

RICH SOMERVILLE DIES AT 61

Cedar Rapids Gazette editor Steve Buttry relays the sad news on his Twitter page that 61-year-old newspaperman Rich Somerville [pictured at the left] has died. Here's a story from the Times-Standard in northern California:

"Times-Standard managing editor Rich Somerville was found dead at his Trinidad home late Saturday. Somerville had been ill in the days prior, but the cause of death is unknown.

"A lifelong journalist, Somerville was editor of his high school newspaper in Des Moines, and spent more than 20 years at the Des Moines Register and the now-defunct Des Moines Tribune. In a career that took him from newsrooms in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Grass Valley to academic pursuits at the University of Hawaii and Media Foresight Associates, a newspaper consulting firm he founded, Somerville was respected as a dedicated and innovative journalist.

”'We here at the Times-Standard are shocked and saddened by this loss,' said Times Standard city editor Kimberly Wear. 'Rich was a big man who leaves big shoes to fill at the Times-Standard,' said Times-Standard publisher Greg Stevens. 'I really enjoyed working with him.'”

*

Photo of Sec Taylor Stadium courtesy of www.ballparkreviews.com

Idiots

The people running the Triple-A baseball team at No-Name Ballfield in Des Moines are idiots. Memphis of the American Association offered No-Name team the use of its stadium for what was to be an eight-game homestand, but the rockheads in charge of No-Name team insisted on trying to play in the ridiculous conditions at No-Name Ballfield. The horrible flooding in Des Moines has brutalized baseball as well as lots of other things in this town. The team could be playing in Memphis, but bush league owner Mike Gartner and bush league general manager Sam Bernabe for some reason brought the players back here to this mess. I figure it was money that caused them to do it. With those two, it always is. I can't think of any other baseball people who'd have done something like that with historic floods swallowing up this town.

Awful

Fellow Internet columnist Chuck Offenburger e-mailed me this morning with this message:

"Ron...You've got to write a piece about the devastation from the flooding in Cedar Rapids, and the floods you can recall there through your lifetime. The photo on the top of the Gazette's web page this morning is breathtaking -- check it out."

--Chuck O.

I've certainly been thinking about the flooding and the destruction it's caused in the city I called home for the first 22 years of my life.

It's not often that I'm somewhat at a loss for words, but this might be one of those times.

I've seen the pictures, I've read the stories.

My family and I went through the 1993 flooding in the Des Moines area.

But, frankly, I've never seen anything like what's going on in Cedar Rapids right now.

The same with nearby Iowa City.

This is all new to me, and I'm certainly no kid.

I can't recall anything like what's happening over there.

Maybe that's why this mess is being called the "500-Year Flood" in Cedar Rapids.

When I was 9, 10, 11 and 12 years of age, I played a lot of baseball at Riverside Park on the southwest side of town, which was near the Cedar River.

I recall people talking about how high the river was getting in those summers, but I don't recall massive flooding.

When you're a kid, maybe you don't pick up on things like that.

I guess I don't remember getting flooded out of any games.

Rained out maybe, but not flooded out at Riverside.

Certainly not at Daniels Park on the northeast side of town, either.

After what I'd call a heavy rain, we always seemed to have water in our basement at our home on 18th Avenue in Cedar Rapids.

But I blamed that on the basement, not the weather.

Our solution was to wait for a few dry days so the basement would stop leaking.

We seemed to be on high enough ground to avoid any big flooding.

My parents and my younger brother are gone now. My mother had sold the house more than a dozen years ago, and spent her final years in West Des Moines.

My sister-in-law called last night to talk about how tough things are now.

She said her son, who now runs the business her late husband owned, had to take a boat to get to the shop yesterday.

They loaded the stuff they sell into a couple of semitrailers they rented.

It's going to be a long haul for everyone over there.

It makes me hurt when I think about what's going on.

*

The photo accompanying this column is from gazetteonline.com, the Cedar Rapids Gazette's web page.

It's been quite a break-in first few days for Steve Buttry, the paper's new editor.

I can already see the improvement he's making. He and the other folks working for the newspaper and its website are doing a tremendous job of covering the flooding in these difficult days.

However, it should be pointed out that Buttry doesn't know the Gazette staff well yet, or the city. Conseqently, longtime veterans of the newsroom have pitched in bigtime without having been told to do so.

Among those who have contributed strong stories to the flood coverage are sports columnist Mike Hlas [pictured at the right] and sportswriter Marc Morehouse [left].

"I thought our paper Friday was extraordinary given we had no electricity at our building," Hlas told me. "It's going to be a rough go here for a long time. Useable water will be a precious commodity."

Hlas adds that the city of Cedar Rapids "has given the Gazette and KCRG-TV special dispensation to stay downtown because they're serving the public, or words to that effect. KCRG and KGAN have done phenomenal jobs, too.

"I was downtown late at night, and creepy doesn't begin to describe it. Coming up I-380 with the only lights in the darkness being car lights -- like I said, creepy."

Rick Wanamaker, Revisited

I get e-mail messages from the craziest places.

Like Basil, Switzerland.

At least that's where Rick Hautekeete says he's now residing.

With the NCAA track and field championships in our soggy town, the timing of Hautekeete's e-mail is perfect.

He's writing about Rick Wanamaker, the 6-foot 8-inch former standout Drake athlete from tiny Marengo, Ia., who won the 1970 NCAA declathlon championship.

Hautekeete sent me this message:

"Mr. Maly,

"I found some of your articles online searching for some information on Rick Wanamaker. I started a Wikipedia page on Rick:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Wanamaker

"I’m not sure if you have any interest in writing any articles for Wikipedia, since it is your profession. However, if you would be willing to contribute and have references to improve the article on Rick, it would greatly benefit the article.

"Thanks for your time,"

Rick Hautekeete
Iowa Valley High School ‘86
Currently residing in Basel, Switzerland

*

Wikipedia is called the "free encyclopedia" on the Internet, and anyone can contribute to it.

Under Wanamaker's name, it says, "Rick Wanamaker [born in Marengo, Ia.] is a U.S. track and basketball athlete, known principally for winning the decathlon in the 1971 Pan American Games and for blocking a shot against Lew Alcindor in the 1969 NCAA national basketball semifinals.

"Rick Wanamaker attended Iowa Valley High School in Marengo, Iowa, where he played basketball. He earned a scholarship and attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. As a freshman, he wanted to participate in the Drake Relays, and chose the decathlon.

"Track and field

"Rick Wanamaker was a top 10- U.S. decathlete from 1970 to 1974. Rick was the 1970 NCAA national champion and an all-American in the decathlon. Rick was the 1971 AAU national champion in the decathlon, with a score of 7,989, and the 1971 gold medalist in the decathlon at the Pan American Games with a score of 7,648. Rick is one of the tallest successful decathletes at 6-8, 210 pounds in 1971.

"Basketball

"Rick was a member of the Drake Bulldog basketball team that finished second in the 1969 NCAA tournament. He is best known for blocking a shot against Lew Alcindor in the 1969 NCAA national semifinals in Louisville.

"Personal life

"Rick Wanamaker is a successful realtor in Des Moines, Ia...."

Wanamaker is pictured at the right.


*

I've written about Wanamaker plenty over the years, starting with when he was on Maury John's Drake basketball teams in the 1960s.

