Bigtenchamp
Well-Known Member
I commend you that your kids care about college basketball..This whole thing is incredibly sad. I grew up in the 80s in Iowa City. Was there ever a better time to be a Hawkeye fan? Was there ever a better time to be an elementary school kid in Iowa falling in love with the Hawkeyes? I doubt it. That era's imprint on us will last a lifetime.
The reason my young kids fight over who gets to be Jack Nunge and who gets to be Luka Garza while shooting baskets in the driveway in Seattle, Washington, is because I used to watch Roy F*cking Marble fly up and down the court for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
We're talking one of the biggest bad asses to ever put on the jersey. My favorite Marble memory is when Iowa beat #6 North Carolina in the Dean Smith Center (while UNC was still being coached by the legend!). This was when North Carolina was North Carolina. Big Ten teams didn't go to UNC and win. Nobody did. Iowa was only the second non-conference team to win there.
Anyway, Roy and BJ and Ed put on a show. In the final seconds in an extremely close game, Horton (a bad free throw shooter) was fouled. But Marble (because he was a good free throw shooter and he was Roy F*cking Marble) decided he was going to win this one for the Hawks. So he walked up to the line. Every other player on the court, including his teammates, were confused. As was Dean Smith. As were the referees. As were 22,000 screaming mad UNC fans. Again, this was the mecca of college basketball, two top 10 teams, and the final seconds of a game.
But not only did Roy Marble walk up to the line, he argued his ass off with the referees that the foul they called on UNC was against him, not Horton. Pandemonium broke out. Somehow, even with 22,000 fans screaming at the refs, Marble argued so vehemently that he even sold the refs on it. We're talking Eddie Hightower here! Eddie Hightower! So there was only one Roy F*cking Marble.
You want to talk Iowa basketball legends, you have to talk about Roy Marble. There is Luka Garza, and Ronnie Lester, and Roy Marble. There might be others, but you start with those three.
We knew about some of his issues even back when he was playing. But apparently they weren't problematic enough for the university to prevent him from playing and helping the school win all those games. And we still cheered for him as much as ever.
I don't gloss over his faults, particularly domestic abuse issues. Those are serious. But we aren't talking about whether the university should have hired him or used him in an official capacity. We're talking about letting fans celebrate one of the program's legends. In his dying days, Iowa's AD and administration should have let Marble and Iowa fans have a proper celebration. I don't care about the semantics of retiring a number or a jersey or whatever. But for all the joy Marble brought Iowa fans, the school should have let fans bring a little more joy to Marble in his dying days. Have a proper send-off for a legend - jersey retirement or not - and we aren't having this conversation this week.
most kids i know don't follow college at all... its the NBA
college basketball in general has interest issues.