Marble is pissed

Fryowa said:
I don't think Barta ever intended to piss anybody off, it's more a matter of incompetence rather than malice.

I mean, if the idea was brought to Barta by, let's say a donor or group of donors...how hard would it be to step back, take 10 minutes and ask yourself, "Well, 5 years ago we said we weren't going to retire Roy's number and I also said I don't really see us ever doing it...what would be the best way to go about this?"

Really the only answer to save face would have been to retire them both at the same time or do nothing at all. If you retire Marble now, it's just going to look like a token gesture. If you don't retire Marble and come out with new criteria to meet (that would obviously have to be written to fit Garza), you look like a total asshole.

Barta has painted himself into a corner yet again and left embarrassment as the only option for the Hawks. Just a total buffoon.

For the record, I don't think Marble's should be retired. No AA, no All Big Ten, etc. Yes he played at the same time as Glen Rice, but them's the breaks.
Click to expand...
Yeah and that's where he's walking on egg shells here. I don't think doing it at the same time as Garzas woulda flown over too well either. That'd be taking something away from each of them I think. Unless Barta and Iowa had done something years ago the only way he avoids this is by delaying Garzas.

I'm fine with Marbles not being up there. I mean it's not something I think about unless the topic comes up. Would it bother me if they did? Not at all I'd be totally cool with that as well. But I have no dog in the race either like Devyn does.
 
Fryowa said:
I don't think Barta ever intended to piss anybody off, it's more a matter of incompetence rather than malice.

I mean, if the idea was brought to Barta by, let's say a donor or group of donors...how hard would it be to step back, take 10 minutes and ask yourself, "Well, 5 years ago we said we weren't going to retire Roy's number and I also said I don't really see us ever doing it...what would be the best way to go about this?"

Really the only answer to save face would have been to retire them both at the same time or do nothing at all. If you retire Marble now, it's just going to look like a token gesture. If you don't retire Marble and come out with new criteria to meet (that would obviously have to be written to fit Garza), you look like a total asshole.

Barta has painted himself into a corner yet again and left embarrassment as the only option for the Hawks. Just a total buffoon.

For the record, I don't think Marble's should be retired. No AA, no All Big Ten, etc. Yes he played at the same time as Glen Rice, but them's the breaks.
Click to expand...
Only thing I don't agree with is I think Marble should have his number retired (which I do think you make really good points for your argument there, I just disagree for different reasons), but I think you are absolutely right with Barta. Nail on the head.

Whether you want Marble's number retired or not, Barta totally fucked this up again. If there was transparent criteria from the start along with Barta not tripping himself up over words he spoke about this issues a few years earlier......but that is just it with Barta.....a walking PR nightmare.
 
Marbles number should have been retired YEARS ago. It is a bit ridiculous and shameful that it hasn't. His son Devyn has a valid point.
 
Marble's are RIGHTLY pissed off. This is yet another example of the vacuous AD Gary Dumbass Barta. How insensitive and completely IGNORANT is Gary Barta...ohhhhh let me count the ways millions of dollars and thousands of pissed off Black and Gold patrons. I have utterly NO respect for the people leading the University if Bary Garta is allowed to remain at the helm. Luka certainly deserved it but so did Roy Marble baby.
 
Fryowa said:
I don't think Barta ever intended to piss anybody off, it's more a matter of incompetence rather than malice.

I mean, if the idea was brought to Barta by, let's say a donor or group of donors...how hard would it be to step back, take 10 minutes and ask yourself, "Well, 5 years ago we said we weren't going to retire Roy's number and I also said I don't really see us ever doing it...what would be the best way to go about this?"

Really the only answer to save face would have been to retire them both at the same time or do nothing at all. If you retire Marble now, it's just going to look like a token gesture. If you don't retire Marble and come out with new criteria to meet (that would obviously have to be written to fit Garza), you look like a total asshole.

Barta has painted himself into a corner yet again and left embarrassment as the only option for the Hawks. Just a total buffoon.

For the record, I don't think Marble's should be retired. No AA, no All Big Ten, etc. Yes he played at the same time as Glen Rice, but them's the breaks.
Click to expand...

BJ Armstrong was no All American, no All Big Ten, just one honorable AA mention. Roy Marble was no All American, no All Big Ten with one honorable AA mention.

BJ's jersey is retired. Roy's is not. Stats and accolades are pretty much the same.

Roy's jersey should have been retired.

The only reason it is not, is because of his off court issues.

That is the only difference.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
This is about the University, The Iowa Athletic Department, the Athletic Director being flat out STUPID. There is a way to handle things and it needs to be planned, well thought out and executed to bring the Iowa program and it's alumni together. This was not.

Whether you like it or not...this just comes across to some as just another racist action by the Athletic Department...that's why Barta is in spin mode right now. I'm not saying that was their intent...I'm saying they are STUPID and don't deserve to be running a Department with a budget of $10, let alone one that is $130 million.

In my mind...Barta has to go. He's not smart enough to run that department.
Click to expand...
This
 
VTHawk said:
BJ Armstrong was no All American, no All Big Ten, just one honorable AA mention. Roy Marble was no All American, no All Big Ten with one honorable AA mention.