Thanks to Jay Davidson, his former roommate at Drake, I found out some things about Wanamaker this past basketball season that I wasn't aware of before.

It was just before Wanamaker and other former Bulldog standouts were to be honored as "Athletes of the Century" at halftime of a Drake game.

Here's part of what I wrote:

Both Willie McCarter and Rick Wanamaker, who were members of Drake's 1969 Final Four team, have told me they'll be at the game.

McCarter was the Los Angeles' Lakers' first round draft choice in 1969 after averaging 20.4 points for Maury John's 26-5 Bulldogs.

The 6-foot 8-inch Wanamaker was a standout reserve on that team and is best known for blocking a shot taken by 7-1 Lew Alcindor [later to be known as Kareem-Abdul Jabbar] of UCLA in Drake's 85-82 semifinal round loss at Louisville.

However, Wanamaker is being honored tomorrow night primarily for his track and field accomplishments.

"Rick's best event was the high jump," said Jay Davidson, who was his roommate a couple of their years at Drake. "I believe he was Iowa's first 7-foot high jumper. He was also a decathlete, and in June, 1970, won the NCAA decathlon title when the nationals were last held at Drake."

I mentioned in an earlier column this week that I ran into Wanamaker just after he'd finished his lunch at the Hy-Vee buffet on 35th Street in West Des Moines. He looks like he hasn't put on an ounce of weight since his track and basketball days.

"I was impressed that you wore your Drake letter-sweater when you introduced at an earlier game this year, and it still fits," I told Wanamaker.

"I may wear it again Saturday night," said Wanamaker, who is a Drake basketball season ticketholder.

There's more to the Wanamaker story.

I didn't realize until recently that he had a brief career as a member of the Drake marching band.

"One game," he told me.

That was before Wanamaker, who was from tiny Marengo, Ia., learned he wouldn't have time for responsibilities with the band because of what he had to do with the basketball and track and field programs.

"I can identify the game in which Rick marched, with the help of the Drake football media guide," said Davidson, who -- like Wanamaker -- played the clarinet.

"It would have been against Northwest Missouri on Sept. 17, 1966, a game which resulted in a 27-0 Drake win. This was the first of 25 games (I just counted) -- including a couple road games and a pro game each year -- in which I marched with the Drake band, which was quite renowned at the time, and, (as I also remember), Rick's one marching opportunity.

"As I recall, in 1966 classes actually began the following Monday after the football opener. Academic calendars were a bit different in those days!"

Adds Davidson:

"Rick and I, both eastern Iowans (he Marengo, I Stanwood), met in September, 1966, when we both matriculated at Drake as freshmen. We met in the Drake marching band and also in physical science I, where, in a Harvey Ingham Hall lecture room, Rick was seated in the tier directly behind my seat and draped his 6-7 [or taller] frame around my chair.

"We became good friends almost immediately and roomed together in Goodwin-Kirk residence hall during our junior and senior years (1968-70). In those days athletes on scholarship had to get permission from their coaches to room with non-athletes, and apparently Coach John thought I was acceptable.

"I remember on at least two occasions Coach John personally came to our room in G-K to make sure Rick was in at the designated time before a big game. (I think the time was 10:30, and he was--in fact one time we were both asleep.)

"Rick was our best man when Margie and I married in Boston (after a 2 1/2-month courtship!) in December 1978; and he was a player in our return here (after we lived in Charlottesville, VA for seven years) in 1989. He's one of my closest and most enduring friends."

*

Still on the subject of the NCAA track and field [mostly field] meet, I got an e-mail from Mark Robinson of Iowa City.

I figured I'd wake up a few people with the photo I used yesterday with a column about track and field, mostly field. Here's Robinson's e-mail:

Hi, Ron,

I guarantee you, Ron, that if Allison Stokke [also known on the Internet as "Pole Vault Girl" and featured on your latest blog entry] had made the NCAAs, there would be a sellout crowd at the Drake track, no matter the weather. Miss Stokke has been the subject of hundreds, if not thousands of Internet bulletin board topics over the last few years, starting when she was a senior at Newport High School in California. The picture you feature is from her senior year in high school.

Internet geeks and young men were waiting in anticipation of her appearance at Drake, but alas, she didn't do well in her qualifying meet. There were many saddened adolescents and, I admit, older guys who would gladly have put up with any kind of weather just to catch a glimpse.

Oh, and attached is a photo of Allison as a freshman member of the Cal-Berkeley track team.

Keep writing,

Mark Robinson
Iowa City--where the water is rising like nobody's business.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Mark, your doctors will be proud of you now that they've been able to locate your pulse after viewing photographs of the famous Pole Vault Girl! Too bad she didn't qualify for the meet at Drake Stadium. Maybe, though, they can get her into the Drake Relays next year. If she shows up, I'll maybe wander over there. By the way, the photo Robinson sent of Pole Vault Girl is at the left].

*

Good luck on finding out in the paper how many fans attended the opening day of the NCAA meet.

I guess unless meet officials hand reporters a paid crowd total or even an estimate, nobody in the press box is going to touch the attendance subject.

There must've been a thousand [that's a joke, folks] stories written in various sections of today's paper on the meet, but I couldn't find one that had anything resmebling what the attendance was.

The cutlines under a photo on the front page of the Metro & Iowa section said "1,200 track and field athletes are converging on Drake Stadium this week for the prestigious event."

I wonder if there that many people in the stands.

*

Sorry to hear about the death of Al Barcheski from complications of liver disease at 75.

Barcheski was a longtime employee at WHO-TV, and was known for his role in a bear costume on Jim Zabel's old "Beat the Bear" show on Sunday nights.

Hoping for a Break

I've maybe written this before.

I'm not much of a track fan.

Field, either.

Even on a good day, I wouldn't go very far to watch someone run a race or jump over something.

I'd rather be the guy doing the running and jumping.

I can go only so far with spectator sports.

*

Still, I sympathize with the runners, jumpers and throwers at the NCAA track and field championships in Des Moines.

The rain that fell here much of today was miserable.

But so was the rain that's fallen around this state much of the rest of the spring.

A flood isn't my idea of a good time, either.

*

For the sake of the runners, jumpers and throwers, I hope the sun stays out a while in the next few days.

The folks at Drake mean well and they want to put on a good show.

It's tough enough to draw a crowd for a track and field meet without having the weather screwing up things, too.

*

I see the paper had a special section on the floods today.

Not a single ad in it.

Just like the special section yesterday on the track meet.

The boys and girls at Gannett aren't liking that, you can be sure.

*

Speaking of the Gannett Co., -- which owns the Register and the Iowa City Press-Citizen -- here's something I saw in Editor & Publisher:

In a memo to employees, Gannett says it's freezing the pension plan, which means:

* On Aug. 1, your pension plan benefit will be frozen. It will not continue to grow [based on your years of service and final pay] as it did in the past.

* All your benefits currently in the plan remain there for your retirement.

* A cost-of-living allowance will be applied to your frozen benefit to help protect it from inflation.

All I can say is, it's nice to be retired.

*

Former NBA referee Tom Donaghy says he's not the only guy who intentionally influenced the results of games.

Listen to Donaghy and you'd think the whole league is crooked.

Know what? I'm starting to believe him.

It's show biz, isn't it?

There was a time -- when I was a kid -- that I heard most NFL games were fixed, too.

Especially when certain guys were playing quarterback.

I guess I believed that, too.

