RIP Lute Olson

I was checking into a hotel in Oakland, CA a long time ago, and Lute was directly in front of me waiting for a clerk to come free. I couldn't help myself but to talk to him. This was just after Arizona won their national title and I congratulated him and said it would have been his second if Ronnie Lester doesn't go down against Louisville in the Semi Final. He kind of smiled and said "I liked our chances as well."

I was at Iowa when he left and that was heartbreaking. You just don't get many opportunities to have a coach like Lute at your school. He could recruit, he could make players better, and he was a great bench coach as well. The joke was, he would walk into the living room of a recruit and immediately the mothers would tell their kid they are going to Iowa. Pretty funny. RIP Lute.
 
trj said:
Bob Hogue and Sharm Sherman would do the telecasts. Don’t remember who came before those two and I do not remember who came after that. Even though it feels like Mac McCausland was in the mix somewhere. Bob Hogue would use Dick Enberg’s “Oh, my” catchphrase.

I am younger than you and Northside, but it was definitely part of my youth.
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And 90% of people in Iowa at the time thought Enberg stole it from Hogue. LOL.
 
trj said:
Bob Hogue and Sharm Sherman would do the telecasts. Don’t remember who came before those two and I do not remember who came after that. Even though it feels like Mac McCausland was in the mix somewhere. Bob Hogue would use Dick Enberg’s “Oh, my” catchphrase.

I am younger than you and Northside, but it was definitely part of my youth.
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The first play by play man was Ron Steele, who is still at KWWL.

After Hogue came Bob Healey, who was known to detour into downtown Iowa City in search of coeds after games.

By the time Mac and Larry Morgan got there the ITN was starting to get absorbed by the conference, and even by ESPN a little bit.

There was a time in the seventies and eighties when the ITN also did state championship football games. And of course IPTV has done or once did girls and boys basketball as well as wrestling, which helped make Frosty Mitchell a legend.
 
trj said:
Bob Hogue and Sharm Sherman would do the telecasts. Don’t remember who came before those two and I do not remember who came after that. Even though it feels like Mac McCausland was in the mix somewhere. Bob Hogue would use Dick Enberg’s “Oh, my” catchphrase.

I am younger than you and Northside, but it was definitely part of my youth.
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Bob Hogue made the broadcast. Mac and some nondescript announcer from Des Moines took over from that, and they were a joke.

Edit: Larry Morgan, yeah nondescript
 
I'm of the generation where, for a long time, Zabel was doing just about everythg sports-wise out of WHO (Iowa, Drake, state basketball tourneys, Beat the Bear TV show, etc). I would tune in to 1040 on many a cold winter night to hear the Zipper give his rendition of what was going on at the Fieldhouse. (no matter how perhaps exagerrated it was :cool:)
 
Seth53 said:
I'm of the generation where, for a long time, Zabel was doing just about everythg sports-wise out of WHO (Iowa, Drake, state basketball tourneys, Beat the Bear TV show, etc). I would tune in to 1040 on many a cold winter night to hear the Zipper give his rendition of what was going on at the Fieldhouse. (no matter how perhaps exagerrated it was :cool:)
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Me too! I thought Zable had the ultimate dream job!! How I envied him back in the day. I listened to EVERY Iowa bball and football game, home or away, even when we weren't very good. Brings back so many memories. Lost my wife of 39 years last Feb and my subsequent engagement too. Been a bad run with all my childhood coaches passed also.
 
Watched the Hawks at Marquette in the early 80’s. We were down 20 at half. Came back big time in the second. Game on the line, bad call (again) favored the home team. Lute came off the bench, looked the ref in the eye and held his hand to his throat as in “choked.” Got an immediate T. But, team responded and Iowa won.
 
Sad to hear this. I grew up in the 80's so my memories of him are only those of his Arizona teams kicking our butts a few times.

That said, I'm well aware of his place in Hawkeye history, and he helped to pave the way for the mid 80's teams that made me such a big hawk fan to begin with. Might not have ended up that way otherwise.

Thanks for everything, Lute.
 
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