Man, They Sure Have Fun At Those Bowl Games -- Play-By-Play Announcer Dave Says To Sideline Reporter Suzy, 'What Did You Find Out About Hicks' Groin?'

For a while, I thought the best quote from the Houston Bowl might come from the TV booth.

In the first half, ESPN2 play-by-play announcer Dave Barnett said to sideline reporter Suzy Shuster, "Suzy, what did you find out about Hicks' groin?"


It sounded like kind of a personal matter to me. Or a personal problem.

I guess Barnett wss referring to the injury to Cyclone tailback Stevie Hicks that was routinely described as "undisclosed" all season by those close to the Cyclone scene.

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Iowa State sophomore defensive end Jason Berryman, a native of Houston, may have gotten himself a future NFL career by making a dozen tackles that included five quarterback sacks in the Cyclones' 27-24 loss to Texas Christian.

"Even though playing at home was great," Berry told Emily Davis of the Houston Chronicle, "I played for the seniors. I wanted to get them a win before they left."

Iowa State coach Dan McCarney called it Berryman's best game.

"He's one of the best players in college football in my eyes, and he's only a sophomore," McCarney said.

Actually, Berryman said he had played just as well earlier.

"That was when I was a senior at Kashmere High school," he said.

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In the Houston Bowl, as in other 2005 games, Berryman went a long way toward making amends for a dumb thing he did 17 mnths ago.

He was arrested for robbing an Iowa State student of $4 and stealing a cell phone. He wound up spending 258 days in jail, lost his football scholarship and his spot in the starting lineup.

McCarney later permitted him to join the team again, and it wasn't long before he was among the starters.

"I earned the respect of my teammates and others in Iowa," Berryman said. "So it was kind of personal here [in Houston]. I wanted to have an opportunity to earn the respect back in Houston of friends and family. But, with the loss, I don't feel great about this day."

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With the Fighting Irish Ready to Play Fiesta Bowl Game, Iowa Fans Are Again Recalling How '53 Hawkeyes 'Got Gypped' By Frank Leahy's 'Fainting Irish'

Everyone knows that the football program at Notre Dame has made a dramatic comeback in the 2005 season under coach Charlie Weis.

The Fighting Irish [9-2] play Ohio State [9-2] Monday in the Fiesta Bowl in one of the more interesting postseason games.

Notre Dame fans around the world -- the real kind and the so-called "subway alumni" -- are thrilled beyond belief.

Meanwhile, Ohio State didn't know it had so many football fans. Everyone who isn't a Notre Dame booster -- and there are millions -- will be rooting for the Buckeyes.

I'm like a lot of others who have paid at least some attention over the years to Notre Dame football.

And, whenever I think of the Fighting Irish, my mind goes back to the 1953 season and the "Fainting Irish" who played for Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy [pictured at the left].

Indeed, I documented the "Fainting Irish" on the back of my book, "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" that now is in its second printing.

Here's the Fainting Irish segment:

"One of the mist bizarre games in Forest Evashevski's nine seasons as Iowa's coach was in the 1953 finale against Notre Dame at South Bend, Indiana.

"The game ended in a 14-14 tie, but only after Notre Dame had resorted to tactics that had people calling its players the 'Fainting Irish.'

"Just before each half ended, assorted Notre Dame players collapsed on the field so the officials would stop the clock. Consequently, the Irish scored touchdowns in the final seconds of each half.

"Iowa coaches, players and fans thought the phony injuries robbed them of an opportunity to score a huge upset. When he returned to Iowa City, Evashevski pounced on the 'Fainting Irish' theme by paraphrasing the words of sportswriter Grantland Rice with these words:

"'When the One Great Scorer comes
to write against our name,
He won't ask that we won or lost,
But how we got gypped at Notre Dame.'"

Another man who has always had a keen interest in the Fainting Irish episode is longtime Hawkeye fan Al Schallau, who now lives in California.

Schallau sent me this e-mail recently:

"Ron,

"I hope you will post the entire text of that 'Oh Paddy Dear' poem on about 10 or 12 websites so that it will be readily available to the whole world for many years to come. Mike Hlas had to go through about 14 days worth of [Cedar Rapids and Iowa City] Gazette microfilms to find it for me.

"I have talked to Evy [pictured at the upper right] four or five times about the Fainting Irish game. The last time was the Monday after USC beat Notre Dame on the 'Bush Push Touchdown.' I told Evy how thrilled I was that USC had beaten Notre Dame on a touchdown that was clearly illegal.

"Evy is always very calm and subdued when we talk about the Fainting Irish game. But he said, 'I have cried inside many times.'

"I have a lot of opinions about that Fainting Irish game -- most of which would not be printable. Since 1953, rooting against Notre Dame has been a way of life for me. But I have problems when Notre Dame plays Michigan. I mute the sound on the TV because I can't stand to listen to either of those fight songs.

"But I admit that my oldest daughter married a young man who is a Notre Dame grad. She could not have picked a finer young man. He is A-plus in every respect and he treats my daughter like a queen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When I am around him, I always tell him about my profound respect for Notre Dame as an academic institution. In fact 'Academic Excellence' was Notre Dame's slogan from 1956 to 1961, when Iowa was beating the crap out of Notre Dame on the football field."

In a later e-mail, Schallau wrote:

"What has always pissed me off the most about the Fainting Irish incident vs. Iowa in 1953, is that everybody at Notre Dame ADMITTED that Varrichione [pictured at the lower right], Penza and Hunter faked the injuries; and that they had rehearsed that scene like teams now practice their two-minute drills.....

"The Fainting Irish of 1953 were chronicled in a poem authored by Hank McCormick, former sports editor of the Wisconsin State Journal. Mike Hlas, sports writer for the Cedar Rapids [and Iowa City] Gazette, found the poem for me. Gus Schrader printed it in the Gazette on December 3, 1953. The poem appears below.

THE POEM

[Hank McCormick, sports editor of Wisconsin State Journal]

Oh Paddy dear, and did you hear

The news that's going 'round?

Now Notre Dame is winning games
With players on the ground!

The first to hit the ground this day
Was Frank Varrichione;

The Irish claim that he was hurt,
But others cry, “Baloney!”

He stopped the clock, of that no doubt,
And then the Irish scored;

So Notre Dame tied up the game,

And all the faithful roared,

But 30 minutes still remained
Of this grim football game,
And Iowa would take no guff
From proud old Notre Dame.

The end drew near, the Hawks now led,

And seconds fast were fleeting,
So someone had to stop the clock
To halt an Irish beating.

Few seconds showed upon the clock
When suddenly was spied
Not one bold Mick ‘upon the turf
But two lay side-by-side.

A whistle stopped the clock again,

As Penza and Hunter lay,
Upon the ground where they’d been dumped
So frequently that day.

But kind hands raised the fallen boys,
All Hope was not yet dead,

For straight the ball to Shannon flew –-

Guglielmi used his head.

And so the game wound up a tie,

But who deserves the fame

For staving off defeat that day

For proud old Notre Dame?