*

And let's not forget college football.

All of us remember how Ronnie Harmon kept dropping the ball in the Rose Bowl.

And he wasn't even wearing a striped shirt.

His shirt had a tigerhawk on it.

*

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail, wondering if I've accepted Jim Edmonds yet as the Cubs' centerfielder.

As long as he hits .290 or better and cranks a few home runs, I'd accept any ex-Cardinal in centerfield at Wrigley Field.

The best thing is that St. Louis and San Diego are paying most of his salary.

Hey, Newspaper Reporters, Grab Your Movie Cameras and Get To the Ballpark -- Or the Flood Scene

As if things hadn't already gotten tough enough for newspaper reporters.

First of all, they keep hearing that the newspaper business is dead.

Even from their wives and kids.

Their bosses make them write for the print version of the paper and the always-changing Internet version, too.

They're told to write blogs that no one is sure anyone reads.

Some are told to participate in online "chats" with readers who aren't required to identify themselves.

Indeed, comments on those chats are sometimes generated by some of their relatives and people in their own offices -- most of them using phony names.

Now comes news that reporters also will likely be carrying video cameras with them to events they're covering.

Beet.tv reports: "Long a leader in creating and publishing original and stylized video journalism, the Washington Post is educating a large number of print journalists in how to use video cameras. Some 185 staffers have been trained, according to Chet Rhodes, assistant managing editor for news video at the washingtonpost.com

The paper is providing low cost Canon HF 100 video cameras to several of its staff photographers.

The website says the video-training-for-reporters can't come a minute too soon:

"Microsoft chairman Steve Ballmer, in a meeting at the Post earlier this week, tells editors that the print piece of most media will be gone in 10 years.

"I'll be interested to see what my friend Ken Fuson has to say about this. And I hope he keeps his Canon in focus.

*

Speaking of newspapers -- something I like to do, of course -- there's nothing like a good newspaper fight.

Right in your own office.

In a column headlined, "Sun Times colleagues go after Jay Mariotti," Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune writes today that the columnist at the opposition paper is "taking body blows from his own colleagues" at the Sun-Times.

"Mariotti seems to pride himself on making enemies," Greenstein wrote. "He has been called a 'pissant' by Jerry Reinsdorf, a 'hiney bird; by [White Sox TV announcer] Hawk Harrelson and much worse by [Sox manager] Ozzie Guillen.

"Now Mariotti is taking body blows from his own colleagues at the Sun-Times. The situation heated up to the point that editor-in-chief Michael Cooke stepped in last week to symbolically separate Mariotti from fellow sports columnist Rick Telander, after Sun-Times editors refused to run columns Telander filed for the Wednesday and Friday papers.

"The conflict started after Mariotti [pictured at the left] wrote last week of Guillen: 'As you may have noticed through the years, I am the Blizzard's only critic in the Chicago media, mostly because my soft colleagues either fear Guillen's wrath, enjoy how he rips me, work for one of the Reinsdorf-controlled broadcast outlets or are afraid of getting on the chairman's bad side.'

"The next day, Sun-Times national baseball writer Chris De Luca led his column this way: 'The same critics who avoid ever stepping into the White Sox's clubhouse are calling the Chicago media soft for not skewering manager Ozzie Guillen. They want Guillen fired yesterday. Sounds tough, but the rhetoric comes up a little, well, soft.'

"Telander also believed Mariotti had unfairly impugned his reputation and fired back in a Wednesday column that got spiked, according to media insiders. The paper explained to its readers in a box that Telander was taking the day off...."

I think all this so-called "fighting" is phony -- a vain attempt by the Sun-Times [which runs a poor second to the Tribune in Chicago circulation -- to sell more papers. Mariotti, who always seems to be upset about something, had better stick to his TV moonlighting gig because he's not going to like it when his bosses send him to the ballpark carrying a movie camera.

*

Speaking of planned "fights," I hear that some would-be thespians on Arizona State's baseball team staged a scuffle prior to their NCAA regional game against Fresno State.

"ESPN cameras caught teammates Brett Wallace and Ike Davis scuffling in the outfield before the game, a fracas that seemed to involve the whole team," wrote azcentral.com. "Turns out, the whole thing was staged, an attempt to loosen up an overly tight Arizona State team and give the opponent something to think about...."

The fight didn't work. Arizona State was so "loose" that it lost the game, 12-9.

*

More bad stuff for newspapers.

At least the Des Moines Register.

The paper had an 8-page special section this morning on the NCAA track and field championships that are being held in Des Moines this week.

There wasn't one advertisement in the entire section.

Not even a "trade-off" ad with one of the TV stations.

What a shocker.

You know and I know that section was planned by the bosses to make money.

Without a single ad, you can be sure the paper took a huge financial hit.

No pay raises for anybody again at 8th & Locust this year, I guess.

*

Old friend Richard Hayman writes:

Hello, Mr. Maly,

It has been a long time, and I hope this brief note finds you doing well.

I am deep into a career switch: moving from over 20 years in post-secondary education, to teaching K-12. This fall, I will do my third and final year of clinical practice...moving from the urban system that is Memphis [and, don't get me started on Memphis] to a more rural setting just north of the city. I have probably told you before, but, when I became a single dad, I made the choice to be a dad...foregoing the career and income I had previously established. And, this fall, Japheth will attend elementary school right next door to my middle school. We are both excited about that. I will be teaching 7th/8th grade science and social studies. I am 'highly qualified' [according to NCLB] to teach math, science, social studies, and English, grades 4-8. When I complete this year, I will also be certified to teach resource children, K-12.

I am loving being a dad, and take every opportunity to encourage parents to think differently about their responsibilities. It's happening everywhere, but probably nowhere so apparent as in our urban areas: children are having difficulty recognizing that they are children, and that adults are working in their best interests. And, given that many adults are NOT working in the best interest of their children, it is no wonder that children have come to the rebellious and belligerent state in which we observe them. Having one or two, perhaps even four or five 'problem children' in a class of 25 is not the issue, but having 30 'problem children' in a class of 35 is more like it. The problems are complex, and entrenched. But, I do believe the solution lies in asking not 'where have our children gone?', but in owning up to the reality that our children have gone exactly where we, the adults, have led, and allowed, them to go. Naturally, I am compelled by love. And, in focusing on being a dad, I am daily gaining new appreciation of a Father's love, for His only Son.

In more trivial matters, Go, Lakers! From the time the man who lifted Milwaukee from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, to the Age of Aquarius, went to Los Angeles, I have been a Lakers fan. I think Kareem just turned 61! (Of course, he played until he was 55, didn't he?) He looks like he could still take the court, and hook anyone in the league. It's great for the NBA to see this rivalry renewed. And, I'm hoping for a non-controversial series.

It was great to see the Hawkeyes resume their rightful place as the nation's best in wrestling. I am giving the basketball program some time to restructure. And football, well...I am a big supporter of Coach Ferentz. And so, with the situation in his hands, I will defer to his judgment. For a lot of reasons, though, I think this year needs to be a turnaround year for the football program. Hopefully, everyone is working hard to improve. And, for the good of the program, and the youngsters who participate in, and benefit from the program (not to mention the university, community, state, and collegiate sports) -- I hope Coach will take the steps necessary in recruiting and in-program management to establish character/behavior as the prerequisite to having a career at Iowa.

