Everyone From Don Lund To Brooksie Predict the Hawkeyes Will Rebound To Win 8, 9, Maybe 10 Games In the 2007 Football Season

 

 

 

Iowa City, Ia. -- Don Lund has reminded me several times in recent years that I wanted to write a newspaper story about him more than 30 years ago.

"I was the student manager on the Iowa football team in 1974 and 1975," Lund explained. "That's when Bob Commings was the coach, and guys like Dan McCarney, Rob Fick and Bobby Elliott were playing here.

"I think you talked to Rick Brown, my roommate, about writing a story about me. But I wasn't quite stable enough in those days, and didn't want to do the story. I didn't want that kind of gig because I was still trying to hit on women."

Lund laughed when he said that.

Don Lund -- a great guy and a great Hawkeye -- is now 53 years of age and lives with two cats.

He's also the co-author with Brian Fleck of the book, "No hands...no feet...No Problem" that tells his story.

As the title says, Don was born with no hands and no feet.

"A quadruple congenital amputee," the book says. "A freak of nature. One in a million. A joke for the politically incorrect. A gift from God.

"Don's right leg ended with a partial kneecap, and his left leg was formed down to his ankle. His right arm ended at his wrist, and his left arm was an inch or so shorter. All four limbs ended in stumps."

Obviously, nothing has stopped Don Lund since then.

"I can do pretty much everything," he said. "I have a fairly normal life without a normal body."

If the guy could be a student manager on football teams that never had winning records, he knew he could do it all.

Now he's writing stories and taking photographs for the North Liberty Leader newspaper.

Lund recalls how that all happened.

"They were looking for somebody to cover the Hawkeyes in 2000, and I said, 'Hey, I'm your man," Lund said. "The first game I covered was against Iowa State and we got beat. The first two stories I sent in, I didn't even know the guy I was sending them to."

Lund was one of the people I wanted to talk with when I came to Iowa City to find out about Iowa's 2007 football team.

When I asked Lund, he said, "As long as Kirk Ferentz is the coach, I feel we're going to be competitive in every game we play. I talked to [offensive line coach] Reese Morgan, and he told me that they have the most depth in the offensive line that they've had in all his years here. That's where it all starts.

"They've got two great running backs in Albert Young and Damian Sims. And then I like Jake."

Jake is quarterback Jake Christensen, who is the successor to Drew Tate.

"We have some pretty good wideouts and tight ends, and when you've got Norm Parker coaching the defense it's like Bill Brashier over there. You're going to get the best...." Lund said.

"I've looked at the books, and they say we'll be underdogs in two games -- against Wisconsin and Penn State. I think Purdue is going to be tough, too. If we can win nine games, I'll be happy.

"Nine-and-three and win the bowl game."

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Susan Denk is a sportswriter for the Burlington Hawk Eye. She began covering the Hawkeyes in Kirk Ferentz's first season.

Paying attention to everything that's going on with a major-college football is a demanding enough job for most people.

It used to be that the summers were a little easier on a sportswriter than the autums and winters.

Not anymore.

Not when Susan Denk had to prepare for, and compete in, the June 3 triathlon in Palo -- a community near Cedar Rapids.

And also do things like cover the Burlington Bees of the Class A Midwest League.

"I didn't finish last in the triathlon," she told me.

Coaches and other athletic department personnel show up at "I" Club meetings around the state in the spring and summer to talk about how the season might go.

Denk said she wasn't able to attend any of those meetings.

"That's a good thing," I said.

So what kind of team does Denk expect?

"I think they'll be pretty good," she said. "I'm interested to see how Jake Christensen does. And I'm excited about the receivers."

I caught up with Denk between interviews. I'm sure she found much more to write about.

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Gary Dolphin is the veteran play-by-play broadcaster for the Iowa radio network.

He said the No. 1 priority in preseason practice is the offensive line.

"I think it can be an 8- or 9-win team," Dolphin said. "Two key games are at Wisconsin and Iowa State. Nobody knows what to expect out of Iowa State.

"If Iowa can steal two wins at those places, they're on a momentum roll."