You have your choice of heroes here –-

Penza? Varrichione?
Or maybe you like Hunter best?

Let’s have your testimony.

Strange things have come to pass, I think,

At proud old Notre Dame,

When lying on the ground reflects

Undying football fame

Iowan Who Is Heading South For the Winter Wonders If He's Personally Seen Alford Coach His Last Game At Carver-Hawkeye Arena

A longtime University of Iowa basketball fan who is heading south for the winter didn't leave before e-mailing me with some comments:

"I hope you had a Merry Christmas. We will return in early March. I'm wondering if I've personally witnessed Alford coach his last game at Iowa. Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby didn't exactly give him a ringing endorsement in the Gazette a week ago....."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: That man is among those disappointed in what Steve Alford [pictured at the upper right] has accomplished -- or not accomplished -- since becoming the Hawkeyes' coach in 1999. Victories are down and so is attendance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. In games against the state's other three major-college teams, Iowa [10-3] lost to Iowa State and Northern Iowa and had trouble beating Drake. It'll be interesting to see how the Hawkeyes do in the Big Ten race that starts Jan. 5 at Wisconsin. Although Alford has had a long-term contract as coach and has a pretty fair team, there's a group of observers and fans who claim he might be gone after this season, regardless of how many games he wins.].

*************************************************************************

"I don't have a real good feeling about this [Outback Bowl] game," writes a Hawkeye football fan from eastern Iowa. "Florida should win for two reasons (1) psychological advantage and (2) better players. Too bad Ron Zook isn't still coaching the Gators....."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Zook was the Florida coach two years ago when Iowa won the Outback Bowl, 37-17. He's now at Illinois, where he had records of 2-9 overall and 0-8 in the Big Ten in his first season].

************************************************************************************

When I sat next to Larry Morgan -- the talented TV and radio sportscaster from Clive -- at a basketball game the other night, he mentioned that Shawn Huff is a sophomore guard for the Valparaiso team that lost to Iowa, 72-59, earlier this month in Iowa City.

Shawn's father is Leon Huff, who was Drake's leading scorer [11.6-point average] and rebounder [7.7 average] in the 1971-72 season.

Shawn [pictured on the left] is a 6-6, 205-pound Valparaiso sophomore from Helsinki, Finland. He averaged 4.4 points last season, and scored four points and had two rebounds in the game against Iowa.

************************************************************************************

An e-mail from a central Iowa reader:

"Did you see the picture in the Metro & Iowa section of the Register yesterday? It showed a guy giving the photographer the finger at the Des Moines airport. They've been laughing about it on the radio."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: The reader was referring to the photo on Page 6B of the paper. The photo was taken by Doug Wells of a line of passengers at the airport. A guy in the front is shown talking on a cell phone, and a guy behind him is shown flipping the bird. He could have been pissed for a number of reasons -- 1. He wasn't able to fly anywhere because of foggy weather; 2. He didn't like it that Wells was taking his picture; 3. He didn't like Wells; 4. His wife didn't know he was in Des Moines. This is the same newspaper that refused to run a photo a number of years ago of former Iowa State basketball coach Johnny Orr flipping the bird at officials in a Cyclone game against Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. The paper didn't use the photo even after Larry Paul, then the news editor, wanted to use it and got permission to do so from then-editor Jim Gannon. I referred to that incident recently when writing about the retirement of Larry Lehmer of the Register's sports department. I'm wondering now if Wells and his editors realized the guy was flipping the bird for the camera].

************************************************************************************

Then there was the headline at the top of the front page in the same Des Moines newspaper:

STOP CHAPPED LIPS

All of us were waiting for that.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why the guy was flipping off Doug Wells at the airport.

***********************************************************************************

Now I can relax.

There's good news for Ken Fuson and the rest of us.

Dave Barry [pictured at the lower right] tells Editor & Publisher he won't be resuming his weekly humor column.

"I'll continue occasional columns for the [Miami] Herald as I did this year, I'll also continue to do the holiday gift guide and the year in review. And I'll keep blogging," Barry said. "But not the weekly column."

When Barry, a writer who some [including probably himself] consider to be God's gift to humor columnists, quit his regular, syndicated column a while back, the Des Moines Register had a problem.

Oh, I know, the Register has all kinds of problems. But this was a real problem.

The Register had been publishing Barry's weekly column on Mondays. So, in an effort to replace Barry, the Register's bosses did a national search for a replacement that went as far the Eighth Street parking ramp downtown.

Fuson [center], who remains the Register's best hope to end the long dry spell at the Pulitzer Prize well, replaced Barry and writes better humor than the guy who has the glitter in his eyes.

It's Been 50 Years Since Bucky O'Connor's Hawkeye 'Fabulous Five' Clobbered Illinois, 96-72, And Went On To Finish 2nd In the NCAA Final Four

Strange as it may seem, there have been times throughout the University of Iowa's rich athletic history when Hawkeye basketball teams actually won championships and important games, and when fans filled an arena and made real noise.

A number of those teams were coached by the late Frank “Bucky” O’Connor, who was in charge of the Hawkeye program from 1952-1958, as well as part of the 1950 season while filling in for Pops Harrison.

O'Connor's records at Iowa were 114-59 overall and 71-41 in the Big Ten.

His 1955 and 1956 teams won Big Ten Conference championships and reached the NCAA Final Four both seasons. His 1956 squad, known as the “Fabulous Five,” lost to Bill Russell's San Francisco team 83-71 in the championship game.

This is the 50th anniversary of that team, which was –- and remains –- the best in school history.

The Hawkeyes’ overall record that season was 20-6. Their championship record in the Big Ten was 13-1.

Fifty years? Impossible. It can’t be. But it is.

It’s hard for me to believe that a half-century has slipped by since Carl Cain, Bill Schoof, Bill Logan, Bill Seaberg and Sharm Scheuerman were piling up victory after victory in that magical 1955-56 season.

In those days, the home games were played in Iowa Fieldhouse, a mass of steel that was a bitch of a place for visiting teams to play.

Crowds filled the arena more often than not. The noise in the place was deafening. The arena provided a tremendous home-court advantage for Iowa's players and coaches.

I saw my first game in Iowa Fieldhouse when, as a 10-year-old, I watched Harrison's team that included Murray Wier and Dick Ives, beat Purdue, 43-41, in 1946.

I made the trip from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City that night on the old Crandic train with a classmate from Lincoln School and his dad. The old man was a story himself. The first time I ever saw him, he was keeping score of an Iowa basketball game on a sheet of tan wrapping paper while listening to it on the radio.

There was, of course, no TV then. At least not in our neighborhood.

Heck, we were lucky to have a radio.

We sat in the north bleachers of the old barn of an arena that Feb. 9, 1946 night. I remember Wier, a little guard, darting all over the floor. And I remember Harrison getting the crowd revved up by climbing over the canvas that then separated the Iowa bench from the court.

I was on hand for many more games in the Fieldhouse after that, including the March 3, 1956 classic that saw O'Connor's Fabulous Five blitz Illinois, 96-72.