I'm attaching a picture of my son and me [shown at the right], taken during his ninth birthday. I am the most blessed dad in the whole wide world.

Take care. Write when you can.

Best regards,

Richard Hayman

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Great hearing from you, Richard, and the best of luck in your new endeavors].

'Shocked and Saddened'

“I was shocked and saddened by the news of Julia Kelly’s death," University of Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter said today about the late mother of Hawkeye player Jake Kelly [pictured].

"Our entire basketball program is deeply saddened by this tragic loss," Lickliter added in a statement. "Our prayers are with Jake and his family.”

Julia Kelly died an airplane crash while vacationing in Florida. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Here's a story from the St. Petersburg Times about the incident:

What was supposed to be a lark, a quick sightseeing flight to catch a view of Cedar Key by night, killed three people when the Cessna 206 plunged into the Gulf of Mexico.

Plant City resident and pilot Frank Gonzalez, 48, strawberry broker John Borchard, 43, and Julia Kelly, 49, visiting Florida from Iowa, died in the crash early Saturday, just after midnight.

Divers recovered Borchard's body about a mile from the Cedar Key airport that afternoon.

Sunday, divers located the plane's fuselage in the water about 3 miles from the island community. Gonzalez and Kelly were inside.

Derrick Doud of Nipomo, Calif., described Borchard, his first cousin, as someone who could never sit still.

"He always wanted to have fun. Boats, airplanes, cars that's what he did," Doud said. "He lived life to the fullest. He was one of those guys just on the edge. He liked the thrill."

Borchard, who lived on Harbour Island, leaves behind children in Arizona from a previous marriage and children from his current marriage in Tampa.

Martin Pure, manager of the Plant City airport, said Gonzalez was an expert pilot with a passion for flying. He often flew for Borchard. Pure said he was shocked to hear about the crash because Gonzalez was a particularly conscientious pilot.

"He followed the checklists, always checked gas when he was flying, double-checked to make sure everything was just right," Pure said.

Pure said Gonzalez also was a dedicated flight instructor.

"He would tell the students if you have any problems give me a call," Pure said. "He was always happy to help.''

Amy Davidson said her sister, Kelly, was a free spirit and a devoted mother. Kelly moved from Indiana to Solon, Ia., last year to be with her son, Jake, who just finished his freshman year playing basketball at Iowa. She is from Marshall, Ill.

The sisters spent a week in Cedar Key with Jake and her second son, Luke.

"It was the best week she'd had in a long, long time," said Davidson, who lives in Longboat Key. "It was just such a blessing."

Borchard and Gonzalez flew out of the Plant City airport with two couples Friday evening.

At the Cedar Key airport, the group met Kelly and Davidson and asked them for a ride to a nearby restaurant.

Davidson said she, her sister and her two nephews pulled up to the airstrip and waved at the plane carrying Borchard and Gonzalez shortly after it landed.

"Little did I know that would be their demise," she said.

Later, Kelly asked for a ride in the plane so she could catch a glimpse of the fishing and tourist town by night. Borchard and Gonzalez complied, and at about midnight, the plane took off from the Cedar Key airport, heading south-southwest. The plane went down into the Gulf of Mexico about 15 minutes later.

The airport operates without flight controllers, and reportedly has a reputation as a challenging place to land an aircraft.

A Lifetime Dream

Here's the second installment of Don Lund's two-part story on the year 1974:

Richard Nixon [pictured at the right] was out as president and Bob Commings and Lute Olson were in as Iowa's new head coaches for football and basketball in 1974.

For the first time ever, the Hawkeyes had a women’s basketball team and the wrestlers, with Dan Gable as assistant coach won their first NCAA championship, plus I got to live out a lifetime dream of being a Hawkeye.

Last week went through Iowa’s first five games with wins over UCLA and Northwestern. The Hawks had losses to Michigan, Penn State and USC who went on to win a share of the football championship with Oklahoma.

I went to the next game at Minnesota as a fan with my friend Carol Tate, who would later become Carol Dupic. Her husband Rick is as good a Hawkeye fan as I am. The two have been coming to Iowa games since to 1980s, and we have not only tailgated together, but had season tickets together.

The game started with Rick Upchurch, running back for the Gophers, going 86 yards on the first play from scrimmage for a score. Rick tore up the Iowa defense with 210 yards on the ground and Minnesota kept Floyd in Gopherland for the fourth year in a row with a 23-17 win.

Rick, who went to Indian Hills Community College, was all set to come to Iowa until Frank Lauterbur was fired. I saw him play when he was at Indian Hills and he scored four touchdowns against Iowa Lakes CC. Rick told my longtime friend Tim Neustrom, who was the quarterback for Iowa Lakes, that Frank Lauterbur was just like a dad to him and he was going to be a Hawkeye.

Iowa’s team doctor Harley Feldick, who I would become business partners with later on in life, had a busy day with the top two quarterbacks, Rob Fick and Doug Reichardt, getting hurt on successive plays. Bobby Ousley took over for the rest of the game.

The Fighting Illini came to town the next week and Illinois (4-1-1) was favored by six.

Iowa scored first on a one-yard run by fullback Bob Holmes, with Nick Quartaro kicking the extra point.

Illinois kicked two field goals and scored a touchdown to take a 12-7 lead late in the fourth quarter.

Iowa drove down to the Illinois eight-yard line with only 28 seconds left in the game.

“Oelwein’s Rob Fick, the retread quarterback who was belted out of last weeks game with battered ribs, threw the last hope screen pass. Solon’s Eddie Donavan fielded it on the left flat and slam-bammed his way past two Illini defenders like a bay steer finding a hole in the gate.”

That was taken from the Cedar Rapids Gazette and written by legendary sports writer Gus Schrader. The headline read “Oelwein to Solon”!

The final score was 14-12 and Iowa had its third win of the year.

Iowa traveled to Purdue and couldn’t keep it going losing, 38-14. The Boilermakers ran for a school record 501 yards and beat the Hawkeyes for the 14th straight time. Wisconsin did the same thing the next week at Kinnick, pounding out a 28-15 win. Billy Marek, running back for Wisconsin, ran the ball 34 times for 206 yards and four touchdowns.

The legendary Woody Hayes [pictured at the left] brought his troops to Iowa City the following weekend and the Buckeyes, led by Archie Griffin, who would win his first of two Heismans that year, rolled, 35-10.

Iowa trailed only 14-10 at half and Nick Quartaro kicked a 47-yard field goal, which was a record at the time.

Ohio State, which was favored by 29 points, had been ranked No. 1 most of the season until losing to Michigan State the week before.

Iowa finished its season at the Spartans and trailed only 21-17 with six minutes left to go in the half, then the dam burst and Michigan State exploded for a 60-21 win!

Iowa gave up 489 yards on the ground and turned the ball over three times.

The season was over and the Hawks finished 3-8.

Rob Fick was named MVP and defensive back Earl Douthitt was all-Big Ten.

I had some great stories to tell when I went home to Moville for Thanksgiving.

I was on the field with three of the all time greatest football coaches including Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes and John McKay.

When I went to the first game at Michigan, Alex Karras, former Hawkeye all-American and movie star came into the locker room. Alex co-starred in the movie “Blazing Saddles” that came out in 1974.

The second game, when the Hawks beat UCLA, Iowa Gov. Robert Ray was in the locker room.

