Bruns thread revisited

Bubbrub

Bubbrub

Well-Known Member
Last week leading up to the Iowa vs. ISU game, Jon Miller put up a link to an article written by Ben Bruns. I replied to the thread with a story about a negative encounter I had with Bruns in college. My reply resulted in a few pages of additional replies containing varied opinions.

After I posted the story and the additional replies ensued, Ben Bruns contacted me and apologized. I was pretty blown away to hear from him. In all fairness, he did not remember the incident in exactly the same way as I did- regardless, he felt bad that his actions years ago had affected me negatively, and he was still willing to seek me out, humble himself, and apologize.

I'm not posting this to bring the story back to life again- I just felt that it was pretty cool of Ben to seek me out and apologize for something that happened a decade ago when he didn't really need to. Since my posting of the story put Ben in a bad light publicly, I thought Hawkeyenation should know that he went out of his way to make things right. I think it shows a lot of character, and I respect that.
 


My little brother was Ben's roommate at ISU, and was in his wedding. Ben seeking you out does not surprise me. Thanks for sharing.
 


Bubbrub said:
Last week leading up to the Iowa vs. ISU game, Jon Miller put up a link to an article written by Ben Bruns. I replied to the thread with a story about a negative encounter I had with Bruns in college. My reply resulted in a few pages of additional replies containing varied opinions.

After I posted the story and the additional replies ensued, Ben Bruns contacted me and apologized. I was pretty blown away to hear from him. In all fairness, he did not remember the incident in exactly the same way as I did- regardless, he felt bad that his actions years ago had affected me negatively, and he was still willing to seek me out, humble himself, and apologize.

I'm not posting this to bring the story back to life again- I just felt that it was pretty cool of Ben to seek me out and apologize for something that happened a decade ago when he didn't really need to. Since my posting of the story put Ben in a bad light publicly, I thought Hawkeyenation should know that he went out of his way to make things right. I think it shows a lot of character, and I respect that.
Click to expand...

Kudos to BB for doing this...Humility is always a good thing.

I was going to start my own Ben Bruns thread last night & make light of Hawk fans giving the Cyclones 'backhanded complements' (in light of them not deserving ANY complements), but now I'm glad I didn't...
 


Good post. Ben is a die hard Cyclone...and I think that is a part of the reason for some of the flak he took. He is also respected in his community as well as living in an honorable fashion...none of us is exactly the way we were in college...thank the Lord for that.

Behind every microphone, keyboard or camera is a real person, that is likely a husband or wife and father or mother. What you hear, see or read is barely a snippet of who someone is, and sometimes nothing like the real person at all.
 


That's great, classy thing for Ben to do.

But he's still totally full of it, when he infers that Hayden built his program around beating ISU. Absolutely ridiculous.
 




hawkdrummer1 said:
That's great, classy thing for Ben to do.

But he's still totally full of it, when he infers that Hayden built his program around beating ISU. Absolutely ridiculous.
Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty accurate statement. Hayden realized Iowa was only big enough for one D1 football powerhouse and realized he had to own the hearts and minds of instate fans and recruits. It was priority 1 for him.
 


I dont think Hayden built his entire program around beating Iowa State. The rivalry had only just been reinstated when he arrived at Iowa for two or three years.

Beating Michigan was far more important. That being said, beating Iowa State was certainly one of the priorities.
 


I just want to know if he did in fact nod and smile and tell Hawk fans how good their team is? Afterall it was his suggestion:

My trips to Iowa City are typically filled with back-handed compliments and a lot of icy receptions. And of course there will be plenty of Hawk fans who are just dying to tell you badly their team will beat ours. Just smile, nod and tell them how good they are. We’ll see what happens Saturday
 


DuffMan said:
That's actually a pretty accurate statement. Hayden realized Iowa was only big enough for one D1 football powerhouse and realized he had to own the hearts and minds of instate fans and recruits. It was priority 1 for him.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Establishing superiority over ISU (which wasn't much of a task) was only one piece of the rebuilding process. Beating your instate rival in one of many building blocks to establishing a top program. But if it's your main focus, you'll never reach anything bigger.

And as Jon points out, the rivalry had just resumed. Hayden is no dummy...he's going to leverage whatever is going to get his team the most mileage. So he devoted the proper resources and attention to the rivalry, nothing more, nothing less. But we all know what happens to a team who's super bowl is in week 2. That was never Hayden's approach. He knew better and the history shows it.

Bruns' comments were just one more desperate attempt at relevancy by fans of a largely irrelevant program. Iowa has never "needed" ISU to accomplish anything. Bruns does, however, once again reveal just how badly they need IOWA's coat tails for ANY bump they can get.

Busted, Ben. Nice guy, but busted.
 
Last edited:


Kudos for Bruns apology. Never too late to make things right. I would hope no Iowa player would act that way, but many are teenagers and are just human,so they do make mistakes.
 


hawkdrummer1 said:
I disagree. Establishing superiority over ISU (which wasn't much of a task) was only one piece of the rebuilding process. Beating your instate rival in one of many building blocks to establishing a top program. But if it's your main focus, you'll never reach anything bigger.

.
Click to expand...

So even you admit it was the first task in making the program. Guess what there can't be step two if step one doesn't happen. Owning the state of Iowa was the first block in the foundation that is the Iowa program, and as such was the most important.
 


I imagine almost everyone did some real jerk things in college. At least he was man enough to own up and apologize.
 


DuffMan said:
So even you admit it was the first task in making the program. Guess what there can't be step two if step one doesn't happen. Owning the state of Iowa was the first block in the foundation that is the Iowa program, and as such was the most important.
Click to expand...

Spin it however you want Duff. On November 21, 1981...nobody outside of Ames gave a damn about the Iowa-ISU score.
 
Last edited:






You must log in or register to reply here.


Latest posts

Share this page






Top