SirJamaLot
Well-Known Member
1. Lute
2.Ralph
3.Dr.Tom
4.George without the warmups
5.Fran the Man???
2.Ralph
3.Dr.Tom
4.George without the warmups
5.Fran the Man???
Greatest Hawkeye BB Coach
- Thread starter SirJamaLot
- Start date
busabus114
Well-Known Member
After a couple weeks on the job Fran makes the top 5....impressive
SirJamaLot
Well-Known Member
im sure people under 45 have no memory of how exciting Miller's teams were, check the scores, incredible shooting and fastbreak basketball without the 3 point line, Raveling was the greatest Hawkeye BB recruiter, if he and Mr. Davis could have been co-coaches we would have at least 1 national championship!
golfbymagic
Member
vbeachawk has it right in my mind if he would flip Ralph and Lute.
Got to go with this list. Bucky O'Connor is far above any other entry. Lute number two because of his Final Four and consistent winning.
Sweetriver
Well-Known Member
Bucky O'Conner is #1 and it is not close. Had he not died in an auto accident, the landscape of Iowa basketball history would be much different today. I'd say Lute and Miller are tied for 2nd. From Wiki:
The Fabulous Five
Just as the United States emerged from the depression, so did Iowa's basketball fortunes. Following a rocky 7-10 season in 1943, Pops Harrison led the Hawkeyes to their third overall Big Ten title (and first unshared title) in 1945.[5] In the following decade, from 1946-56, the Hawkeyes had but one non-winning season in 1949, Harrison's last full season as head coach.[5]
Following short tenures by both Frank "Bucky" O'Connor in 1950 and Rollie Williams in 1951, O'Connor once again became Iowa's coach and would hold that position until his death on April 22, 1958.[5][17] Under O'Connor, Iowa would see unparalleled success in what some consider the most successful era in Iowa history.[17] In 1953, Iowa finished second in the Big Ten behind the efforts of a starting lineup fully-composed of sophomores.[17] As juniors, the "Fabulous Five" won the Big Ten outright and eventually finished fourth in the nation.[17] In 1956, as seniors, they again won the Big Ten outright and finished second in the nation only to Bill Russell and the undefeated San Francisco Dons.[18]
Despite losing in the championship game, for the only time in school history, the Hawkeyes recorded consecutive Big Ten championships.[5] Sharm Scheuerman, Bill Seaberg, Carl Cain, Bill Schoof, and Bill Logan, all members of the "Fabulous Five", had their jerseys retired in 1980.[19]
The Fabulous Five
Just as the United States emerged from the depression, so did Iowa's basketball fortunes. Following a rocky 7-10 season in 1943, Pops Harrison led the Hawkeyes to their third overall Big Ten title (and first unshared title) in 1945.[5] In the following decade, from 1946-56, the Hawkeyes had but one non-winning season in 1949, Harrison's last full season as head coach.[5]
Following short tenures by both Frank "Bucky" O'Connor in 1950 and Rollie Williams in 1951, O'Connor once again became Iowa's coach and would hold that position until his death on April 22, 1958.[5][17] Under O'Connor, Iowa would see unparalleled success in what some consider the most successful era in Iowa history.[17] In 1953, Iowa finished second in the Big Ten behind the efforts of a starting lineup fully-composed of sophomores.[17] As juniors, the "Fabulous Five" won the Big Ten outright and eventually finished fourth in the nation.[17] In 1956, as seniors, they again won the Big Ten outright and finished second in the nation only to Bill Russell and the undefeated San Francisco Dons.[18]
Despite losing in the championship game, for the only time in school history, the Hawkeyes recorded consecutive Big Ten championships.[5] Sharm Scheuerman, Bill Seaberg, Carl Cain, Bill Schoof, and Bill Logan, all members of the "Fabulous Five", had their jerseys retired in 1980.[19]
83Hawk
Banned
Plus Lute has a Final Four to his credit.
I put Mr. Davis above Ralph because he accomplished more at Iowa than Ralph did. Come to think of it, so did Alford...but there is NO WAY Alford is a better coach than Ralph was.
tiggerhawk
Well-Known Member
A couple of quibbles & corrections are in order.
First, Boone (Iowa) HS coach Bucky O'Connor came to Iowa along with his star player Pinky Clifton, which was why he was instantly available when Pops Harrison had to be replaced early in the 1950 BT schedule (with Pops obviously too inebriated to coach, Bucky had to take over at game time). O'Connor was the interim coach the rest of the season, and his abilities were quickly recognized...although Iowa felt he was too inexperienced to give him the head coaching job immediately. Rollie Williams, who had retired as the coach before Pops, was asked to come back for a year as a mentor & advisor to Bucky, nominally the coach with O'Connor actually the de facto game coach & recruiter, installing his system and bringing in his kind of players.
Second, Bill Schoof was not one of the Fabulous Five. The Fabulous Five were an extraordinary group of freshmen--Bill Logan of Keokuk, Carl Cain of Freeport, Il, Bill Seaberg & Sharm Scheuerman from the Quad Cities, and Hugh Leffingwell of Marion, Iowa. They were Bucky's second recruiting class, which also included Schoof the Oaf, backup F-C Bob George and Les Hawthorne, the third guard behind Sharm & Seaberg. Schoof, George & Hawthorne, from Chicago suburbs, were the only ones who came from further than 90 miles from the Iowa campus.
The Fabulous Five per se never played a single varsity game for the Hawkeyes. In the fall of their sophomore year (freshman weren't eligible at the time), Leffingwell, the top scorer & "go-to-guy", died suddenly from spinal meningitis. The remaining four joined junior Deacon Davis, a former Freeport teammate of Cain, as the starting five until Davis graduated. By the end of that year, they were clearly the best team in the BT, beating defending natl champion Indiana by twenty points at Bloomington. The next year they won the BT and went to the Final Four.
In the 1955-56 season, they struggled at first without Davis (they went 3-4 in the OOC schedule, including a humiliating blowout loss to Cal-Berkeley). Schoof, as a senior, took Davis' place in the starting five, but he was very limited offensively except as a rebounder and his slowness made him something of a defensive liability in O'Connor's tight pressure schemes. George frequently replaced him to add offense in close games.
Personally, I have never doubted for a moment that if they had not lost Leffingwell at the beginning of their college play, the Fabulous Five would have won a national championship--even though that would have required beating arguably the best college team of all time, the San Francisco Dons of Bill Russell, Casey Jones, etal.
Hawke
Well-Known Member
This is the order I place them in as well.