Plus, I got to see a lot of great players, including Ricky Bell and Archie Griffin, who went on to win two Heisman trophies.

I have to thank the Des Moines Register, the Cedar Rapids Gazette and Al Grady for his book “25 Years with the Fighting Hawkeyes” for most of the information. I really enjoy going back and checking out the Hawks.

Basketball season was up next, and Iowa had new coaches on both the men’s and women’s teams.

Lute Olson, then a 40-year-old who coached at Long Beach State the year before, replaced Dick Schultz as the head man on the basketball team.

The Hawks had only one winning season in four years with Dick as the coach.

Iowa’s starting lineup included Bruce “Sky” King at center, Scott Thompson and Larry Moore were the guards and Dan Frost and Larry Parker were the forwards.

Larry Parker’s daughter, Candice Parker, helped Tennessee win the women’s NCAA basketball championship the last two years. She skipped her senior year and is playing in the WNBA.

All five starters averaged in double figures with junior college transfer Dan Frost leading the way with 14.7 points per game.

The bench included Fred Haberecht, John “Bo” Hairston, Archie Mays, and Mike Gatens.
Mike’s son Matt will play for the Hawk basketball team this coming season.

This was the only year I had season tickets in the Fieldhouse and I sat behind this big metal beam. When the Hawks were clicking the place was rocking.

Iowa finished 10-16 overall and 7-11 in the Big Ten.

The 1974 season was the very first for women’s basketball.

The coach was Lark Birdsong and they went 5-16. Their first win came at home against Minnesota, 55-33.

They also beat Illinois, Northern Illinois (their first road win), Cornell and Marycrest.

Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin were the only Big Ten teams Iowa played.

Head coach Gary Kurdelmeier and assistant Dan Gable were in their third season as coaches for the Iowa wrestling team.

They rolled through the regular season with a 17-0-1 record. The tie was with Iowa State, 19-19.

The Hawkeyes won the Big Ten for the second year in a row with Chris Campbell (177), Jan Sanderson (167) and Chris Sones (118) Big Ten Champs.

Iowa’s first NCAA champions were led by Dan Holm (158) and Chuck Yagla (150), both won titles.

Chris Campbell (2nd, 177), Greg Stevens (2nd, 190) and John Bowlsby (3rd, heavyweight) also helped in the team victory.

John’s brother, Bob, would become athletic director at Iowa in 1991.

I went to a lot of the wrestling matches in the Fieldhouse and had a couple of the wrestlers in some of my classes.

The Fieldhouse was a great home-court advantage and when you had 12,000 wrestling fans (the Fieldhouse only held about 14,000) it was really loud.

One of my all-time favorite years is 1974. I got to join the Hawkeye football team as a manager, went to most of the basketball games and saw Iowa win its first NCAA championship in wrestling.

It doesn’t get much better then that!

[RON MALY'S COMMENT: Don, you made my day when you reminded me that Nixon was out].

An Optimistic Cyclone

Whenever we drive to St. Paul to see our son, daughter-in-law and their family, I make it a point to stop at McDonald's at the Clear Lake exit on I-35.

Not only can I get a huge cup of coffee there that'll keep me awake for the rest of the trip, I also can see what's in the Mason City Globe-Gazette and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

When I was at the eatery the other day, the Globe-Gazette had a large story on the front page of the sports section that covered the appearance the night before of Iowa State football coach Gene Chizik, talented defensive lineman Kurtis Taylor, basketball coaches Greg McDermoott and Bill Fennelly and other school officials at the Cyclone Tailgate Tour in Mason City.

Taylor is a 6-2, 250-pounder from Fort Dodge who was Iowa State's comeback player of the year in 2007, and he figures to be a huge factor for Chizik's team next fall.

In his Globe-Gazette story, Kirk Hardcastle said Taylor was thinking big for 2008.

I mean, really big.

“The fans can look forward to a team that is going to come out every day and compete,” Taylor said. “We have a team that believes. We really feel we have a legitimate chance to win the Big 12 championship.”

A big reason for appearances by coaches and players at these spring and summer gatherings is to generate interest in the team for the upcoming season.

Chizik probably would prefer that Taylor and other players not talk about winning championships, but I've never seen a collegiate athlete yet who wasn't optimistic in June about what was going to happen in October and November.

Hardcastle pointed out that Chizik didn't predict a championship for Iowa State in the rugged Big 12 Conference.

"The second-year coach says the Cyclones are not going to win with any sort of trickery," Hardcastle wrote.

“[Chizik said] there’s not going to be any gimmicks and all that stuff. We have to learn to be a football team that wins because we’re good —- not because we trick people. In the name of that, we just have to stay on track or what we’re doing and don’t come off that course.”

Iowa State was 3-9 overall and 2-6 in the Big 12 in Chizik’s first year, and the former Texas assistant said he learned a lot.

“Football is football and Xs and Os are Xs and Os,” he said. “There were things on the side that I had to deal with that became very time-consuming that I have out of the way now.

“I’m excited. Going into your second year, everything is so much easier. There’s no more firsts.”

*

Men's basketball coach Greg McDermott, women’s coach Bill Fennelly, wrestling coach Cael Sanderson and athletic director Jamie Pollard also were present at Mason City, and the next night the Cyclone Tailgate Tour headed to Minneapolis for the first time.

“There’s 8,000 alumni up there [in the Twin Cities],” Fennelly said in the Globe-Gazette. “We’ve played up there three years in a row and had really good crowds.

“So it’ll be a new market to hit and hopefully it’ll go well.”

*

The eighth-grade graduation at Central Lutheran in St. Paul and the tug-of-war at the picnic on the final day of school at Eastern Heights Lutheran in St. Paul went smoothly. Both events are pictured above.

Lickliter Is One Of the Smartest Basketball Coaches In Hawkeye History

Todd Lickliter has just become one of my favorite Hawkeye basketball coaches of all time.

Not because of the 13-19 break-in season he had in 2007-2008.

Because he kept Drake, Northern Iowa and Iowa State on Iowa's non-conference schedule.

And, well, yes, because he dumped the Hawkeye Challenge, the Hawkeye Invitational, the Amana-Hawkeye Classic or whatever the hell it was called.

Iowa has announced its non-conference opponents for 2008-2009, and Drake, UNI and Iowa State are right where they're supposed to be -- on the schedule in December.

There was some fear that Lickliter might decide to drop one of more of the in-state rivalries when the Big Ten Conference went from 16-game schedule to an 18-game schedule.

But -- smart guy that he is -- Lickliter [who is pictured] kept the three in-state games and did away with the two-night tournament Iowa has hosted for 26 years.

After seeing what happened last season, maybe it's easy to see why the Hawkeye Challenge was dumped.

The Hawkeyes lost to Louisiana-Monroe, 72-67, in the first round of last season's tournament.

That was only the second time in history Iowa didn't make it to the championship game.

George Raveling, who was in over his head as Iowa's coach from 1984-1986, was the only other guy who lost in the first round.

Ol' George's 1985 team was bounced by Arkansas State, 86-82, in what then was called the Hawkeye Invitational.

In all, Iowa had a 50-2 record in its own tournament.

Lots of Hawkeye fans wonder why it wasn't 52-0.

The host team is supposed to win its own tournament, isn't it?

Like a smart old coach once said, "Bring in three teams you can beat and call it a classic."

Nobody is going to miss the Hawkeye Challenge. Attedance was never as good for it as it was for the other home games.

