Remembering Chris Street

JonDMiller

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
Today is the 18th anniversary of his tragic death.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sY_BGX5eBM&feature=related]YouTube - 1993 Iowa basketball - Chris Street's #40 retirement ceremony[/ame]
 
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I still remember the night of the accident. Unbelievable.

The way that team came together following Chris's death was, in my opinion, Mr. Davis's finest hour.

And the scene following the Michigan game with the entire team embracing the Street family was too much for words.
 
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That was a terrible tragedy. Chris was a great guy, and I followed his career closely because I was at Simpson College when he was in high school in Indianola. He was a great all-around athlete, and I also thought he was very humble. He was a very good high school quarterback, and he also excelled at baseball and track. He used to play at lot of pick-up basketball games on the Simpson campus, and I think he could have played college ball as a high school sophomore. That was a devastating day for the state of Iowa.

Iowa State showed a lot of class, and they started a tradition of having in-state players wear the #40 on their basketball team.
 
I can't believe it has been that long, seems like yesterday, I remember seeing who went to the funeral and Paul Lusk being there. I don't think the Iowa program has ever been the same since Street passed away.
 
Cried like a baby that night. I never met Chris in person but I felt like I knew him personally. He was the epitome of an Iowa Hawkeye in my eyes. I coached varsity basketball for 10 years and I wore his CMS40 t-shirt w/ his quote about "hard work and everything will work out in the end" as an undershirt for big/important games. So tragic. I still think of him and his family fairly often.
 
I was 25 years old. I remember I was watching channel 13 and they had a ticker across the bottom of the screen announcing the death. This was the days before the internet and any sliver of information regarding the accident came from the DSM register for most of us. Of course that was back when it was a good newspaper.
 
Mr. Davis said it well. Chris represented everything good we identify with as Midwesterners and Iowans.
When he passed, it felt to everyone...as though we'd lost the kid next door. Because we had. And he was.
 
Watching a game on ESPN when they flashed the news, literally cried during the MSU game, Mr. Davis was tremendous throughout the ordeal. A couple of years later I went to a clinic featuring Mr. Davis and he told the coaches that he was never the same after that night, basketball never seemed as important after losing Chris, wow you could hear a pin drop for a full minute, and this was in the twin cities. Chris was everything you hope a Hawkeye is all about!!!
 
I remember meeting Chris when I was about 10 or 11 years old when my sister worked with him at the Athlete's Foot in Old Capital mall. I remember him being a really nice dude and I was kind of star struck at the time. He also was a guest at our basketball camp when I was in 4th or 5th grade. Really nice guy for sure.
 
SirJamaLot said:
Watching a game on ESPN when they flashed the news, literally cried during the MSU game, Mr. Davis was tremendous throughout the ordeal. A couple of years later I went to a clinic featuring Mr. Davis and he told the coaches that he was never the same after that night, basketball never seemed as important after losing Chris

There are many who say that was what sowed the seeds of Mr. Davis's ultimate demise. It has been suggested that he lost his competitive edge..intensity... following the tragedy.

That's not meant to criticize Davis, it's understandable how he felt. But I believe it was a factor for those who wanted him out.
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Couple of thoughts on this:

1. I heard the news through the Armed Forces Network as I was stationed overseas on the DMZ in South Korea. Shocked would be an understatement.

2. He was only a couple years older than me and I remember his first game back from a broken foot and his Indianola team played my Ankeny team. Unbelievable performance for a guy that had been out so long.

3. I still firmly believe that had Chris been alive, we would have had a damn good shot at a Final Four berth.....certainly would have beaten Wake Forest.

4. When I look back at some of the clips and whatnot, it just makes me that much more pi$$ed off at how Dollar Bob Bowlsby treated Davis at the end of his tenure. Any other coach in that situation would have folded like a cheap tent. Mr. Davis was truly the "rock" of that team and based on his handling of that situation alone should have been given a lifetime contract.
 
Still sad to this day. Still get a little choked up about it.

I have a nephew that reminds me of him.
 
I am friends with someone who was very close to the basketball program back then and actually viewed Street's body in the morgue the night of the accident. He said that Street didn't have a scratch on him and looked like he was sleeping.
 
JonDMiller said:
Yes, 18 years. I was living in Carbondale, IL and watching Sportscenter and saw his face flash on the screen...total shock...called my brother after that and we talked a bit about it.

Here is a link to the entire 1993 Iowa v MSU game...the first game Iowa played after Street's death. Still probably my all time favorite Iowa sporting event.

Hulu - The Big Ten's Greatest Games: Basketball: 1993 Iowa at Michigan State
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That first home game after the tragedy against the fab five of Michigan and I believe Russ Millard and Kenyon Murray gave the Street family the game ball.....touching moment for me personally.
 
He was a couple years older than me. I remember going to the Iowa High School State tourney in like '91 and watching him. I remember thinking that, hmm - he was just OK. When he got to Iowa he was definitely one of my favorites, not for his skill but for his work ethic.

I was a senior in high school when he passed away. I was sleeping when my mom woke me up after the late news and told me. I remember tearing up while laying in my bed and just laying there replaying a Chris Street highlight reel in my head.
 
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