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It's not true that Bob Brooks broadcast the first Iowa football game that was played in 1889.

But he might have been the student manager on that team.

Just kidding.

Brooksie did see the 1939 Ironmen play when he was a kid, and he says he attended his first Iowa press day in 1943.

"Slip Madigan was the coach then, followed by Clem Crowe," Brooksie said. "For press day, we met under a tree on the practice field. It was a beautiful tree and we had a lot of shade.

"We solved the world's problems and we talked a lot of football."

Brooksie is now 80 and says he still works for radio station KMRY in Cedar Rapids.

He looked good and sounded good as he sized up the Hawkeyes.

"I think Iowa will make it to a top-notch bowl game, and I think they can certainly win nine games and probably 10," Brooksie said.

"I think this team has the right chemistry and is going to be a lot better than a year ago [when the record was 6-7]."

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After a 6-6 regular season in 2006, athletic director Gary Barta said he thinks the team "returned to Iowa football."

The Hawkeyes played well in a 26-24 loss to Texas in the Alamo Bowl, and that provides some hope for 2007.

"Winter workouts and spring ball went well," he said. "My enthusiam is high. We have some holes to figure out in the offensive line and the defensive secondary, but there are a lot of positives.

"We're undefeated at this point."

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George Wine was Iowa's sports information director for 25 years.

He and I experienced most of the 19 seasons of non-winning Hawkeye football under five coaches during that period.

It wasn't much fun.

At least one of us thought we might be looking at the makings of a permanent coaching graveyard.

Then along came Hayden....

Wine is a big fan of Kirk Ferentz, and says of the 2007 season:

"I think this is a year when the Hawkeyes start slow and finish fast, ending with a record of 8-4. But what the hell do I know?"

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Me? I picked Iowa to go 12-0 last season.

So, as you might guess, I'm waiting a few days to make my 2007 prediction.

Meanwhile, let me get back to checking the two-deeps.

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EDITORS' NOTES -- Ron Maly obviously checked in with a number of people to get a cross-section of Hawkeye football, 2007 version. The photos, from top to bottom, are of Don Lund, Dave Stockdale, Randy Peterson, Susan Denk (left), Gary Dolphin (right), George Wine, Bob Brooks and Gary Barta. The photos of Lund, Stockdale, Peterson, Wine, Brooks and Barta were taken by Ron Maly. The photo of Denk is courtesy of the Burlington Hawk Eye. The photo of Dolphin is courtesy of Google. Maly said he tried to take pictures of Denk and Dolphin on the practice field, but his camera quit working. He thinks his rechargable batteries crapped out. We've heard that story before. However, Ron did take the photo of Stockdale in front of the new Wall of Fame on the fourth floor of Kinnick Stadium. Stockdale, a retired Des Moines Register sports news editor, copy editor and sportswriter, has been a Hawkeye fan forever, and this was his first visit to the new press box. Maly was proud to show Stockdale that he was among the charter members of the Wall of Fame that honors sportswriters, sportscasters and sports information directors. All of them were longtime "gamers." Maly told the editors of his website that he wanted to get an updated photo of Peterson for this package and for his files because he's been calling the Des Moines Register sportswriter a "gamer," too. Ron tells us that a "gamer" is someone who not only works hard, but works hard 24 hours a day. Indeed, Maly told us Peterson was the only reporter he saw working on a computer during Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz's press conference. That displayed considerable dedication. Being a "gamer" is a good idea these days, of course, because of what's been going on at newspapers like the Register, where Peterson has worked since breaking in when -- we think -- old-fashioned manual typewriters were still being used. Bloggers, whose day jobs could be as fry cooks at the North End Diner, are already serving as movie critics for the Register -- and no doubt aren't being paid to do it. Consequently, Maly thinks it's a good idea for reporters like Peterson to work on their computers during press conferences so the Register's bosses will be impressed. Obviously, everyone in the newspaper business is running scared. When unpaid bloggers can start critiquing the movies, the next step could be for editors to bring in bloggers from the East Side Maid-Rite or the women's restroom at the bus station to cover Iowa and Iowa State football and basketball games.]