Why would it be with some of the patsies Iowa invited to the tournament?

As far as I'm concerned, the only Division I games that make the non-conference season worthwhile in this state are those involving Iowa, Iowa State, Drake and UNI.

Lute Olson threatened to cancel the Drake-Iowa series when he was the Hawkeyes' coach from 1975-1983, but only because he thought a few rowdy Bulldog fans insulted his wife and daughter in a game at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines one year.

Bump Elliott, then the athletic director at Iowa, quieted Olson down, and the series has continued since.

Iowa's Big Four games next season are at home Dec. 9 against UNI and Dec. 12 against Iowa State. The Hawkeyes play at Drake on Dec. 20.

Smart scheduling by Lickliter and athletic director Gary Barta. I've always said they're very intelligent guys.

I won't even be critical of them for scheduling home games against Charleston Southern and Bryant University [Bryant who?] next season as long as they keep Drake, Iowa State and UNI onboard for the next 100 seasons.

*

By the way, Iowa's women will continue to host a Hawkeye Challenge. Teams playing in the Nov. 22-23 event are Portland, Boston University and Providence. The trouble is, former Drake coach Keno Davis is coaching the Providence men, not the women.

*

Well, as I keep pointing out to Lickliter, Lou Piniella and a lot of other guys, you can't win 'em all.

The Chicago Cubs prooved that -- again -- last night.

Forty-two-year-old Greg Maddux, who broke into major league baseball with the Cubs a century or two ago, put a stopper to Chicago's offense in a game at San Diego.

Maddux and two relievers held the Cubs to four hits as the Padres ended the Cubs' nine-game winning streak, 2-1.

All right, Lou. Enough of this crap. That's the last time I want to see you lose on this west coast trip.

See how easy I am to get along with?

Cubs Win 9th Straight, But I'm Still Nervous

The photograph shows players from the Chicago Cubs celebrating early this morning during their team's 9-6 victory at San Diego.

Those guys obviously are happy the Cubs have now won nine straight games, and so am I.

However, I've got to admit I'm still uneasy.

I'm disturbed with the way Chicago is playing.

I mean, I'm wondering how a team that has a 38-21 record -- the best in major league baseball -- can keep winning with a Kansas City-type pitching staff.

Manager Lou Piniella had to use seven pitchers to win last night's [or this morning's] game.

The winning pitcher was Jason Marquis, which was like having no pitcher at all.

The Cubs paid too much to get Marquis after he flopped with the St. Louis Cardinals a couple of seasons ago, and Piniella didn't feel comfortable enough to use him when the Cubs were blown away in the National League playoffs last season.

I get the idea Piniella still doesn't care much for Marquis.

He wishes the guy was still with the Cardinals.

He kept Marquis in the game for only five innings last night -- just enough to qualify for the victory.

If the batboy could get the ball over the plate, I figure Piniella would use him instread of Marquis.

I have a nagging feeling that the Cubs will need to find another starting pitcher at midseason if they're going to stay in first place.

They keep bringing up no-name pitchers from No-Name Ballteam in Des Moines, and they don't throw any better than the other guys in the bullpen.

Kevin Hart was called up yesterday, and promptly gave up two hits, two walks and three runs in one-third of an inning last night.

His earned-run average is a fat 6.61.

You don't win pennants with numbers like that.

Not even eighth-inning specialist Carlos Marmol is invincible anymore.

Piniella brought him into a game a couple of nights ago, and Marmol was tattooed for a three-run homer.

To make room for Hart on the Chicago roster, reserve outfielder/first baseman Micah Hoffpauir was sent to No-Name Ballteam.

The next time you hear about Hoffpauir will be when Chicago general manager Jim hendry trades him and eight other players to Kansas City in July for a lefthanded relief pitcher and a batboy to be named later.

Kerry Wood has already saved 16 games for the Chicagos.

That means he's ready to have arm or shoulder problems, and will spend July and August rehabbing at Sec Taylor Stadium in Des Moines.

I mean No-Name Ballfield in Des Moines.

It will be Wood's 650th rehab assignment at No-Name, and his agent will demand that the field be named after him because he's had to spend so much time in this town.

The Cubs have a 26-8 record at Wrigley Field and are 12-13 on the road.

That's strange because they often have more fans in the stadiums on the road than the home team has.

I was watching a game at Milwaukee on TV two nights ago, and a female fan of the Brewers was wearing a blue T-shirt that said, "FUKU CUBS."

Nasty folks, those people in Milwaukee.

I assume the shirt was in reference to Kosuke Fukudome, the Cubs' sweet-swinging and sweet-fielding rightfielder from Japan.

Piniella didn't use Fukudome in last night's game. His wife and infant son had just arrived from Japan, and the skipper thought it would be a good idea for Kosuke to be introduced to them.

The Cubs stole six bases in last night's game -- the most since May 14, 2000 at Montreal.

I'll bet you'd forgotten that Montreal used to have a baseball team.

Don't get too excited about those steals. Remember, ex-Cub Michael Barrett is San Diego's catcher.

He hasn't thrown out a runner since Little League.

The last time the Cubs won this many games in succession was then the 2001 team had a 12-game streak.

The reason I'm writing all of this is because I knew you wouldn't see it in your morning newspaper.

The game at San Diego finished at 12:30 a.m.

Anything past suppertime anymore won't get into the paper these days.

However, just to show you they were on top of things, editors at the paper got the score of Monday night's Cub game at San Diego into today's paper.

*

Photo courtesy of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Don Lund Remembers 1974

Whenever I'm in Iowa City for a Hawkeye football game or press conference, I try to find Don Lund.

Don [pictured at the right] is a longtime University of Iowa fan, a published author, a prolific sportswriter, an accomplished photographer and an all-around good guy. It's always fun to talk sports with him -- whether it's on the top of the press parking ramp, on the field at Kinnick Stadium, in the press box or in the interview room.

It pleases me when he e-mails me things he's written, and today I have the pleasure of bringing you the first of a two-part story he has authored about 1974:

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With basketball, wrestling and spring football all finished up, its time once again for flashback.

Flashback is when I pick a year, talk football, a little basketball plus wrestling and also about what was happening during that year.

This time I’m going to pick 1974. This was not a great year for football or basketball but it was the year I came to Iowa and got to live out my dream of being a Hawkeye as a football manager.

Richard Nixon was on his way out as president and Bob Commings and Lute Olson were the new Iowa Hawkeye head coaches for the football and basketball teams.

That was also the first year for women’s basketball, plus the Hawk wrestlers won their first NCAA championship ever!

We’ll start with what was going on in America.

You could buy a stamp for eight cents in 1974 and gas was averaging around 50 cents…wow!

“The Sting” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford was voted the best picture and “Killing Me Softly With His Song” by Roberta Flack was on top in pop music.
The Miami Dolphins beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl, 24-7 and Oklahoma (AP) and USC (UPI) were voted NCAA football champions.

Oakland won the World Series in five games over the L.A. Dodgers and North Carolina State was the NCAA basketball championship.

Back in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes were coming off their worst football season ever in 1973, when they failed to win a game and finished 0-11.

That was it for Iowa coach Frank Lauterbur, who replaced Ray Nagel and had a three-year record of 4-28-1. That’s a winning percentage of .136, the worst in 100 years of Iowa football.