I then was a student at Iowa, and I was able to get a first-hand look at the outstanding team that included forwards Cain and Schoof, center Logan and guards Seaberg and Scheuerman.

It was not a team made up of superstars. The guy who would have come the closest to star status was Cain, who averaged 15.8 points and was able to jump much higher than his 6-3 frame should have allowed.

Logan averaged 17.7 points, Seaberg 13.9, Schoof 10.8 and Scheuerman 10.1.

The 24-point demolition of Illinois was the 13th in succession for the Hawkeyes in that 13-1 Big Ten season. The only conference loss was to Michigan State 65-64 on Jan. 7 in the first game.

That turned out to be Iowa’s fourth straight defeat –- coming after losses to Washington, Stanford and California –- and the last until the 12-point loss to Russell and San Francisco in the game that decided the national championship.

The title game was played in, of all places, Evanston, Ill., on the Northwestern campus.

Although the Hawkeyes trailed by only five points at the half, they were no match for Russell. The man who would later go on to have a standout National Basketball Association career scored 26 points and grabbed an astounding 27 rebounds.

Seaberg and Cain each scored 17 points for Iowa, Schoof had 14, Logan 12 and Scheuerman 11. Logan totaled 15 rebounds, Cain 12.

Things were never the same for O’Connor after that. With the Fabulous Five gone, Iowa’s records slipped to 8-14 in 1956-57 and 13-9 in 1957-58.

Then came the real tragedy.

O’Connor died at 44 years of age in a highway accident April 22, 1958 near Waterloo.

I was long-gone from Iowa City then. I was working in my first fulltime sportswriting job since getting my degree from Iowa in February, 1958.

I was the sports editor of the Albert Lea (Minn.) Tribune when I noticed a wire service story that said O’Connor was dead.

I couldn’t believe it any more than I can now believe 50 years have gone by since the Fabulous Five was bringing excitement to Iowa Fieldhouse.

Scheuerman, then a young assistant coach, was named O’Connor’s successor. He stayed in the job until Ralph Miller took over in 1964.

Now that magical 1955-56 is but a memory. But a very pleasant memory nonetheless.

************************************************************************************

In the large photograph above, Iowa's Carl Cain rises for a layup in the Hawkeyes' monumental win over Illinois on March 3, 1956, at the Fieldhouse, in a game that decided the Big Ten championship. The Fabulous Five led Iowa to the national championship game that season. Photos courtesy of Iowa Sports Information. Cain is also pictured at the left, Bill Seaberg is at the lower center, Sharm Scheuerman is at the upper right, Bill Schoof is at the lower right, Bill Logan is at the upper center, and coach Bucky O'Connor is pictured above Seaberg.

From 'Someone at the Register:' Primary Duty Of the Newspaper's Washington Bureau Is To Be Tom Harkin's Personal Flack -- 'Especially Jane Norman'

We learn something new every day.

Bud Appleby sent this Christmas Day e-mail:

"Here's a note I got from someone at the Register:

"'You mean you didn't know that the Washington Bureau's primary duty is to be Harkin's personal flack? It has been that way for years. Especially Jane Norman. Every time Harkin takes a shit, Norman is there to record the color.'"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: In an earlier e-mail to me, Appleby -- a retired Des Moines Register editor and reporter -- had questioned a recent article in the paper that said the daughter of Sen. Tom Harkin is pregnant. Accompanying the story was the photo of Harkin and his family that's printed above. Appleby said something like that would not have been regarded as news when writers such as Jim Risser, George Anthan and Clark Mollenhoff were in the Register's Washington Bureau. Frankly, I'm glad Appleby passed on the information that Norman [pictured] keeps close track of everything Harkin is doing. A while back, the paper wrote that one of the things Norman planned to include in her columns was humor. She's finally getting around to doing that. By the way, Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary describes a "flack" this way: "One who does publicity; especially: Press Agent."].

************************************************************************************

An e-mail from George Wine of Coralville:

"Ron,

"I'm leaving for Florida Wednesday. I wonder if the Register will have the story by then. Merry Christmas....."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: As you can see, George, I scooped 'em again on getting the news of your trip to Florida in print. Merry Christmas to you, to all of my friends at the paper and to everyone else].

************************************************************************************

The Focus Today Is On Women's Collegiate Basketball -- Carol Ross's Place In History And Stacy Schlapkohl's Injured Knee

Women's collegiate basketball is on the minds of a couple of readers today.

Here's the first e-mail, written by "A Loyal Reader:"

"Hi Ron,

"As a former Iowan and Des Moines resident, I love your blog and the issues you raise.

"In regards to your recent notes about Chuck Schoffner, I would likethe submit the following from the past week that came from him ...

STORY THAT MOVED ON MONDAY

s0332
sbx
AP-BKW T25 WOMEN'S BKB POLL
Ole Miss, BC join women's poll
By CHUCK SCHOFFNER
For The Associated Press

Carol Ross achieved a unique double with Mississippi's appearance in The AP women's basketball poll, which again had Tennessee, Duke and LSU in the top three spots.

Mississippi, which gained attention with an upset of then-No. 7 Rutgers last week, joined the poll Monday at No. 24 -- the first time the Lady Rebels have made the Top 25 since the final rankings of the 1995-96 season.

Ross [pictured at the lower right], in her third season at Ole Miss, becomes the first in the women's game to have played for and coached a ranked team at the same school. She was a four-year starter for coach Van Chancellor at Mississippi from 1977-81.

"I think anytime you can do something positive and unique and it takes place at your alma mater, it makes it all the more special," Ross said. "I think most people are drawn to and want to give back and do something for their alma mater and it's rare when you have an opportunity to actually do that."

Boston College also joined the poll for the first time this season, moving in at No. 23. North Carolina State and UCLA dropped out.

Tennessee (9-0) received 33 of 45 first-place votes from a national media panel and had 1,111 points to lead the poll for the third straight week. The Lady Vols beat Louisiana Tech 83-59 in their only game last week.

CORRECTION THAT FOLLOWED A DAY LATER

s0363
sbx
AP-BKW T25 WOMEN'S BKB POLL, CORRECTIVE
Correction: Women's Bkb Poll story
Eds: Members who used BC-BKW--T25-Women's Bkb Poll, sent Dec. 19 without a dateline, are asked to use the following story.

By The Associated Press

In a Dec. 19 story about Mississippi joining the AP women'sbasketball poll, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Mississippi's Carol Ross was the first in the women's game to have played for and coached a ranked team at the same school. She was the fourth coach to accomplish that feat.

Back to what "A Loyal Reader" wrote:

"So not only was his story wrong, from the lede on down, it wasn't even close to being right (first coach vs. fourth coach). It sounds like he needs to concentrate on getting basic facts right in his stringer work for the AP, and not on seeing how many blogs he can put together for the Register."

"Thanks,"
A Loyal Reader

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: "A Loyal Reader's" e-mail came a couple of days after I had written that Schoffner was responsible for five blogs a week for the Des Moines Register on the four major-college basketball teams in this state -- Iowa State, Iowa, Drake and Northern Iowa. Schoffner, 55, spent 33 years as a sportswriter for United Press International and the Associated Press before retiring recently. This must have been an unusually tough week because I've always known him to be an accurate reporter].

