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What happened after the Glory Days?

Selere

Selere

Member
Dec 21, 2011
34
5
8
Ames, IA
Being a first year here are Iowa State, I don't quite know things that might seem common knowledge. What has been bugging me recently is what happened to ISU sports in the last couple of decades?

It seems recently we have been gradually getting better in all big XII sports which has led a lot of people to talk about the past and how we used to be. Back when there was Hilton magic, and lots of success/student support from athletics in general.

Whatever happened to all that? Did we lose a good coach that we just couldn't replace? Did our football team just have a bad season that caused a down-ward spiral? Very curious to know.
 
Selere said:
Being a first year here are Iowa State, I don't quite know things that might seem common knowledge. What has been bugging me recently is what happened to ISU sports in the last couple of decades?

It seems recently we have been gradually getting better in all big XII sports which has led a lot of people to talk about the past and how we used to be. Back when there was Hilton magic, and lots of success/student support from athletics in general.

Whatever happened to all that? Did we lose a good coach that we just couldn't replace? Did our football team just have a bad season that caused a down-ward spiral? Very curious to know.
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Are you serious. a little over 1 decade ago our bball team was winning back to back conf. titles. You do know a decade is 10 so by a couple you are saying nothing good has happened in 20 years.
 
CyclonesRulzzz said:
Are you serious. a little over 1 decade ago our bball team was winning back to back conf. titles. You do know a decade is 10 so by a couple you are saying nothing good has happened in 20 years.
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Like I said I really don't know anything besides we used to be better then we are now. And that period in-between has been a while- which for me means very few if at all students remember that time.
 
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Wide right and natty lite happened

That being said, our Glory years are still to come, stay tuned :)
 
Chizic, McDoormatt, "I'm an alcoholic", child porn assistant coach, Floyd goes to NBA, B12 North missed by a FG.... ******* twice.

Take your pick as to which nut kicking you like the best!
 
Selere said:
Like I said I really don't know anything besides we used to be better then we are now. And that period in-between has been a while- which for me means very few if at all students remember that time.
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You do know a lot of students grew up fans, right?
 
Basketball.... Orr left a great program to Floyd. Floyd left for Chicago. Eustachy took over won back to back Big 12 championships. Had two bad years after that. Led to massive drinking and partying with coeds. Got fired. Morgan hired. He had some good and bad moments. Pollard fired him for not being who he wanted as coach. Hired Gmacc and we suffered since.

Football... we were the best team in Iowa during the Earl Bruce years, and if Woody Hayes wouldn't of punched a player who knows how things would of ended up. Earl Bruce would of stayed longer. No Criner running program into ground and getting it placed on probation. No Walden. No lack of institutional support.

One punch changed the whole history of ISU football. Earl Bruce had said in interviews after getting fired at OSU that he regretted leaving here. He had something special being built.
 
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Basketball, 2000-2001 were the top years (#2 seed in the tourney both years). Then we lost our best player (Tinsley), struggled for a couple years, then when we finally get a couple good recruits Natty light happened. We hired an assistant to keep the good recruits, we do alright going to the final four of the NIT in 04, won the first round in the NCAA in 05 and lose to the eventual champs. Hilton Magic was alive during these years. Struggled in 06 even with returning a lot of the team, some controversy with recruiting, new AD, and we fire the coach. We then went into the dark years of McDermott, he killed Hilton Magic with his slow down, underachieving teams. Last year he took the Creighton job (thank god). We hire home-town hero. He takes some transfers, did alright his first year with a team only returning 3 scholarship players, and now here we are.
 
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CyclonesRulzzz said:
Are you serious. a little over 1 decade ago our bball team was winning back to back conf. titles. You do know a decade is 10 so by a couple you are saying nothing good has happened in 20 years.
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Did you read the first line of his post? He said he may not know things that seem like common knowledge to us.

Anyway, if my memory serves me correctly it was the middle of 2002 football season, Seneca Wallace's senior year, where things started heading downhill. We went down to Oklahoma ranked #9 and got blown away and Seneca's Heisman hopes went down the drain too. I believe we lost 6 of the next 7, including a loss to UConn before they were a legit D-1 football school and a loss in the bowl game in Boise.

For basketball it was the same season, 02-03 where the Eustachy mess went down after the season and he got canned. The two basketball seasons prior to this were nothing special, but we had at least made an NIT trip in 03. This led to Wayne Morgan, than McDermott, and got us to where we are now.

Football got it going again in 04-05, but one bad McCarney season in 06 and then Chizik happened. Chizik and McDermott were bad, but the 02-03 time frame was right after two of the more successful sports seasons in ISU history in 2000-01. We weren't able to sustain that success for whatever reason. Others on here might be able to explain why better than me.
 
bellzisu said:
Football... we were the best team in Iowa during the Earl Bruce years, and if Woody Hayes wouldn't of punched a player who knows how things would of ended up. Earl Bruce would of stayed longer. No Criner running program into ground and getting it placed on probation. No Walden. No lack of institutional support.

One punch changed the whole history of ISU football. Earl Bruce had said in interviews after getting fired at OSU that he regretted leaving here. He had something special being built.
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hmm that's pretty interesting. A little confused by the part in bold however.
 
MissouriCyclone said:
I know of at least 10 of my friends that go here weren't fans of Iowa State and at least 5 people (including myself) that didn't even know where Ames was before I came here. Give the guy some type of break there.
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Understood, he just made it sound like no one at ISU knew of any good years. I know a lot of people that grew up with the ISU good times.
 
bellzisu said:
Football... we were the best team in Iowa during the Earl Bruce years, and if Woody Hayes wouldn't of punched a player who knows how things would of ended up. Earl Bruce would of stayed longer. No Criner running program into ground and getting it placed on probation. No Walden. No lack of institutional support.
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The nastiness started with Donnie Duncan...
 
I have a slightly different opinion of what happened at ISU, being older. We had awful and when I say awful, they couldn't get any worse, AD's in the 80s and 90s. Went cheap on everything. Wouldn't invest in facilities, tried to hire on the cheap, didn't try to get donors to pony up money for anything. They basically sat on their rears and hoped things would turn our. The college presidents were all too spectacular with the athletic departments either. Not much support.

This is what caused the downward spiral in football, wrestling (douglas era), lost baseball, mens gymnastics (Im not a big male gymnastics guy but we dominated back then), and a few others. We had already landed Orr and he was given free reign so he was happy and he kept things together. Mens baskeball paid for itself so noone touched Johnny. Gene Smith fired him to get a younger coach.

Duncan was a bad coach and ran as soon as he could. Instead of trying to grab an assistant we went to Boise and got Criner. He was questionable there and then got us on sanctions to go 6-5. At least other schools go 10-1 when they cheat. Walden was OK, but had no support and kinda gave up and covered the time while on sanctions.

The rest is what has been covered.
 
Selere said:
hmm that's pretty interesting. A little confused by the part in bold however.
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No need to be confused. Iowa State was a program on the rise in the 70s, went to a few bowls (when going to a bowl actually meant something), and promptly lost a great head coach to tOSU because their legend Woody Hayes decided to retire permanently from coaching by way of punching a player from the opposing team.

Jim Criner came in, hot off some great seasons at Div 1-AA Boise State, and got the program put on probation. A couple of forgettable decades passed (coinciding with, what, fifteen straight losses to Iowa?) before Dan McCarney finally brought the program back out of the gutter. (As an aside, just how did we get Troy Davis?)
 
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