Bob Commings, a former Hawkeye player who was MVP in 1957, was chosen over candidates including Lou Holtz, who was coaching at North Carolina and would go on to coach at Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame and South Carolina and Jackie Sherrill, who was a former assistant at Iowa State and would coach at Pittsburgh, Texas A&M and Mississippi State. Lou won an NCAA championship at Notre Dame and Jackie won one at Pitt.

I was more than excited when I packed up my ‘67 Chevy and headed to Iowa City in August of 1974 to be a Hawkeye football manager.

I started following Iowa football since 1963 when I was in fourth grade, and from that time on wanted to be a Hawkeye.

I listened to most of the games on the radio in that long and depressing 1973 season, but felt the Hawks had a chance to be better when I started watching them during two-a-day practices.

I stayed with the team at the Memorial Union, enjoyed the food and a chance to get to know some of the players, but those August afternoons at Kinnick were scorchers.

Iowa practiced at Kinnick stadium on the Astroturf and when that sun bore down on those hot afternoons I wondered how the players could take it.

Iowa had one of the toughest schedules in the nation that year, opening with Michigan, UCLA, Penn State and USC.

I rode with a couple of other managers to Ann Arbor for Iowa’s opening game against the Wolverines.

We stayed in the same hotel with the players and rode over to the stadium in the morning to get ready for the game.

The Michigan Stadium is the biggest one in college football, but I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be when I went on the field. Since the stadium is completely oblong with no empty spaces I thought Kinnick looked bigger because it was taller.

The Wolverines were favored by 34 and won, 24-7.

Rob Fick, who quit the team in Lauterbur’s last year, started at QB, completed 13-21 passes for 138 yards.

Rodney Wellington, who I got to know because we had classes together, scored the lone touchdown on a one-yard plunge in the fourth quarter.

I still have the Des Moines Register and Ron Maly’s story. I would get to know Ron later on in life and sometimes send him my stories.

On the front of Register which was called the “Peach”, is a picture of Iowa linebacker Dan LaFleur making a tackle on a Michigan ball-carrier. In the background you can see a blurry image of me on one knee wearing a hat next to placekicker Nick Quartaro, who I also became friends with.

Next up my first home game and 12th-ranked UCLA was coming to town. They had a 34- year-old rookie head coach named Dick Vermeil.

UCLA, favored by 17, scored first on a field goal but the Hawks fought back with two touchdown passes as Rob Fick connected with Dave Jackson and Mark Fetter giving Iowa a 14-3 halftime lead.

The Bruins scored a TD early in the fourth quarter, but the Hawks put in away with a four yard run by Mark Fetter.

The 12-game losing streak, which was the longest at the time, was over!

I saw my first Hawkeye win! There was so much joy in Mudville!

I was living in Currier Hall at the time and about a half-block away was the SAE fraternity house which had mostly football players. I was invited and took some female friends that came down for the game from Sioux City...talk about a great time.

It will probably go down as my all-time favorite Hawkeye victory!

The bubble was burst the next week when rain came down and washed away Iowa’s hope of two in a row.

Penn State, coached by Joe Paterno [who was only 48 at the time], shut out the Hawkeyes, 27-0. Jo Pa’s team was ranked 19th at the time.

Iowa traveled to USC the next week and the Trojans, who were ranked ninth and eventually won the mythical national championship along with Oklahoma, rocked the Hawks in one of the strangest games ever.

The final score was 41-3, although Iowa had more first downs [21-15], more total yards [363-232], more rushing yards [249-118] and more plays [91-44] than the Trojans, they lost there second straight game.

USC scored two touchdowns on fumble returns by Charlie Phillips of 83 and 98 yards plus an 80-yard kickoff return by Anthony Davis.

Northwestern came to Iowa City the following week for Iowa’s homecoming and the Hawks didn’t let the fans down--winning, 35-10, and snapping a nine-game Big Ten losing streak. They also won the homecoming game for the first time in five years.

Rodney Wellington ran for 129 yards and scored twice while Jim Jensen racked up 107 yards on the ground.

Iowa’s 35 points were a dozen more then they had scored in the three seasons under Frank Lauterbur.

The Hawks were sitting at 2-3 with six games left.

Next, I’ll look at those final six games, plus talk about Lute Olson’s first season as head basketball coach, the wrestlers' first NCAA championship and the first season of women’s basketball.

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LOOKING FOR A FEW SMART PEOPLE

Bo in Iowa City e-mailed me a well-written commentary by Jeff Dahn in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Gazette about a subject lots of writers, editors and readers are concerned with -- the impending death of the daily printed newspaper.

Bo in Iowa City titled his e-mail "Hard Copy."

Dahn wrote, "In the March 31 edition of The New Yorker magazine, writer Eric Alterman, in an article titled "Out of Print: The death and life of the American newspaper", cites author Philip Meyer >("The Vanishing Newspaper") as predicting "the final copy of the final newspaper will appear on somebody's doorstep one day in 2043."

"Incredible. I'll be 86 years old in 2043 (OK, enough with the snickering, already) but I hope that son of a gun lands squarely on my stoop and I somehow have the wherewithal to bend over, scoop it up and walk down to the nearby greasy-spoon where I can shower its pages with egg yolk and cheesy hash browns.

"Because near as I can tell, the absence of a daily morning newspaper means the absence of a daily morning sports section, and as someone who grew up with a sports section — any sports section — tucked under my arm, that would be the ultimate crime against humanity...."

As I wrote to Bo in Iowa City, I happen to think there will always be a newspaper of some kind, even in 2043 -- but certainly not like those papers that were around 50 years ago or even those that are around today.

That's why we still need smart people going into the business of writing, editing and printing newspapers. It's their job to figure out how to keep the newspaper alive.

Bo in Iowa City cares a lot about Hawkeye football and basketball, and I told him I hope the teams over there in the 2008-2009 school year are good enough so that people will want to read about them in a daily paper or two.

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CUBS WIN 8TH STRAIGHT, BUT YOU WON'T SEE IT IN THE PAPER

Something that's getting worse in the newspaper business, and won't get better anytime soon, is the matter of deadlines.

I mean, the Chicago Cubs were going for their eighth straight victory last night in
San Diego, and papers around here as well as elsewhere didn't have a final score.

Consquently, papers can't match the Internet and TV in that aspect of reporting the news.

I stayed awake and watched the game on Comcast/Chicago TV, and I saw the Cubs win, 7-6, after surviving San Diego's three-run ninth inning off the usually-dependable Carlos Marmol.

Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano lasted only five innings because he was horribly wild.

Still, he was the story of the game.

Zambrano improved his record to 8-1 with three hits, including a triple.

San Diego is a pretty bad team, of course. Evidence of that was that the Cubs' Jim Edmonds hit two doubles.

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IOWA TEAM KEEPS ITS HOT STREAK ALIVE

From stjoenews.net:

An Iowa team kept its weekend hot streak going, literally, after players managed to escape their burning bus early Monday.

The fire completely destroyed the Clarinda A’s equipment and personal items after the team’s trip home came to an abrupt and unscheduled halt on Interstate 29.

“We were really on fire, even on the bus,” joked manager Ryan Eberly.

There were no injuries in the incident that involved 25 members of the A’s, Eberly said. The breakdown occurred at the 39-mile marker near Faucett.

