The Truth (with no dare involved) .........

I graduated from ISU and met my future wife there. I worked for the football team from 1996-1998, and was there when we moved into the Jacobsen building. Filmed every practice and game during that time, cut tapes for the coaches, and traveled with the team.

My wife and I live in CA now, but I still split season tickets with my Dad (still in IA) and have an annual tradition of coming back each year for the Iowa game and the home game the week before. This year the wife and I had just a 4-hour drive to Vegas for the UNLV game, so I got to see three in a row in person (woo-hoo!).

Other than the daily contact with the football coaches and players (Troy Davis was one of the nicest guys ever, and Coach Mac was fun to be around), one of my funny ISU athlete memories was of the basketball team at Dean's List one night...

Shawn Bankhead, Kelvin Cato, Kenny Pratt, and maybe Dedric Willoughby were all out together. They were working the dancefloor, and Bankhead was carrying a video camera. At one point Bankhead was up on the balcony shooting down at Cato and Pratt on the dancefloor when my buddy and I noticed he was working the video camera all wrong.

He was pointing the video camera down at his boys (we're talking old-school, on-the-shoulder VHS camera here), waving his other arm up in the air and giving them some "Whut uuuuuup!" love. We noticed that the red "record" light wasn't flashing, but when he put the camera down and hit the button to "stop" recording, we saw the light come on. We watched Bankhead walk around for a while, slinging the "off" camera down by his leg with the red "record" light on. This pattern continued all night. My buddy and I were laughing, wishing we could have been there when they got home and had 2 hours of video of upside down shoes.

Those guys might not have been the brightest, but they were a fun bunch of bruisers, and they could BALL.

My apologies... that story was probably much longer than it was good. :smile:

Great idea for a thread, Balrog. Welcome to CF!

Thank you 2000, and thank you for sharing that story.
I'm going to enjoy checking the connections people have shared when they post in the future. I believe when the thread ends, we will know a litle more about each other, and why we have such a passion for ISU and the Athletic Department.
P.S. I'm still trying to figure out the private message thing. Again my apologies if you didn't get my response, because I really did respond.
 
What the.......... link? Just kidding. I don't hardly..........really? :wideeyed:

Cael was a redshirt, and was wrestling unattached, so it didn't count against his college record.

So he's still "perfect", but he wasn't perfect while attending ISU, just while wrestling for them :D
 
Been a lifelong Cyclone fan. Started attending games when I was three years old. Had season tickets with my dad from the time I was three until I graduated college, then just couldn't find the time to go to games all the time when I was in college.

Seen many of things during my days, but some of the best in person were:

1. Hanging out with "The Mayors" family during his senior season at the Big 8 Tournament. My dad was checking into the hotel, and I was in sixth grade. My parents owned a clothing store, so they made me a Fred Hoiberg jersey. His parents tapped me on the shoulder and started talking with me. Was pretty funny as we walked away from the check-in counter, my dad had no clue where I was at. When he saw me, he was about to flip out that I walked away with strangers, until I said, "Dad, these are the Mayor's parents." it was pretty cool.

2. Saw every game that TD played at Cyclone Stadium (old name of course). He was a thrill to watch.

3. Seeing the Cyclones win the final Big 8 Tournament, which was also the first tournament win in school history.

This is great stuff!
Incidentally, was the clothing store in Ames, on Welch perhaps?
 
I graduated from ISU and met my future wife there. I worked for the football team from 1996-1998, and was there when we moved into the Jacobsen building. Filmed every practice and game during that time, cut tapes for the coaches, and traveled with the team.

My wife and I live in CA now, but I still split season tickets with my Dad (still in IA) and have an annual tradition of coming back each year for the Iowa game and the home game the week before. This year the wife and I had just a 4-hour drive to Vegas for the UNLV game, so I got to see three in a row in person (woo-hoo!).

Other than the daily contact with the football coaches and players (Troy Davis was one of the nicest guys ever, and Coach Mac was fun to be around), one of my funny ISU athlete memories was of the basketball team at Dean's List one night...

Shawn Bankhead, Kelvin Cato, Kenny Pratt, and maybe Dedric Willoughby were all out together. They were working the dancefloor, and Bankhead was carrying a video camera. At one point Bankhead was up on the balcony shooting down at Cato and Pratt on the dancefloor when my buddy and I noticed he was working the video camera all wrong.

He was pointing the video camera down at his boys (we're talking old-school, on-the-shoulder VHS camera here), waving his other arm up in the air and giving them some "Whut uuuuuup!" love. We noticed that the red "record" light wasn't flashing, but when he put the camera down and hit the button to "stop" recording, we saw the light come on. We watched Bankhead walk around for a while, slinging the "off" camera down by his leg with the red "record" light on. This pattern continued all night. My buddy and I were laughing, wishing we could have been there when they got home and had 2 hours of video of upside down shoes.

Those guys might not have been the brightest, but they were a fun bunch of bruisers, and they could BALL.

My apologies... that story was probably much longer than it was good. :smile:

Great idea for a thread, Balrog. Welcome to CF!

When I see you post from now on, I am going to envision Swarzenegger, beaches, bikinis, Tim Floyd, and a video camera, though not necessarily in that order. :smile:
Go Cyclones
 
The guy you are referring to lived on my dorm floor out at Storms Hall at the towers. I guess I should say the late Storms Hall as is it is no longer. It was 5th floor Nielsen. I can only remember his first name was Nick. One crazy dude.

That was quite a VEISHEA. Johnny Orr coming out to break up the riots was unreal. Not a real brightspot in ISU history.