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Bud Appleby of Des Moines sent this e-mail about Iowa basketball player Stacy Schlapkohl and the problem women players have with knee injuries:

"Ron:

"Stacy Schlapkohl [upper right], an Iowa basketball player, has apparently torn a ligament in her knee. If so, that would make her the third member of this year's team to have that injury.

"And it adds to the already very large number of players on women's teams in the state who have suffered similar injuries in recent years.

"Studies have determined that women basketball players are far more likely to sustain such injures as men.

"http://www.personalmd.com/news/a1998092107.shtml

"http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/513074.html

"I'm wondering if young girls -- or their parents -- are told of such risks when they are considering getting into the sport."

Bud Appleby

Here's one of the articles that was done on knee injuries sustained by women's players:

SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 21 (Reuters) -- Women have a much higher risk of a serious knee injury than men, according to one expert.

"More women are playing sports now than ever before, but even greater numbers are getting hurt," said study co-author Dr. Charles Blackadar, a resident at the Puget Sound Family Residency Program in Bremerton, Washington. He spoke on Friday to delegates attending the 50th Scientific Assembly of the American Academy of Family Physicians, held in San Francisco.

One serious knee injury involves the anterior cruciate ligament, a fibrous band of tissue that lies deep within the knee, and helps to connect the thighbone (femur) to the shinbone (tibia). Its main function is to provide stability to the knee, essentially preventing it from popping forward.

In an interview with Reuters Health, Blackadar said that he began to notice that more and more female athletes were coming to him with anterior cruciate injuries (ACIs). "It's a rather common occurrence," he said. In fact, National College Athletic Association experts now estimate that female basketball players have a six times higher risk of ACI compared with male players.

Blackadar says many athletes never return to their previous level of function after injury to the anterior cruciate ligament. "ACI can be quite debilitating, often requiring surgery to get a reconstruction of the ligament," he said.

So why are ACIs more common -- and more serious -- in women, as compared with men? Blackadar and other experts have a few theories. "Certainly one reason is that women tend to get less coaching, training, use of the athletic facilities" than men, he said. "We've known for a long time that people in better shape tend to get injured less."

But Blackadar adds that ACIs are still more common among highly-trained 'elite' women athletes than among super-fit men. "So we suspect that physiological differences exist." He speculates, for example, that the broader hips of women may cause them to land at more of an angle after a jump, compared with men, "which could put more stress on that ligament." He also pointed out that "per pound, women tend to have less muscle mass in the quadriceps and the hamstrings, which are generally considered protective of the anterior cruciate."

Active women can work to reduce their risk of ACI, Blackadar said. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that "jump training" -- a combination of stretching, weight training, and jumping exercises favored by Russian gymnasts -- have gotten their injury levels "down to the level of male athletes," Blackadar pointed out. And in general, he says women with long athletic histories are better protected against these types of injuries than are women who've just started to play vigorous sports.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Let's hope the medical people can reach some positive solutions to knee ailments among players--both women and men. It's tough to hear of so many players being sidelined, and hopefully there will be some answers sooner rather than later].

One More Non-Conference Game, Then Cyclones Open Quest For Big 12 Championship After Winning Rainbow Classic And Mythical State Title

Iowa State is winding up 2005 as the best basketball team in the state after seizing the Rainbow Classic championship in Honolulu with an 87-80 victory over Colorado State. The Cyclones [9-3], who already won the mythical state championship by defeating Iowa, Northern Iowa and Drake, finish their non-conference schedule Wednesday against Tennessee State at Ames. They open their Big 12 Conference schedule Jan. 7 at home against Kansas State.

Bud Appleby Says Jim Risser, George Anthan Or Clark Mollenhoff Would Never Have Reported That Tom Harkin's Married Daughter In California Is Pregnant

After reading today's Des Moines Register, Bud Appleby had some comments in this e-mail:

"So Tom Harkin's married daughter, who lives in California, is pregnant.

"Is that news? The Register apparently thinks so.

"Jim Risser, George Anthan or Clark Mollenhoff would never have reported that. They were too busy doing their jobs."

Appleby was referring to the following story in the paper:

Card delivers: Harkin to be grandpa

By REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU

December 23, 2005

Washington, D.C. -- Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., is going to be a grandpa.

Aides to Harkin confirmed Thursday that his daughter, Amy, is expecting. A family Christmas card sent out to many Iowans by Harkin and his wife, Ruth, included a visibly rotund Amy.

"She and her husband are very, very excited, as are the grandparents-to-be," said Allison Dobson, Harkin's press secretary. The baby is due in late March or early April.

Amy, 29, the oldest of Harkin's two daughters, lives in California with her husband, Steve Goodrich.

As an infant, Amy accompanied Ruth Harkin to the office when Ruth served as the county attorney in Story County, one of the first women in the nation to become an elected prosecutor, according to the Iowa State University Web site.

Tom Harkin, 66, can consult with his colleague, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia., on the grandfather front. Grassley, 72, has nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Dobson said Tom and Ruth Harkin are looking forward to the experience. "It's really the best Christmas present they could have gotten," she said.

The article was accompanied by a photograph with these cutlines:

SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
Greetings: On the Harkins' card are Ruth and Tom, at right, son-in-law Steve Goodrich, left, and daughters Amy and Jenny. Amy and Steve are expecting their first baby in late March or early April.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Appleby is a retired Register editor and reporter. Mollenhoff, Risser [right] and Anthan [left] were stalwarts in the Register's Washington Bureau when newspapers were newspapers].

Chuck Schoffner's 'Retirement' Didn't Last Long. He's Writing 5 'Big Four' Basketball Blogs a Week for the Register After 33 Years With AP and UPI

One of the more interesting developments in this state's sportswriting scene involves Chuck Schoffner.

Schoffner [shown on the lower right, receiving a plaque at a recent Drake basketball game] was the longtime sports editor of the Associated Press bureau in Des Moines.

He covered as many college football and basketball games and wrote as many high school sports stories as anyone. He somehow kept most of his sanity while spending 33 years with the AP and United Press International.

But, as in so many other parts of the writing field, things changed for the AP as well as for Schoffner.

He didn't particularly like some of the changes, so he decided to retire at 55 years of age.

Now Schoffner is writing for the Des Moines Register's web pages, authoring short-and-to-the-point articles on the men's major-college basketball teams in the state.

"They wanted to take the pressure off the Register's sportswriters," Schoffner told me. "So I'm doing five 'blogs' a week on the Big Four [Iowa State, Iowa, Drake and Northern Iowa] teams.

"It's nothing controversial that I'm writing. I just make observations, and see if people respond to what I write."

Getting readers to respond might be a challenge.

The Register has gone full-scale into its Internet product, and some people are finding it hard to understand why.

Especially those people who subscribe to the daily and Sunday paper -- and pay for it.

Reading Register stories on the Internet, on the other hand, is free.