The team was returning home from a weekend trip to Kansas when one of the bus’s inside dually tires blew out shortly after midnight and started a fire. A fire extinguisher carried aboard failed to control the blaze, Eberly said.

“It’s almost like, when you sprayed it on there, it flared up even more,” he added. “It just [went] boom.”

All team members were able to safely exit the burning bus, which turned into a skeletal hulk of its former self....

Ronnie Harmon, Revisited

Mention the name Ronnie Harmon and you're bringing up one that produces strongly mixed emotions from Hawkeye football fans.

Harmon was a very talented running back for Hayden Fry's Iowa teams in the 1980s, but there's still this nagging feeling about him when it comes to his final collegiate game.

Here's an e-mail from Just Wondering, not his real name:

"Ron,

"I don't like to open up old wounds, but hear me out. I was a young boy when this game took place and my whole life I have heard all of the stories of Harmon and his b.s. I have never seen the game for myself, but I want to just for shits and giggles. Do you know of any place that would have a copy of this game on VHS or DVD? I would appreciate it."

Just Wondering

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Here's what I wrote about Harmon in 2002:

More than 16 years after Ronnie Harmon’s final football game for Iowa, people are still saying he threw the 1986 Rose Bowl.

Harmon, a standout running back and pass receiver who lettered as a Hawkeye from 1982-85, is featured on the "Real Sports" show on HBO.

Michael Franzese, a thug who was associated with sports agent Norby Walters, said on the show that evidence points to the belief that Harmon threw the Rose Bowl game against UCLA.

That is not a new thought. It’s been debated for years.

Harmon, who had lost only one fumble during Iowa’s 10-1 regular season, coughed up the ball four times in the first half against the Bruins, who won the game, 45-28.

Tape of the game is shown as Franzese is interviewed by correspondent Bernard Goldberg.

“I can’t honestly say because I was away in prison at the time,’’ Franzese said. “It doesn’t look good, that’s for sure.

“And I would certainly have my suspicions.”

“Which are?’’ Goldberg asks.

“He threw the game,’’ Franzese answers.

Goldberg then says Harmon, “who admits he took $50,000 from Walters and Franzese, denies he threw the Rose Bowl game.’’

When I was at the Chicago Bears’ preseason training camp [a number of] years ago, I interviewed Harmon and asked him about the controversial Rose Bowl game.

He told me he didn’t fumble intentionally.

Hayden Fry, Iowa’s retired coach, supports Harmon.

In his book, "Hayden Fry: A High-Porch Picnic", Fry wrote this of the Rose Bowl game:

“Harmon took a lot of heat because he lost four fumbles, all in the first half. That was uncharacteristic of him; I think he fumbled once during the regular season.

“The game film reveals that every fumble he lost was caused by a UCLA defender making a hard hit. They just knocked the ball loose.

“They did a great job of tackling. UCLA made bad things happen to Iowa; Iowa didn’t self-destruct. Ronnie Harmon had a tremendous football career with the Hawkeyes, and I hated to see it end that way. He enjoyed a long, successful career in the NFL, and I always enjoy seeing him when he comes by to visit.’’

Dan McCarney, then Iowa’s defensive line coach and [later] Iowa State’s head coach, said Harmon’s four fumbles in the Rose Bowl game still puzzle him.

“It was so uncharacteristic of him,’’ McCarney said. “It was a shock to all of us on the sideline. Harmon had great ball security, tremendous speed and his hands were as great as anyone I’ve seen in a collegiate running back.

“To this day, I can’t figure it out.’’ On the HBO show, Franzese said Walters “recruited top (NFL) draft choices to be part of his agency. If, in fact, he did that, we would be able to influence the outcome of some games. That’s what we had planned.’’

Goldberg said Walters and Franzese “paid to get that talent. From 1985 to 1987, even when Franzese was doing time for a racketeering conviction, the pair built a virtual all-star team of players paid under the table and signed to illegal post-dated contracts—players like Ronnie Harmon, the star running back at Iowa.’’

As Goldberg speaks of Harmon, tape is shown of the former Hawkeye playing.

Goldberg said Harmon and his father secretly taped a conversation they had with Walters, in which the agent spelled out the financial arrangement he was planning with Harmon.

Goldberg said “Harmon signed and the checks began rolling in—part of the $800,000 Harmon and 57 other college stars were to get them to sign with Walters and Franzese.

“Then strange things began happening in college football—like the 1986 Rose Bowl.’’

Tape of Harmon’s fumbles and a dropped pass from quarterback Chuck Long that would have given Iowa a touchdown against UCLA followed.

On the show, Franzese is called “a big mobster—one of the most powerful in the country. Sports was his passion, and he got some of the biggest athletes on his side.”

Franzese said major league baseball players, on a team he wouldn’t identify, fixed games in the 1970s. HBO said the team was the New York Yankees.

The Yankees issued a statement denying HBO’s accusations.

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By the way, Harmon continues to have the support of the present Hawkeye coaching staff.

He was invited back to participate in the pregame coin toss as the team's honorary captain a few seasons ago on the night Iowa played a Big Ten game at Kinnick Stadium.

My friend Mark Robinson of Iowa City probably got off the best line about it.

"I heard that Norby Walters has money on him fumbling the coin toss," Robinson said.

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All I know is, I wouldn't want Ronnie Harmon representing my football program on national TV.

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As for Just Wondering or anyone else wanting to obtain a DVD of the slippery-fingered Harmon's performance in the 1986 Rose Bowl game, I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to find one.

I'm certain there are plenty of Hawkeye fans who haven't burned the game video yet, and I'll bet the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten and the Pac-10 Conferences have copies, too. I know HBO does.

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In an e-mail titled "Lute's Divorce Is Final!" Cyril in Coralville, not his real name, sends this from the Arizona Daily Star:

Five years after saying their vows in Las Vegas, the marriage between University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson and businesswoman Christine Olson is over.

Lute Olson's attorney confirmed Thursday that the couple reached a settlement, ending months of legal wrangling and public nastiness, which included radio appearances by both parties.

Attorney Leonard Karp said the couple "resolved their issues amicably" and that a decree should be entered within a matter of days.

Karp would not comment further, indicating Lute Olson will issue a news release in the coming days.

Christine Olson's public relations firm released a statement.

"I'm very saddened to find myself at the ending of a chapter of my life," Christine Olson said. "I still care deeply for Lute and am at a loss to explain the path that brought us here."

Lute Olson, 73, filed for divorce from the former Christine Toretti last December, saying the marriage was "irrevocably broken."

The filing came approximately one month after Olson took a leave of absence, leaving the program in the hands of assistant coach Kevin O'Neill.

The Wildcats ended the season with a 19-15 record and a seventh-place finish in the Pac-10. They also made their 24th straight NCAA tournament bid, but they lost in the first round....

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: These are troubling times for former Iowa coach Olson, whose coaching career [as well as his marriage] is on the rocks. The photo at the left is of Christine and Lute Olson in happier times].

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Thanks to my good friend Alive in Clive, not his real name, I was able to watch the DVD of "The Final Season" -- the movie about baseball at Norway (IA) High School.

I stayed awake through most of it.

The movie is...well, all right.

If drive-in theaters were still around, that's where you could see it now.

Hell, none of us expected it to be "Field Of Dreams," did we?

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The way I look at it, the Chicago Cubs won't lose another game. At least until they get blown out in the opening round of the National League playoffs.