Not Retiring

[RobHowe]

Shit, I wish I could.

I will, however, not being working for the current HN ownership anymore. It's the first time since HN launched that it's without either me or Jon. For me, it was 16 years in two stints. Proud of what we accomplished here and appreciate your support along the way even if you were here despite my presence.

I'm not going to bitch and moan about what happened. It was an unfortunate ending, but I'm at peace with it. I worked as hard as I could for those 16 years here trying to provide quality content, which I will continue to do in other locations. And, who knows, maybe we can someday reacquire HN. We tried last month.

I talked about how we got here on my podcast with Doc today. You guys can listen if you're interested in hearing more. I'm sure PC and the gang want to move on from me, and that's cool. You do you. Only guy on here I ever muted. Congrats.

Want to say, again, to all the good people I've met through the years on here, that I appreciate all of your support. I really am thankful.

If you're interested in my content moving forward, it will be out there, just not here.

 

[wwhawk]

Hawkeye Hotspot Podcast 2-6-25 - Hawk Fanatic

Scott Dochterman from The Athletic and Rob Howe bring you the Hawkeye Hotspot Podcast. In this episode: Reflecting on Iowa women’s basketball upset of USC and Caitlin Clark number retirement, and what’s ahead for the Hawkeyes; looking at current Iowa men’s basketball season without Owen Freeman...

hawkfanatic.com

Here's the podcast Rob mentions in his farewell post above. As you can see, it is on Hawkfanatic.com

IMHO the podcast he does with Scott Dochterman of The Athletic is a good listen! But decide for yourself!

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

Sorry to see you move on, Rob. Your perspective and experience with Iowa sports has always given you a somewhat rare if not unique vantage point, and your takes on situations have always been appreciated.

Change is never easy, especially for us old guys, but I'm sure you will discover new satisfactions in your projects going forward.

 

[NCHawker]

Rob, thanks for you dedication and pouring yourself into reporting on the Hawkeyes. You deserved more thanks than what you got. If it were not an anonomous forum you'd have gotten more. There were some interesting moments over the last 16.

Take care

 

[HuckFinn]

Gonna miss you, man. Hoping for soft landings in your future. Just to be clear, I will track you down.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

I assume we will hear from the owners as to a new plan for content on the site and this Board? Rob didn't post a whole lot, but his articles got discussions going. New posts and threads have not exactly been flowing a lot of late. I get that it is off season for football and MBB is in a bad place, but its still be pretty dead around here so far this year.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

And sorry to see you go, Rob. I have been following your stuff for a couple decades now and respect your approach.

 

[haydensly]

Best of luck to you. I really enjoyed your content for all of these years. You will be missed!

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Seems like this owner guy just ran this into the ground.. Was he just not able to attract advertising or was he lazy? I don't know anything about how to run a site such as this but to say there's been a noticeable difference the last couple yrs or so would be an understatement.

Hate to see a guy like Rob have to leave a job not on his terms. He seems like a survivor though and he'll land on his feet he always has. Just sucks that he couldn't take the reigns to this and just let it be his.

 

[Fryowa]

In case we wake up one morning and the site is gone, I can be reached if anyone wants at hnfryowa@gmail.com

 

[Hawkboys]

In case we wake up one morning and the site is gone, I can be reached if anyone wants at hnfryowa@gmail.com

Now I know what email to use on all those share your email to continue sites. ;-P

 

[NorthKCHawk]

If the owner isn't interested in keeping the site up, why didn't he just sell it?

 

[Fryowa]

If the owner isn't interested in keeping the site up, why didn't he just sell it?

Guessing they tried. Rob tried to buy it with Jon. Their price was higher than they were willing to pay.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Guessing they tried. Rob tried to buy it with Jon. Their price was higher than they were willing to pay.

I know we won't get a sniff of what those numbers were but I'd be curious what Jon sold it for when he got out and what it is these current guys want for it. It doesn't make much of any sense to just sit on something like this does it? It feels like a labor of love more so then a let's see if we can get rich in 10 yrs kind of investment. But I don't know any of the numbers involved for what it took to buy it/run it/pay writers none of it so heck if I know

 

[NorthKCHawk]

I know this site was their baby, but how hard would it be for Jon and Rob to build a new website? Building a sports message board aint exactly brain surgery. I suspect most of us would move over if there was good content and discussion. Signs of life around here are pretty low right now.