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For those of you who were unable to make it to Saturday's game, it was a pretty special day. Some of you had said things about the commemorative program being sold out, so I scanned the cover. If you haven't read the articles on the history of the players from the 86-87 team, head on over to Hawkcentral http://hawkcentral.com/2012/01/28/iowas-run-to-no-1-where-are-players-on-the-1986-87-team-now/ and Dochterman's page http://thegazette.com/category/blogs/docs-office/ and check them out. It's really great stuff, and some of the Hawkcentral stuff was included in the program.
One of my earliest (and fondest) childhood memories was of a family vacation when I was about 5 years old. My parents, brother, and I went to Iowa City. Dad wanted to take us to Carver, but, being it was the summer, it was locked. A custodian let us in and allowed us to go all the way down onto the floor. Even at that age, I knew it was someplace special. ( I'm sure my brother's enthusiasm might have had something to do with it too). Similarly to what ICHawk had to say in his Fanpost, Iowa Basketball needs to be there for the 5-year old boys (and girls) out there too.
The 86-87 team was the first team I remember watching on TV with my Dad. I was five when they played. My Dad had never been to a game at Carver. It was a spur of the moment trip (we bought tickets on Stubhub on Friday morning), and we decided to make the six hour drive to Iowa City. Seeing my childhood heroes was going to be totally worth it.
We got to the game about an hour early, so we waited in the North concourse to get out of the snow. We weren't the only ones with this idea; Adam Woodbury was waiting out there too. The former players and Dr. Tom were all in the newly renovated banquet area, so we got the pleasure of seeing them talking with the media before they walked into Carver.
At 12:30, the doors opened, and we immediately got in Tom Davis's line. They were giving away reprints of the KRNA "GQ" poster to get signed. Davis signed my poster, and I asked him why he didn't sign it "Dr. Tom"--he said that he's never signed anything "Dr." because people would probably ask him for a prescription! He and Les Jepsen laughed pretty hard about his joke.
Everybody was surprised to see the next man in line... Bruce Pearl! I asked if we would see him in the student section. He answered with, "You might.... but I'm leaving my shirt on." Regardless of what people think of him after the Tennessee ordeal (and the Deon Thomas thing), it was obvious why he's a good recruiter. He makes an instant connection and is very personable. Also of note, he signed the poster with "Go Hawks!" below his name-- being the only one that wrote anything other than his name and number. Also seated at the table was grey-teamer, Sam Schweiger. (Sadly, we missed BJ. After seeing photos online, it looks like he set up shop at Dr. Tom's table after we passed through).
We then moved into the next autograph line. Seated there were Michael Morgan, grey-teamer Pat Roach, Al Lorenzen (the "Vanilla Gorilla"), and "Sir Jamalot" Gerry Wright. Sir Jamalot looks fit, and I believe his claim that he can still windmill dunk. Roy Marble rounded out the table. He didn't seem real thrilled about all the attention, but still smiled as he signed. From accounts from other fans, it sounded like he was reluctant to write the book too (maybe because he wants the attention to be on Roy Devin?). I told him that he was great in "The Journey." He replied with, "It was real. It was all real." We ran out of time before we could get into any other lines.
I thought it was a classy move by Fran and the current Hawkeyes to come out take in the introductions of the 86-87 team. Hopefully, they got a feeling for what Hawkeye Basketball can become again.
As has been mentioned in previous posts, Dr. Tom's ovation was tremendous. It built through his whole introduction and nearly drowned out the PA announcer. Like others have said, it seemed the crowd is (rightfully) trying to make up for the way he was forced out.
Shortly after halftime, I decided to pick up Roy Marble's book, and stopped by the Hawk Shop. Al Lorenzen was up there asking for smaller size Gatens jerseys for his kids. After reading Dochterman's article on the team, it turns out his wife had their second child on Friday, so he's starting them really young! I thought about that... how cool would it be to be Gatens, a life-long Hawk fan, having a Hawkeye great buying your jersey?
The game, while a great result, really was secondary. The current Hawks fed off the atmosphere, got out to a hot start, and coasted through the second half.
We got home about 11:00 and were pretty exhausted. It was a special day for that team, and a special day for my Dad and I. Saturday, Carver-Hawkeye Arena was my Graceland.
Unless otherwise expressly indicated by BHGP editors, this FanPost is strictly the viewpoint of the author and is not endorsed by BHGP in any way.
5 recs | 10 comments
Good post
I love reading recaps like this and living vicariously through them. I was actually in town too, but had a baby shower to attend.
Captain n Diet Coker - February 9, 2012
Nice recap.
On a side note, my Dad had Al Lorenzen in one of his classes. One of the few athletes brave enough to take a course from him. I recall me Dad describing Lorenzen as being somewhat reserved, pretty bright and very nice.
I’d tell you how he did in my Dad’s class, but I student privacy laws forbid me from sharing that info.
Enoch - February 9, 2012
Too late. Your Dad's already in trouble for telling you.
Prepare to get Mason’d.
YouCanPutYourEddsInIt - February 9, 2012
Wonderful. Thank you.
Reading about Dr. Tom’s reception by the crowd gave me chills.
Bucketochicken - February 9, 2012
Just the cover of the program is awesome.
Not to mention the features inside the program.
When I was a kid I used to love getting out the old programs that my dad had collected and thumbing through them. Even looking through the players on the other teams was pretty cool.
Basketball seems different these days in general. There haven’t even been that many opposing teams in the last ten years or so that a person would open up an old program to and think, “Oh yeah, I remember that team.”
Not to mention the “Shirts and Skins” video.
Basketball used to be so much cooler.
