Remembering Ralph's Six Pack - PART II – Crushing The Century Mark

[RobHowe]

The second installment of Rick Brown's three-part series Remembering Ralph's Six Pack, the 1969-70 Hawkeye Basketball team, on the 50th anniversary of the historic season:

LINK

 

[Robowe]

Ah, how things have changed ...

The Hawkeyes then had a two-week break for semester exams,

 

[Hawk90]

Do any of you fellow old timers remember the kid on that 69 or 70 team that had teeth extracted, caught some infection and ended up blind. Pretty sure I am not making this up, I remember my older brother talking about it, but I don't recall any details.

 

[HuckFinn]

Great Chapter Two! Thanks Rick.

 

[hawkeyesgonewild]

I was 9 years old my dad took me to see team . I was there when john Johnson scored 49 against northwestern. Great team man they could shoot. Average. 100 in the big ten no shot clock and no three point shot. My dad is long gone thank yoh dad

 

[uihawk82]

Do any of you fellow old timers remember the kid on that 69 or 70 team that had teeth extracted, caught some infection and ended up blind. Pretty sure I am not making this up, I remember my older brother talking about it, but I don't recall any details.

You are not making this up but right now I can not remember his name. He was a talented recruit but maybe played in 71. Yes he had a tooth extracted and what he contracted was meningitis which as we know now is common for young people around college campuses. At the time though the Dental College settled a civil lawsuit with the family even though now we might not be so sure the tooth extraction and meningitis were linked since kids not vaccinated for meningitis do contract it at a much higher rate on college campuses.

 

[fstrfam]

James Speed

 

[uihawk82]

Do any of you fellow old timers remember the kid on that 69 or 70 team that had teeth extracted, caught some infection and ended up blind. Pretty sure I am not making this up, I remember my older brother talking about it, but I don't recall any details.

The players name was James Speed. I just read an article about his death that he was a freshman in 1970. He came down with a sinus infection that became meningitis and may have been related to dental work.

 

[StatelineHawk]

Do any of you fellow old timers remember the kid on that 69 or 70 team that had teeth extracted, caught some infection and ended up blind. Pretty sure I am not making this up, I remember my older brother talking about it, but I don't recall any details.

James Speed

 

[Hawk90]

Thanks for the name; what a shame, with the name I found this: https://www.thegazette.com/2011/09/15/former-iowa-top-recruit-dies-from-cancer