The cops tried to stop it, and it just got worse.
The fire department had every window in their truck broken as they tried to settle the riot.
They got some doofus from the ISU administration to try to scold the students, and he left shortly after a thrown bottle passed by his head.
Finally, someone got smart and called Johnny. He jumped out of a car and said, "You've had your fun. Now go home." And everyone went home.
I never met anyone who didn't like Johnny.
 
freshman student at ISU. season tickets since i was five. id like to think there wasn't too many fans as passionate as me at that age.

very close to the athletic program nowadays that i'm not at liberty to mention the connection.
 
Cael was a redshirt, and was wrestling unattached, so it didn't count against his college record.

So he's still "perfect", but he wasn't perfect while attending ISU, just while wrestling for them :D

Thanks Jumbo. I guarantee you not many people know that little tidbit. Is there any way you could research the wrestler? I wonder if they ever met again "when it counted."
 
The cops tried to stop it, and it just got worse.
The fire department had every window in their truck broken as they tried to settle the riot.
They got some doofus from the ISU administration to try to scold the students, and he left shortly after a thrown bottle passed by his head.
Finally, someone got smart and called Johnny. He jumped out of a car and said, "You've had your fun. Now go home." And everyone went home.
I never met anyone who didn't like Johnny.

When I first heard about this I was embarresed and then ashamed. I rationalized the whole thing as being people from "out of town" and not our own students. Heck, it's VEISHA for crying out loud!!I did not know that Johnny got involved and had to "quell the uprising." I have never heard anyone say a disparaging thing about this man except Vitale (sp?) of course.
 
Thanks Jumbo. I guarantee you not many people know that little tidbit. Is there any way you could research the wrestler? I wonder if they ever met again "when it counted."

They did meet again, and Cael beat him all three times when it counted, and the match was the only match that I'm aware Cael lost in his collegiate career.

Cyclone junior blows into Chicago 91-0. (19-DEC-00) Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

Paul was killed tragically in a car accident a few years back.

I'm by no means a wrestling fan, but would go to Paul's matches and one time ended up sitting next to Dan Gable, and behind the Brands brothers. I had no idea who any of them were and didn't get why they were so popular.
 
I attended ISU for 3 semesters, all of 92 and the first semester of 93 before transferring to DMACC in Ankeny. While at ISU I lived in Old RCA - BWR - My floor had the FUBAR plaque they awarded someone each week. You had to protect it until the next floor meeting or you got showered in your clothing. Of course, your roommate would always allow it to be stolen so you had to go around campus looking for it - they had a rule that whoever had it had to display it in their window so you had a chance at finding it.

Both my older sisters graduated from ISU.

One of my bro-in-laws works for ISU in the Durham Center.

My neighbor owns a gas station on I-35 in southern Iowa - he swears that LE came in one day (remember he drove to and from every game) after one Big 12 tourney and plugged up their toilet, lol.

I have what might be one of the largest collections of ISU items. Seriously, I am addicted to eBay! I am going to put up a webpage one of these days but, for now, a few pics will have to suffice. Please ignore the dust, lol. And trust me - those pics do not do my collection justice. I am serious.
 
They did meet again, and Cael beat him all three times when it counted, and the match was the only match that I'm aware Cael lost in his collegiate career.

Cyclone junior blows into Chicago 91-0. (19-DEC-00) Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

Paul was killed tragically in a car accident a few years back.

I'm by no means a wrestling fan, but would go to Paul's matches and one time ended up sitting next to Dan Gable, and behind the Brands brothers. I had no idea who any of them were and didn't get why they were so popular.

I am sorry to hear of his passing, Jumbo, and thank you for the link.
I had no idea that there was someone who had beaten Cael on a wrestling mat!
 
I attended ISU for 3 semesters, all of 92 and the first semester of 93 before transferring to DMACC in Ankeny. While at ISU I lived in Old RCA - BWR - My floor had the FUBAR plaque they awarded someone each week. You had to protect it until the next floor meeting or you got showered in your clothing. Of course, your roommate would always allow it to be stolen so you had to go around campus looking for it - they had a rule that whoever had it had to display it in their window so you had a chance at finding it.

Both my older sisters graduated from ISU.

One of my bro-in-laws works for ISU in the Durham Center.

My neighbor owns a gas station on I-35 in southern Iowa - he swears that LE came in one day (remember he drove to and from every game) after one Big 12 tourney and plugged up their toilet, lol.

I have what might be one of the largest collections of ISU items. Seriously, I am addicted to eBay! I am going to put up a webpage one of these days but, for now, a few pics will have to suffice. Please ignore the dust, lol. And trust me - those pics do not do my collection justice. I am serious.

egunzy, I thought I was a fan, but that really is something. I assume you are single? :wink:
 
Just a fan.

I beat Loren Meyer in the high jump during high school.
I also picked up Kelvin Cato at the Des Moines airport after he was drafted in the NBA.
 
I was a coach at UNI before coming to work at Iowa State. It's my third year here and I hope it's my best one yet.







Crap. I was a member of CF before Mac got hired.
 
Lifelong fan. My grandparents went to Iowa State as well as my parents, my sisters, and my Aunts and Uncles. (Unfortunately, I'm the black sheep because I didn't graduate from Iowa State. Attended but didn't graduate) I still remember going to MBB games as a kid and seeing Victor Alexander up close and thinking he was the biggest man I've ever seen.
 
Jeff Hornacek tried to pick up my girlfriend, who is now my wife, during a pickup basketball game at Beyer.

Our intramural flag football team cheated by using Tracy Henderson as a "ringer" until we got caught.
 

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