People -- especially the veterans -- who work at the paper can't figure out why the news is given away on the web pages.

The Register had everyone and his brother writing blogs [short for weblogs] during the football season.

Among the writers were Iowa State assistant football coach Terry Allen, play-by-play radio announcers Gary Dolphin of Iowa and John Walters of Iowa State and some Register sportswriters.

I'm sure the Register tried to find someone on the Iowa football staff to write a blog, too, but failed. Allen is history now, of course, because he became the head football coach this week at Missouri State University.

The likely reason there was no University of Iowa coach among the bloggers was because the relationship between Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz and the newspaper isn't good. For months, the paper has been questioning where some of Ferentz's players live in Iowa City, and the coach also took issue with a Register headline the week of the game at Northwestern.

After making periodic checks on the paper's blog traffic, I'd say reader response has been disappointing.

The paper has tried blogs about movies, books and music, but they have largely been flops. If they were dumped today, no one would notice.

Popular newsside columnist John Carlson also has a blog--evidently whether he wanted one or not.

I hope Schoffner does well with his blogs. And I hope the paper is paying enough money to make it worthwhile for him. But don't bet on that.

Schoffner is doing other things, too, in his "retirement." He told me he's continuing to monitor the AP's women's national basketball poll, he may staff the women's Final Four for the wire service and he's doing some non-sports articles for other companies.

Some retirement.

************************************************************************************

Speaking of John Carlson, my friend George Wine of Coralville sent the Register this letter to the editor:

"Thanks to Register columnist John Carlson for showing us how George W. Bush used selective quotes from Lt. Col. Todd Wood to make the training of Iraqi troops appear to be successful.

"It's not difficult to imagine how this President used selective intelligence to justify a preemptive invasion of Iraq.

"Kudos to Carlson for revealing what a manipulative president we have."

George Wine
Coralville

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I hope Carlson [who is pictured, smiling] gets a pay raise. If it'll help him, I'll say something good about him, too].

***********************************************************************************

An e-mail from "Hawkeye Hal:"

"What did you make of the big spread on Kingsbury? Where did that come from? I was most curious what he was doing in Ponca Neb. The answer was buried deep in the story -- his family has owned the bank there for years. As usual, his momma is taking care of him. The last year he was at Iowa she was at damn near every practice. . . ."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: "Hawkeye Hal" is referring to the Register's jaw-breaker of a story last Sunday on Chris Kingsbury [pictured in the basketball jersey at the top], a highly-overrated basketball player at the University of Iowa late in the previous century. My guess is that "Hawkeye Hal" is wondering why the paper decided to write anything about a guy who spent his basketball career being a legend in his own mind. Hey, I guess the paper's bosses deserve a pat on the back for sending a reporter and photographer across the state line to do a story. That no doubt cost the bean-counters a tank or two of gas and a couple of Big Macs].

************************************************************************************

I wrote about Pat Harty, the Iowa City Press-Citizen sports columnist the other day.

I said it took some balls for a columnist in a city the size of Iowa City to write negatively about the athletic teams -- particularly one coached by a high-priced guy like Steve Alford.

More of Harty's anatomy came up for discussion in this e-mail sent to me by "Quad-Cities Quentin:"

"Pat has had a hard-on for Alford for some time. The piece he wrote the other day was really out of the blue and inappropriate, in my opinion. And as you know, I am no fan of Alford."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I'm finding out more about Harty than I really wanted to know].

*************************************************************************************

This e-mail is from "Central Iowa Cy:"

"i hear that mike gartner writes all of the stories dealing with the media in general and the register in particular for his little newspaper, cityview. it seems strange to me that the head of the board of regents, the owner of the iowa cubs and the former boss at the register would have enough time and be writing so many negative things about his former employer."

[ron maly's comments: i'd say cy has it all covered. there's nothing left for me to say].

**********************************************************************************

An e-mail from "Getting to the Bottom Of It:"

"I understand Sean Keeler was suspended by the Register at Iowa's bowl game last year. What do you know about it?"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Right guy, wrong year. Keeler, a sports columnist, was taken out of the lineup two years ago for reasons that were never explained by management. One rumor had it that no one knew where Keeler was. His bosses kept him out of the paper for a couple of weeks, and he was taken off the Super Bowl beat. There were rumors that he was fired, and people in the Register office saw him clean out his desk in the sports department. At least one Des Moines TV sports director called Paul Anger, then the Register's editor, to ask if Keeler was canned. Anger said he wasn't. Some Register news people considered it strange, and wrong, that no explanation was given to the staff or to the public by the editors about why Keeler was suspended].

************************************************************************************

Gordy Scoles, the coach-turned-author who now lives in Bennettsville, S.C., said he'd write to me about the Northern Iowa-Appalachian State Division I-AA national championship football game. Here's his e-mail:

"Ron,

"I rode with Larry Gabe [UNI, 1965] from Clemson to Chattanooga. Larry played baseball for Mon Whitford and was all-North Central Conference in 1965 for the SCI Panthers. If you watched the game on TV, then you were warmer than we were in the packed stadium.

"The claim that there were 5,000 UNI fans at the game is probably correct. We parked in a hotel parking ramp and counted all the salt-covered cars with Iowa license plates. There were lots of them in 'Nooga pulling for the Panthers. I thought UNI was lucky that "App State", as the school is called around here, didn't have [Richie] Williams, the injured QB, at full strength. As it was, he was a tough passer, even though he was basically one-legged. Someone told us that when App State played LSU this fall, LSU couldn't stop Williams and his running. I'm not sure if UNI could have done much with him at full strength.

"I also thought that [Jason] Hunter, App State's defensive end, was the MVP of the game. There was also a lot of talk about how nice it was that two Division I-AA powerhouses, such as UNI and Appalachian State, finally made it to the championship game and played each other. And that those two teams were most likely the top two D-1-AA teams in 2005. Larry and I also said that it will be interesting to watch the bowl games this year and to see how many teams bring fewer than 5,000 fans to the game. Enjoy the start of the bowl season. Go
Hawks and Cyclones!"

Gordy Scoles

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Too bad Northern Iowa couldn't win the game. When a team gets its chance to win a national championship, it's a shame it can't come home with a victory. Those opportunities come only about once a century].

***********************************************************************************

"Does this sound familiar?" writes Bud Appleby of Des Moines.

Appleby sent the copy of this story that appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal:

"The Courier-Journal will close its regional bureaus in Hazard, Paducah and Elizabethtown early next year, the newspaper announced yesterday.

"Publisher Edward Manassah, who made the decision, said the closures won't entail layoffs. The three reporters in the bureaus will receive as-yet-unspecified reporting jobs -- two likely in Louisville and a third in Frankfort.

"'We want to continue to focus on local news and better utilize our resources,' Manassah said.

"He added that the newspaper still is committed to covering the big stories in Kentucky, but 'we would like very much to grow our suburban coverage. We'd like to intensify our online presence to continue to improve the newspaper in terms of impacting our readers.'

"But some people said the action could signal the end of a proud tradition of statewide coverage and hurt readers outside Louisville.