BJ's jersey is retired. Roy's is not. Stats and accolades are pretty much the same.

Roy's jersey should have been retired.

The only reason it is not, is because of his off court issues.

That is the only difference.
Click to expand...
And a heck of a professional career = #10 in the rafters for recruiting.
 
No idea why BJ Armstrong is even in this conversation. Love BJ (the ball player smart asses) no idea what that has to do with anything.
 
Fryowa said:
BJ Armstrong's number is retired and one viewpoint is that if his is retired, so should be Marble's.
Click to expand...

His number isn't retired. Mike Gesell wore it.

The real elephant in the room is I don't think any college other than UNC should retire 23. Every kid who thinks he is Jordan, or now LeBron, wears it. It's an ego thing. Can you imagine if we had a McDonald's All American on the hook and he said "I only wear 23 so unless you promise me 23 I ain't going there" and then the kid ends up going to Iowa fucking State and puts up a LaFester Rhodesian performance against Iowa? I think it is really dumb to take the number 23 out of the rotation unless you are doing it for the GOAT himself.
 
Frankly I'm not sure why BJ had his jersey retired. I'd say neither should before I'd say both should. Uthoff should be retired before either in my opinion. But his shouldn't either. Luka's is a no brainer.
 
okeefe4prez said:
His number isn't retired. Mike Gesell wore it.

The real elephant in the room is I don't think any college other than UNC should retire 23. Every kid who thinks he is Jordan, or now LeBron, wears it. It's an ego thing. Can you imagine if we had a McDonald's All American on the hook and he said "I only wear 23 so unless you promise me 23 I ain't going there" and then the kid ends up going to Iowa fucking State and puts up a LaFester Rhodesian performance against Iowa? I think it is really dumb to take the number 23 out of the rotation unless you are doing it for the GOAT himself.
Click to expand...
Jersey I meant
 
Well, I included Marble in my team of 8, so I obviously think a lot of him, and think he deserves to have his jersey retired. But Garza deserves to have the number retired. He’s a 2-time POY and first teamAA. It’s an absolute lock that nobody should wear that number at Iowa any more, at least in my opinion.
 
I think being your school's all-time leading scorer for 30 yrs means you are one of the best to ever play there. You still have to have skills to be your Big Ten basketball school's highest scorer ever. Debate what you will but in whatever 100-something seasons only Luka Garza scored more points than Roy Marble. I think his impact on those 4 yrs is lost on a lot of current fans. A 30-win season..elite 8..4 tourneys and he was our best offensive weapon. Scoring is still the gold standard. To argue he doesn't deserve it if ANYONE deserves it is foolish. Four year monster for the Hawks. Sound familiar?
 
proudhawkfan21 said:
I think being your school's all-time leading scorer for 30 yrs means you are one of the best to ever play there. You still have to have skills to be your Big Ten basketball school's highest scorer ever. Debate what you will but in whatever 100-something seasons only Luka Garza scored more points than Roy Marble. I think his impact on those 4 yrs is lost on a lot of current fans. A 30-win season..elite 8..4 tourneys and he was our best offensive weapon. Scoring is still the gold standard. To argue he doesn't deserve it if ANYONE deserves it is foolish. Four year monster for the Hawks. Sound familiar?
Click to expand...

I agree completely.

There are a lot of current Hawkeye fans that don't care. Its ridiculous and shameful. There are even some people on here that saw that amazing era in Iowa Basketball history and still find reasons to criticize Roy Marble from having his jersey retired. One commenter said he didn't play well enough and he blew the 1987 Elite Eight UNLV game which is a ridiculous statement. Everybody who is anybody who watched that game knows the reason we lost that game was because Mr. Davis took his foot off the pedal and let UNLV back in the game.

Seriously. Some of these Hawkeye "fans" act as if he was a nobody. Freakin shame.
 
VTHawk said:
I agree completely.

There are a lot of current Hawkeye fans that don't care. Its ridiculous and shameful. There are even some people on here that saw that amazing era in Iowa Basketball history and still find reasons to criticize Roy Marble from having his jersey retired. One commenter said he didn't play well enough and he blew the 1987 Elite Eight UNLV game which is a ridiculous statement. Everybody who is anybody who watched that game knows the reason we lost that game was because Mr. Davis took his foot off the pedal and let UNLV back in the game.

Seriously. Some of these Hawkeye "fans" act as if he was a nobody. Freakin shame.
Click to expand...
I said he came up short in the UNLV game. Look it up. Nine points.

He didn't blow it. That was a total team and coaching effort. He did blow the NCAA opening round game in 1986 vs NC State by missing several one in one front ends. He took a back seat to others in other postseason games as well.

On the flip side we don't lose to UNLV in 1987 because we don't play them if Marble doesn't come up huge vs UTEP. He was MVP of three tournaments that year. He was an excellent defensive player, good passer, had great chemistry with Kevin Gamble in addition to being a prolific scorer.

He was having off the court issues when he played here, issues that further manifested themselves when he played in the NBA. Bad luck and bad decisions clouded most of his adult life and it was sad to see him go so young.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
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.
Click to expand...
Preach... I miss the late 80s
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top