Johnny Orr

[isu2014]

I wasn't a fan until after Johnny (youngblood), but I just love the history he gave this basketball program. My favroite clip of him has to be swearing at Vitale on national tv. Back then it was a little edgy and funny, but if someone did that now most of the CBB fans would retreat to their safe zones and attack the **** out of him for being crude, disrespectful, and a terrible person.

I had a teacher that talked like Johnny did in high school. Mary Sauter, from Albia. She was hired by my mom to be a tutor to me because I was being lazy as hell in my classes. I remember one time I mouthed off to her and she actually hit me (not hard) and told me to sit down, shut up and do my damn work. She's the reason I passed high school and ended up in college. The world needs more people like that now.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

"Did you see that! He made that from the CHICKEN!!!"

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

 

[isu2014]

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

I went to two of his basketball camps and was at ISU in the Hornacek-Grayer years. He was a salesman and a motivator but I don't think he was a great X's and O's guy. He got people to believe. He also used salty language - I got to chat with him a few times - and seemed to enjoy liquid refreshments. ISU needed a change-agent back then and he was a great one. I remember where I was sitting when my dad told me ISU had hired him. Man, we went crazy every time he came out to "Here's Johnny." We were just so happy to be mildly relevant in NCAA hoops.

 

[Mr Janny]

2002 Final Four in Atlanta. I was there for work with 2 other guys. Through some connections we got invited to this fancy charity brunch sponsored by ADIDAS. When we arrived, the maitre d noticed the Iowa State logo on my shirt and asked if we were from Iowa. We replied yes, and he said that there was another couple from Iowa in attendance, so he'd sit us by them. Imagine our surprise when the "other couple" turned out to be Johnny and his wife.

Over the course of the next 90 minutes, Johnny had us all in stitches with his stories. All kinds of topics, from basketball, to non sports stuff, to speculation on the number of lesbians in the ISU athletic department. I swear even I learned some curse words that I'd never heard before. It was a riot.

And the best part is he was doing it while speaker after speaker was addressing the crowd on behalf of this charity. At one point, one of the event organizers recognized Johnny, and asked him to say a few words off the cuff. He agreed, and once he got a hold of a microphone, basically dominated the room for much much longer than any of the other speakers. It was great.

 

[Bestaluckcy]

Johnny was a great media personality. Something that doesn't get commented on too often is that he was often interviewed by Pete Taylor. Pete was epic in his own as "voice of the Cyclones:". The games were not always on TV, so fans grew accustomed to Pete and Eric calling the games. Their descriptive play by play became a close second to being at the games. Afterwards Pete would get Johnny's take on the action. Many times he would steer Johnny to say some things that grew the legend. Truly classic.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Listening to Cyclone radio broadcasts I'm not sure how many times I heard Johnny yell "God dammit Victor" in the background.

 

[VeloClone]

Listening to Cyclone radio broadcasts I'm not sure how many times I heard Johnny yell "God dammit Victor" in the background.

Before that it was "God damnit, Elmer!" as Elmer Robinson was his regular target. It wasn't a practice if Johnny didn't say that three or four times.

By the way, this has been my sig since I joined CF. \/ \/ \/