"'It will be a terrible thing. People need to know what's going on," said Bill Gorman, 81, the longtime mayor of Hazard. "I just think that it's going to cause all of Kentucky to suffer.'

"Gorman said the newspaper 'has been such a part of the mountains. We have the holy Bible and the Courier-Journal.'

"Michael A. Lindenberger, the Elizabethtown bureau's reporter, said there are a myriad of stories out in the state and he worries that more might go untold.

"'I think it's a huge step backwards -- it's a really sad day for the newspaper,' said Lindenberger, a Louisville native who has worked at the Courier-Journal for more than three years. "I came because of the paper's tradition of doing big-picture stories that try to hold the state together.'"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: The Courier-Journal and the Des Moines Register are both owned by the Gannett Co. What Appleby meant by his "Does this sound familiar?" comment was that the same thing happened at the Register that's happening with the Courier-Journal. Register bureaus were closed in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Sioux City, Dubuque and Davenport. That's the Gannett way. Anything to save a buck or two].

Hey, It's Almost Christmas, So Let's Be Positive: Iowa Saves Embarrassment, Drake Shows Progress, Allen, Elliott Get Jobs

It's the holiday season, so let's downplay the negatives and concentrate on the positives in tonight's Drake-Iowa basketball game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

Iowa [9-3]won the game, 65-60, and thus avoided losing for the first time in history to all three of the other Division I teams in the state -- Drake, Iowa State and Northern Iowa -- in one season.

Another defeat would have been embarrassing for an Iowa team that's predicted to be one of the best in coach Steve Alford's term as coach and one that's supposed to be a Big Ten title contender.

The Bulldogs [6-4], who went into the game as 12-point underdogs even though Iowa again played without injured senior guard Jeff Horner, kept their composure well and went a long way toward proving they could be strong first-division finishers in the Missouri Valley Conference standings.

It's been a tough struggle for Tom Davis to build the Drake program, but this looks like it could be a competitive team.

"Our team feels pretty bad that they didn't get the win tonight," said Davis, who was in Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the second time as Drake's coach. He became Iowa's winningest coach from 1987-99 before being forced out.

*************************************************************************************

Iowa State assistant Terry Allen [pictured above] was hired today as football coach at Missouri State, which finished with a 4-6 record in the 2005 season.

Allen will replace Randy Ball, who was fired in November. Before becoming the head coach at Kansas in 1996, Allen was a big winner at Northern Iowa, which is in the Gateway Conference along with Missouri State in Division I-AA.

Allen has won seven Gateway championships and had been considered the favorite for the job since first interviewing Thursday. The Missouri State Board of Governors met Tuesday in special session to approve the hiring.

Allen's Northern Iowa teams were 75-26 from 1989-96. At Kansas, he went 20-33 and was fired before the end of the 2001 season. Allen has been associate head coach at Iowa State since the 2002 season. He also coaches the tight ends.

*************************************************************************************

Bobby Elliott, who has been the defensive coordinator at Kansas State for the past four years, is expected to become the first hire of new Diego State coach Chuck Long, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Elliott, 52, said he has been in contact with Long, who said an announcement is likely forthcoming on Elliott's appointment as the Aztecs' defensive coordinator.

"I've been talking to Chuck a little bit, but that will be Chuck's call and we'll see what happens," said Elliott, who was the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at the University of Iowa when Long was coaching the Hawkeyes' secondary and quarterbacks in the 1990s.

Elliott, who just completed his fourth season at Kansas State, has also served as an assistant at Kent State, Ball State, Iowa State and North Carolina. Elliott's job status is in limbo after Ron Prince was tabbed to succeed Bill Snyder as head coach after Snyder retired earlier this month.

Drake Hasn't Won At Iowa City Since 1967--And That Was In the Fieldhouse! Don't Look For Any Miracles By the Bulldogs Tuesday Against Alford And Iowa

Numbers man and teleconference expert extraordinaire Mike Mahon started Tom Davis’ session today with reporters by handing out the good news:

1. Davis’ Drake basketball team ranks third nationally in steals with an average of 12.7 per game.

2. The Bulldogs’ 53.3 field goal percentage ranks No. 12 nationally and leads the Missouri Valley Conference.

3. The Valley is No. 3 in the national RPI [conference power rankings] –- the highest it’s ever been and ahead of the No. 4 Atlantic Coast Conference, the No. 5 Big 12 and the No. 6 Southeastern Conference. The Big Ten is No. 1 and the Big East is No. 2.

Later came the bad news. There’s always some of that when you’re talking about Drake basketball.

Chuck Schoffner, looking ahead to Tuesday night’s Drake-Iowa game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, pointed out that no Bulldog team has won a basketball game in Iowa City since 1967.

Schoffner, talking as though he'd barely gotten out of diapers in '67 [but all of us know better], wanted to know what Davis [pictured at the lower right] was doing that year.

“I was an assistant coach at the University of Maryland,” Drake’s third-year coach said. “The point it makes is that it shows how much work we’ve had to do to try to get Drake out of these doldrums. Gary Garner [the Bulldogs’ coach from 1981-1988, and the man pictured at the upper right] had some good years. Since then, it’s been a pretty long struggle.”

Indeed, Garner was the coach when Drake had its last winning season. His Bulldogs went 17-14 in 1986-87.

Earlier, I mentioned the 1967-68 season –- the last time a Drake team won in Iowa City. Maury John [center] was the Bulldogs’ coach then, and was still a season away from having the team that went 26-5 and finished third in the NCAA Final Four at Louisville.

Heck, in 1967, Carver-Hawkeye Arena wasn’t even in anyone’s thoughts or drawing boards in Iowa City. Iowa was playing in old Iowa Fieldhouse in those days, and most people figured that would remain the Hawkeyes’ home for the next century, or at least until Lute Olson quit blowing big games in the last 3 minutes.

Carver-Hawkeye Arena didn't open until 1983.

On Dec. 16, 1967, Drake beat coach Ralph Miller’s Iowa team, 74-65. And that certainly was no patsy of a Hawkeye squad. The starters at forward were Sam [we called him "Super Sam" in those days] Williams and Glenn Vidnovic, the center was Dick Jensen and the guards were Ron Norman and Chad Calabria--and they went on to tie for the Big Ten championship.

Without a doubt, Davis is taking his best Drake team to Iowa City for tomorrow night’s game against Steve Alford's Hawkeyes. The Bulldogs, who won at San Jose State, 82-64, Saturday, have a 6-3 record and don’t seem to be bothered by playing on the road.

Davis is doing a good job of bringing Drake's program back from the dead. But make no mistake about it. The Bulldogs will be out of their league tomorrow night. Their pressure defense won't work against Iowa any better than it worked against Iowa State. The Hawkeyes might look like they have a lack of direction and don't know what they're doing at times, but they could -- and should -- be an outstanding team. When that happens is anybody's guess. But look for them to win Tuesday's game, and win easily.

When I asked Davis about the game at San Jose State, he said, “With young ballclubs --– and that might be true of this Drake team –- they might play looser on the road than they do at home.

