Nice memories, Chuck. My daughter attended Simpson (where your old boss Michael Gartner and his wife Barbara are life trustees) and my son played for Marion High School against La Porte City Union High School teams coached by Joe Hadachek. Joe's father in law was Bob Boesen, who was football and wrestling coach at my grade school, Sacred Heart in Waterloo, and he produced a number of pretty good collegiate wrestlers, including Chuck Yagla, a two-time NCAA national champion for the Iowa Hawkeyes who made the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.
I saw Jim Williams at the UNI-ISU game in 2016, where a reunion was held of Iowa State's 1976 team which went 8-3 and came within a game of the Orange Bowl. Williams, of course, was a Cyclone assistant between his tenures at Dowling and Simpson. He was sitting next to head coach Earle Bruce. I went up to Earle and shook his hand and mentioned some of my Ames Tribune colleagues he'd worked with. Earle was cordial but brief in his responses. I didn't realize it then, but Earle was beginning to show signs of dementia and Coach Williams was helping him recognize people and with names. Earle passed away a couple years later and I see Coach Williams followed in 2021.
Though I'm frequently at Jack Trice, I do enjoy smaller college football for the same reasons you do. UNI had a lot of that atmosphere when they played at O.R. Latham Field, when I was an undergrad there in the mid-70s before transferring to ISU, and in the early years of the UNI-Dome. At the 1975 UNI Homecoming game at O.R. Latham, a streaker wearing nothing but a pair of tennis shoes, a scarf and an Augustana football helmet ran the length of the field. A couple of accomplices waiting past the south end zone helped him out of the stadium, eluding apprehension. I was also at UNI's legendary "Mud Bowl" Division II playoff game versus Western Kentucky, the last game at the old stadium. It lived up to its billing.
A decade later UNI narrowly lost a I-AA playoff shootout in the Dome with eventual national champion Georgia Southern. The place was rocking and so loud that UNI almost got a delay of game penalty because crowd noise made it impossible for Georgia Southern to hear their own signals. At that time fans and players could exit together out a tunnel in the northeast corner. A Cedar Falls police officer also attending the game told me he was walking out next to Georgia Southern coach Erskine "Erk" Russell and told him, "Coach, you played us one helluva game! I hope we get to play you again!" Old Erk replied, "Bull----! We ain't NEVER comin' here again!"
Another of those heartwarming intimate interactions between fan and coach.
Nice memories, Chuck. My daughter attended Simpson (where your old boss Michael Gartner and his wife Barbara are life trustees) and my son played for Marion High School against La Porte City Union High School teams coached by Joe Hadachek. Joe's father in law was Bob Boesen, who was football and wrestling coach at my grade school, Sacred Heart in Waterloo, and he produced a number of pretty good collegiate wrestlers, including Chuck Yagla, a two-time NCAA national champion for the Iowa Hawkeyes who made the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.
I saw Jim Williams at the UNI-ISU game in 2016, where a reunion was held of Iowa State's 1976 team which went 8-3 and came within a game of the Orange Bowl. Williams, of course, was a Cyclone assistant between his tenures at Dowling and Simpson. He was sitting next to head coach Earle Bruce. I went up to Earle and shook his hand and mentioned some of my Ames Tribune colleagues he'd worked with. Earle was cordial but brief in his responses. I didn't realize it then, but Earle was beginning to show signs of dementia and Coach Williams was helping him recognize people and with names. Earle passed away a couple years later and I see Coach Williams followed in 2021.
Though I'm frequently at Jack Trice, I do enjoy smaller college football for the same reasons you do. UNI had a lot of that atmosphere when they played at O.R. Latham Field, when I was an undergrad there in the mid-70s before transferring to ISU, and in the early years of the UNI-Dome. At the 1975 UNI Homecoming game at O.R. Latham, a streaker wearing nothing but a pair of tennis shoes, a scarf and an Augustana football helmet ran the length of the field. A couple of accomplices waiting past the south end zone helped him out of the stadium, eluding apprehension. I was also at UNI's legendary "Mud Bowl" Division II playoff game versus Western Kentucky, the last game at the old stadium. It lived up to its billing.
A decade later UNI narrowly lost a I-AA playoff shootout in the Dome with eventual national champion Georgia Southern. The place was rocking and so loud that UNI almost got a delay of game penalty because crowd noise made it impossible for Georgia Southern to hear their own signals. At that time fans and players could exit together out a tunnel in the northeast corner. A Cedar Falls police officer also attending the game told me he was walking out next to Georgia Southern coach Erskine "Erk" Russell and told him, "Coach, you played us one helluva game! I hope we get to play you again!" Old Erk replied, "Bull----! We ain't NEVER comin' here again!"
Another of those heartwarming intimate interactions between fan and coach.
love this