HawKCP - February 9, 2012
Is that Steve Alford in the lower right corner of the program?
i_love_iowa - February 9, 2012
Last Saturday -- A great reminder of what Iowa Men's Basketball once was.
And, without question, can be again.
DonnyDonovan - February 9, 2012
Bruce Pearl walked right by my brother and I when we were waiting in line,
my brother said it took all of his might to not ask him if he was planning any BBQs in the near future
White Lightning - February 9, 2012
I was a senior at Iowa during the 86-87 season.
Just an unbelievable experience. The whole city was buzzing about Iowa basketball all season. Dr. Tom always had open practices, so some of us would stop by and watch in the afternoons. Sometimes there were at least a couple hundred people there, just watching a practice.
That team had talent and depth like we will never see again. It was cool to take my teenage son to the game Saturday and tell him stories about that team. Lots of great memories.
Black and Gold - February 10, 2012
My boys first trip to an Iowa game
This turned out to be a great day for my sons and I also. They are 4 and 6 years old. We live in Plainview, MN so it is not always easy to be a hawk fan, especially when you lose Floyd of Rosedale two years in a row. But this was their first chance to see a big time Hawk event. It couldn’t have went better.
We arrived at the game very early about noon. i had seen there were Hawkeye trading cards for the first 1500 people and knew about the autograph session. The boys are just getting into trading cards so I knew they would love those. We parked over by Kinnick and they loved seeing the stadium and had lots of questions about football games and tailgating, something they won’t experience for a few more years. But we were heading for the North entrance to pick up our tickets at the will-call window. We walked up to the West entrance and I did not see the North entrance so we walked around Carver the wrong way until we got to the East entrance. Someone at the ticket window said we had to go all the way back around but I didn’t think the boys really wanted to do that in the freak snow storm that happened for about 15 minutes. So we continued around the back of Carver and scaled a slippery, newly landscaped, nearly vertical muddy hill, me with my 4 year old under my arm. A bad choice for sure, but one that reminded me of something we would have done when I was in college 20 years ago!
We arrived at the North entrance in time to see an old man in a van offer to give Bruce Pearl tickets to the game on his way in! That was funny to me. I would have to say, if you want to watch for recruits, etc. the North entrance is the place to be because I think the offices of the BB team must be around there or something. While we waited and dried off from the snow, Coach Norm Parker was leaving the building. I debated in my mind whether to approach him or not as he waited for his ride in the vestibule (no one else approached him so I thought maybe it wasn’t him) but I took the leap, pushed open the first set of doors and said, “Coach Parker?” He turned around and smiled and so I brought my boys out to meet him, thanked him for his service to the the University and state and briefly chatted about being Iowa fans in Minnesota. My boys favorite Hawkeye is Chad Greenway and they thought it was pretty cool to get their picture with him. It was a bigger deal to me!
So after going back inside and waiting a little longer, my son noticed a really tall guy. I turned and Adam Woodbury and I am pretty sure Mike Gesell were standing in the waiting area. I didn’t know it was them for sure so I didn’t approach them and I regret not getting a picture of them with my boys because Adam and Mike are going to be the cornerstones of what I believe will be the next great Hawkeye basketball team and probably the first my boys will remember watching.
We waited in line until 12:30 when the doors were opened. Next to us were an older Hawk fan from Stewartville, MN and couple grandparents and their grandkids from Kenyon, MN who drove down for their first game in Carver in 15-20 years, just like me. It was great talking about the 86-87 team with them, share our enthusiasm for the new direction of the program, and commiserate over being hawk fans in Minnesota.
Getting the autographs were great, we stumbled right into the Roy Marble table and got around to the the Kevin Gamble table before running out of time. We got 3 posters with the autographs, one for each of the boys rooms and one we gave to my friend from high school and college who was/is the most rabid hawk fan I will ever know. This man loved the hawkeye basketball team so much, i know the last few years have been agony for him. He literally said to me that he loves the way Fran has got this team going, but is reluctant to put his heart back in because he knows the emotional toll it will take on him. I think after giving him the poster, he will be back in.
Since the game, I have had the opportunity to reminisce about the 86-87 team and growing up Hawkeye with other fans and my wife who grew up in Farley, Iowa. We remembereveryone watching the game and it being the number one topic of discussion at school the next day. We remembered watching the game with the the crappy over the air reception on KGAN channel 2 in our part of NE Iowa and being amazed at how still crappy it was on cable tv when we finally got that. I remembered not knowing anyone who wasn’t a hawkeye fan until I was a senior in college and taking a campus tour to Iowa State. I haven’t been back to Ames since. (only knew about 3 non-catholics until college too!) We remembered going to see all-star teams of Hawkeyes, pretty sure it was graduating seniors and a few others, who would tour the state putting on benefits for local high school booster clubs or other charities. They would play teams of local all stars, city league players, and high school alumni. All those gyms were packed with kids trying to get autographs of what were future NBA players. I can only imagine the lifelong memories formed by those local celebs who got to play against Roy Marble, BJ Armstrong, Brad Lohaus and others. Can you imagine trying to guard Roy Marble one on one? How great. I think bringing back those games would be an awesome way for the graduating players to give back to the communities that supported them during their time in college and would really build enthusiasm for the team again.
It feels good to get all this down. Thanks for everyone who shared that day with me and the boys and who shared their stories above. I can say confidently, that the three of us will be back next year for a couple more games along with my wife. It is great place to take your family on a Saturday afternoon. The hawks are something I cherish and I look forward to the coming years sharing them with my boys.
Go Hawks!
russellhess - February 10, 2012
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