“They understand the fans are trying hard to support them [at home]. We’ve been getting some nice support in greater Des Moines. Players sometimes feel the heat of that, but on the road they might play looser. We played pretty loose and pretty well out there [at San Jose State].

This will be the second game for Davis against Iowa in Iowa City, where he became the Hawkeyes’ winningest coach from 1987-1999. Davis’ team lost at Iowa two seasons ago, 74-56. The Hawkeyes won in Des Moines last season, 91-75.

The anticipation that stretched statewide of Davis taking a Drake team to play against the school he coached for so long won’t be present this time, he feels.

In response to Jim Ecker’s question, Davis said, “It was harder two years ago, as you can imagine, because of the emotions involved……Two years down the road, this is a little more straightforward – we have two more games, then the conference season starts.”

When Susan Harman asked why Drake is shooting 51.3 percent, Davis said, “It’s partly due to defense, partly due to point guard play. The more solid guard play you get, the better shots you get.”

Asked by Steve Batterson how well Drake is playing, Davis said, “I’ve been pleased with the team. We’ve still got some soft spots. I think you’re going to see an improved Drake team. We’re better, but we still have some areas we need to improve if we’re going to be competitive at the upper end of the Missouri Valley.”

Davis said Sean Tracy has missed the last few days because of a hip pointer sustained in practice, and isn’t expected to play against Iowa.

************************************************************************************

Don't say I didn't tell you.....

Iowa 79, Drake 61 [the beat goes on]

*************************************************************************************

Wells Fargo Arena In D.M. Isn't Hilton South Yet, So Ron Maly Has An Idea -- Play ISU's 'Home' Game Against Drake There Next Season

OK, so Wells Fargo Arena didn’t exactly turn into Hilton South last night, but I’m not giving up on the 16,558-seat building yet.

It wouldn’t be an official Christmas season if a guy didn’t have an idea, and that’s what I’ve got today.

Wayne Morgan has given hints in the past that he’s not a big fan of having his Iowa State basketball team play Drake –- and maybe even Northern Iowa.

And I figure you know by now what I think of that.

The Drake-Iowa State rivalry is the oldest in the state, and it should continue forever, despite anything Morgan says.

In fact, my idea centers around the next Iowa State-Drake game.

It’s due to be played at Hilton Coliseum in Ames next season. When Morgan’s Cyclones blitzed Drake, 73-46, at 14,092-seat Hilton last season, the game drew only 10,426 – and it was Iowa State’s opening game.

All right, so let’s schedule next season’s Iowa State-Drake game at Wells Fargo Arena. The crowd figure given for the Cyclones’ 70-67 loss to Ohio State last night at the big downtown Des Moines arena was 12,500, and I figure an Iowa State-Drake game at Wells Fargo should draw just as well, if not better.

Play the game when students from both universities aren't on their holiday break. Call it Iowa State’s home game. Cyclone fans can watch it. Drake fans can watch it. People who are curious to see a game at Wells Fargo can watch it.

Drake fans might complain that they'd be terribly out-numbered by Iowa State followers at Wells Fargo. But it certainly wouldn't be any worse than it is at Hilton Coliseum.

I think it would be a great attraction for Wells Fargo, and it might quiet anyone in Ames who thinks Iowa State shouldn’t be playing Drake.

***********************************************************************************


I’ve been praising Wayne Morgan in recent columns, but I think he got outcoached against Ohio State.

Well, maybe it was associate head coach Damon Archibald who got outcoached. Archibald seems to make a lot of coaching decisions at Iowa State.

The Cyclones had Ohio State on the ropes early, taking a 39-32 halftime lead. At that stage, I thought Iowa State had a better team than the unbeaten Buckeyes. Maybe I still do.

But Thad Matta [pictured in the center], Ohio State’s second-year coach, put his team into a zone defense in the last half that slowed the Cyclones and took took away their firepower. The Buckeyes outscored Iowa State, 18-7, down the stretch.

Iowa State didn't make the needed adjustments, and paid the price.

This was the Cyclones' chance to make a strong statement. A victory over a ranked team would have sent Iowa State [6-3] to the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii on a high note.

**********************************************************************************


Watch out for Ohio State in the Big Ten race.

The Buckeyes [7-0] are off to their best start in 15 seasons, and Matta kept bringing his players back last night just when it seemed Iowa State might put the nail in their coffin.

Ohio State has been winning while playing in the shadow of a lawsuit filed by former coach Jim O’Brien that says he was improperly fired by the university in June, 2004.

Despite all the turmoil, Matta has recuited a class for the 2006-2007 school year that’s considered one of the best – if not the best – in the nation.

Chuck Schoffner's 'Retirement' Didn't Last Long--He's Writing 5 'Big Four' Basketball Blogs a Week For the Register After 33 Years With AP and UPI

One of the more interesting developments in this state's sportswriting scene involves Chuck Schoffner.

Schoffner [shown on the lower right, receiving a plaque at a recent Drake basketball game] was the longtime sports editor of the Associated Press bureau in Des Moines.

He covered as many college football and basketball games and wrote as many high school sports stories as anyone. He somehow kept most of his sanity while spending 33 years with the AP and United Press International.

But, as in so many other parts of the writing field, things changed for the AP as well as for Schoffner.

He didn't particularly like some of the changes, so he decided to retire at 55 years of age.

Now Schoffner is writing for the Des Moines Register's web pages, authoring short-and-to-the-point articles on the men's major-college basketball teams in the state.

"They wanted to take the pressure off the Register's other sportswriters," Schoffner told me. "So I'm doing five 'blogs' a week on the Big Four [Iowa State, Iowa, Drake and Northern Iowa] teams.

"It's nothing controversial that I'm writing. I just make observations, and see if people respond to what I write."

Getting readers to respond might be a challenge.

The Register has gone full-scale into its Internet product, and some people are finding it hard to understand why.

Especially those people who subscribe to the daily and Sunday paper -- and pay for it.

Reading Register stories on the Internet, on the other hand, is free.

People -- especially the veterans -- who work at the paper can't even figure out why the news is given away on the web pages.

The Register had everyone and his brother writing blogs [short for weblogs] during the football season.

Among the writers were Iowa State assistant football coach Terry Allen, play-by-play radio announcers Gary Dolphin of Iowa and John Walters of Iowa State and some Register sportswriters.

I'm sure the Register tried to find someone on the Iowa football staff to write a blog, too, but failed. Allen is history now, of course, because he became the head football coach this week at Missouri State University.

The likely reason there was no University of Iowa coach among the bloggers was because the relationship between Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz and the newspaper isn't good. For months, the paper has been questioning where some of Ferentz's players live in Iowa City, and the coach also took issue with a Register headline the week of the game at Northwestern.

After making periodic checks on the paper's blog traffic, I'd say reader response has been disappointing.

The paper has tried blogs about movies, books and music, but they have largely been flops. If they were dumped today, no one would notice.

Popular newsside columnist John Carlson also has a blog--evidently whether he wanted one or not.

I hope Schoffner does well with his blogs. And I hope the paper is paying enough money to make it worthwhile for him. But don't bet on that.

Schoffner is doing other things, too, in his "retirement." He told me he's continuing to monitor the AP's women's national basketball poll, he may staff the women's Final Four for the wire service and he's doing some non-sports articles for other companies.

Some retirement.

************************************************************************************

Speaking of John Carlson, my friend George Wine of Coralville sent the Register this letter to the editor:

"Thanks to Register columnist John Carlson for showing us how George W. Bush used selective quotes from Lt. Col. Todd Wood to make the training of Iraqi troops appear to be successful.

"It's not difficult to imagine how this President used selective intelligence to justify a preemptive invasion of Iraq.

"Kudos to Carlson for revealing what a manipulative president we have."

George Wine
Coralville

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I hope Carlson gets a pay raise. If it'll help him, I'll say something good about him, too].

***********************************************************************************

An e-mail from "Hawkeye Hal:"

"What did you make of the big spread on Kingsbury? Where did that come from? I was most curious what he was doing in Ponca Neb. The answer was buried deep in the story -- his family has owned the bank there for years. As usual, his momma is taking care of him. The last year he was at Iowa she was at damn near every practice. . . ."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: "Hawkeye Hal" is referring to the Register's jaw-breaker of a story last Sunday on Chris Kingsbury [pictured in the basketball jersey at the top], a highly-overrated basketball player at the University of Iowa late in the previous century. My guess is that "Hawkeye Hal" is wondering why the paper decided to write anything about a guy who spent his basketball career being a legend in his own mind. Hey, I guess the paper's bosses deserve a pat on the back for sending a reporter and photographer across the state line to do a story. That no doubt cost the bean-counters a tank or two of gas and a couple of Big Macs].

************************************************************************************

I wrote about Pat Harty, the Iowa City Press-Citizen sports columnist the other day.

I said it took some balls for a columnist in a city the size of Iowa City to write negatively about the athletic teams -- particularly one coached by a high-priced guy like Steve Alford.

More of Harty's anatomy came up for discussion in this e-mail sent to me by "Quad-Cities Quentin:"

"Pat has had a hard-on for Alford for some time. The piece he wrote the other day was really out of the blue and inappropriate, in my opinion. And as you know, I am no fan of Alford."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I'm finding out more about Harty than I really wanted to know].

*************************************************************************************

This e-mail is from "Central Iowa Cy:"

"i hear that mike gartner writes all of the stories dealing with the media in general and the register in particular for his little newspaper, cityview. it seems strange to me that the head of the board of regents, the owner of the iowa cubs and the former boss at the register would have enough time and be writing so many negative things about his former employer."

[ron maly's comments: i'd say cy has it all covered. there's nothing left for me to say].

**********************************************************************************

An e-mail from "Getting to the Bottom Of It:"

"I understand Sean Keeler was suspended by the Register at Iowa's bowl game last year. What do you know about it?"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Right guy, wrong year. Keeler, a sports columnist, was taken out of the lineup two years ago for reasons that were never explained by management. One rumor had it that no one knew where Keeler was. His bosses kept him out of the paper for a couple of weeks, and he was taken off the Super Bowl beat. There were rumors that he was fired, and people in the Register office saw him clean out his desk in the sports department. At least one Des Moines TV sports director called Paul Anger, then the Register's editor, to ask if Keeler was canned. Anger said he wasn't. Some Register news people considered it strange, and wrong, that no explanation was given to the staff by the or to the public by the editors about why Keeler was suspended].

************************************************************************************

Gordy Scoles, the coach-turned-author who now lives in Bennettsville, S.C., said he'd write to me about the Northern Iowa-Appalachian State Division I-AA national championship football game. Here's his e-mail:

"Ron,

"I rode with Larry Gabe [UNI, 1965] from Clemson to Chattanooga. Larry
played baseball for Mon Whitford and was all-North Central Conference in 1965
for the SCI Panthers. If you watched the game on TV, then you were warmer than
we were in the packed stadium.

"The claim that there were 5,000 UNI fans at the game is probably correct. We parked in a hotel parking ramp and counted all the salt-covered cars with Iowa license plates. There were lots of them in 'Nooga pulling for the Panthers. I thought UNI was lucky that "App State", as the school is called around here, didn't have [Richie] Williams, the injured QB, at full strength. As it was, he was a tough passer, even though he was basically one-legged. Someone told us that when App State played LSU this fall, LSU couldn't stop Williams and his running. I'm not sure if UNI could have done much with him at full strength.

"I also thought that [Jason] Hunter, App State's defensive end, was the MVP of the game. There was also a lot of talk about how nice it was that two Division I-AA powerhouses, such as UNI and Appalachian State, finally made it to the championship game and played each other. And that those two teams were most likely the top two D-1-AA teams in 2005. Larry and I also said that it will be interesting to watch the bowl games this year and to see how many teams bring fewer than 5,000 fans to the game. Enjoy the start of the bowl season. Go
Hawks and Cyclones!"

Gordy Scoles

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Too bad Northern Iowa couldn't win the game. When a team gets its chance to win a national championship, it's a shame it can't come home with a victory. Those opportunities come only about once a century].

***********************************************************************************

"Does this sound familiar?" writes Bud Appleby of Des Moines.

Appleby sent the copy of this story that appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal:

"The Courier-Journal will close its regional bureaus in Hazard, Paducah and Elizabethtown early next year, the newspaper announced yesterday.

"Publisher Edward Manassah, who made the decision, said the closures won't entail layoffs. The three reporters in the bureaus will receive as-yet-unspecified reporting jobs -- two likely in Louisville and a third in Frankfort.

"'We want to continue to focus on local news and better utilize our resources,' Manassah said.

"He added that the newspaper still is committed to covering the big stories in Kentucky, but 'we would like very much to grow our suburban coverage. We'd like to intensify our online presence to continue to improve the newspaper in terms of impacting our readers.'

"But some people said the action could signal the end of a proud tradition of statewide coverage and hurt readers outside Louisville.

"'It will be a terrible thing. People need to know what's going on," said Bill Gorman, 81, the longtime mayor of Hazard. "I just think that it's going to cause all of Kentucky to suffer.'

"Gorman said the newspaper 'has been such a part of the mountains. We have the holy Bible and the Courier-Journal.'

"Michael A. Lindenberger, the Elizabethtown bureau's reporter, said there are a myriad of stories out in the state and he worries that more might go untold.

"'I think it's a huge step backwards -- it's a really sad day for the newspaper,' said Lindenberger, a Louisville native who has worked at the Courier-Journal for more than three years. "I came because of the paper's tradition of doing big-picture stories that try to hold the state together.'"

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: The Courier-Journal and the Des Moines Register are both owned by the Gannett Co. What Appleby meant by his "Does this sound familiar?" comment was that the same thing happened at the Register that's happening with the Courier-Journal. Register bureaus were closed in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Sioux City, Dubuque and Davenport. That's the Gannett way. Anything to save a buck or two].