Andy & The Armory

I was out of town last week when people around here learned of the death of Glen Anderson.

But I want to thank Mike Swan of El Dorado, Kan., for giving me the details and helping me recall the days when the man we called "Andy" was Iowa State's basketball coach.

Swan is the mass communications lead instructor and sports media adviser at Butler Community College in El Dorado.

In an e-mail to me, Mike wrote:

"Ron, with the passing of Glen Anderson at 79, I wanted to share some things with you. I have included an article of yours from the 1960s about the Armory with some quotes from Andy. It hangs on the wall in my basement office.

"I am an Ames native who went to Iowa State and graduated in 1979 in journalism. I then finished a master's degree in the same field in 1998, writing a thesis on the history of The Iowa State Daily [coverage of Anderson's teams is in there].

"I attended Anderson's ISU basketball camp as an eighth-grader and I remember he called my home to make sure I was coming. The camp was big, but not as huge as today's versions, and I cannot tell you the impact that call had on me. I loved the game but did not make my high school team.

"However, the camp was a tremendously positive experience and helped us improve. After the coach called me, I telephoned a friend and told him I would inform him if any more big-time college coaches contacted me.

"I have fond memories of Coach Anderson."

Here's the Des Moines Register story of mine of nearly 40 years ago that Swan sent:

I.S.U. Armory: Beautiful, or Mad House?

By Ron Maly
Register Staff Writer

AMES, IA. -- Chalk up another one for the Armory. Chalk it up, that is, if you can find room in the tattered pages of history that tell the story of the old place.

Iowa State won a basketball game and Aaron Jenkins thought he won a boxing match Saturday against Nebraska. The basketball game went into overtime, but Jenkins' unscheduled fisticuffs with Jim Brooks were cut short before any damaging blows were struck.

It was business as usual. People come into the Armory expecting anything -- and usually get a little of everything. Whatever the case, no one ever goes away saying he didn't get just a bit excited.

The 99-93 victory was Iowa State's sixth at home this season. The Cyclones have lost only to Drake and Kansas State in the Armory while compiling a 9-9 record overall.

A lot of people thought Drake Coach Maury John was being facetious last month when he said "they might as well put 20 points on the board right now for Iowa State. The Armory is worth that much."

There were, however, some who knew John wasn't being facetious. They were the coaches who also have brought teams here to play.

To the opposition, the Armory is too small, too old, too cramped, too noisy and -- more often than not -- too heart-breaking.

To Iowa State, the Armory is beautiful.

It has 7,000 seats -- and they're at just about any angle you care to mention. Watch a game from press row and you don't see bodies. You see heads.

First a guy risks getting a nosebleed in one of those high-up seats, then he risks heart failure in another maddening finish that has become a way of life here.

What is it about the outdated arena that turns extraordinary opponents into ordinary ones? What is it that inflates Iowa State with some sort of magic strength?

"The Armory probably works both ways," said Arnie Gaarde, who has seen its charms as both a player and coach. He captained the 1955-56 Cyclones and is now an assistant to Glen Anderson.

"The crowd is right on top of everyone and it has an effect on both teams," Gaarde continued. "We crawled back to within 10 points in our game with Kansas and the crowd got with us.

"It gave us a big lift and, at the same time, it probably caused Kansas to do some things it didn't want to do."

The Cyclones, in one of the gigantic shocks of the season, won that game, 78-72, in two overtimes. It came just a week after Kansas had beaten Iowa State, 94-61, at Lawrence.

"It's the enthusiasm," said Anderson. "It's bound to help our players. I can't say if we have the biggest home-court advantage in the Big Eight, but we certainly have one of the best.

"Nebraska isn't bad, you know. Over there people are practically sitting on the court. Their feet are about this far (Andy had his fingers spread apart by two inches) from the floor."

Anderson mentioned enthusiasm, and certainly the Armory has that. The acoustics being what they are, a crowd of 10 could holler and sound like 1,000. Voices bounce off the walls and ceiling very well.

The band not only makes music, but makes noise. It has its own cheers. Large banners decorated -- well anything is a decoration in the Armory -- the walls Saturday, none of them complimentary to Nebraska.

Iowa State students threatened to go on strike last week, but they probably would have crossed picket lines to get into Saturday's game.

School spirit isn't supposed to be "in" anymore, but the word apparently hasn't gotten here yet. The old Armory roof almost blew off a couple of times during the wild matinee performance.

It won't be long before the roof can blow away and hardly anyone will know the difference. In case you haven't heard, the Armory's days as an intercollegiate basketball facility are numbered.

Three more games this season and a dozen or so next year, then it's goodbye. Iowa State's new 14,000-seat coliseum is scheduled to go into use for the 1970-71 season.

"The new place will probably hurt our home-court advantage," Anderson commented, "but it should help our recruiting.

"You should see the Armory he we're trying to convince a player he should attend Iowa State during the spring. The bleachers are down, it's dirty and dusty in there and there really isn't too much you can tell a kid.

"So what we do is show him a picture of the new coliseum."

Wonder what it's like to watch a game without a nosebleed?

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The victory over Kansas by Glen Anderson and his Cyclones that I wrote about in the story came on Jan. 13,1969.

Iowa State finished the 1968-69 season with a 14-12 overall record and was 8-6 in the old Big Eight Conference.

Andy didn't know it at the time -- at least I don't think he knew it -- but the clock was ticking on him.

He lasted only two more seasons as the Cyclones' coach. His 1969-70 team had records of 12-14 and 5-9, and his final Iowa State team in 1970-71 slid to 5-21 and 2-12.

Hilton Coliseum didn't open in time for the 1970-71 season as planned, but it was ready for 1971-72. Clay Stapleton, the football coach-turned-athletic director, didn't want Anderson as the coach in the new building.

Anderson was a very nice man, but the best of his 12 seasons was the 15-9 record he had in his break-in year of 1959-60.

Iowa State was just as difficult a place to coach in those days as it is now, and Stapleton thought the university needed someone other than Glen Anderson to be the coach when Hilton Coliseum opened.

I was talking with Stapleton one day in his office during Anderson's sad final season.

All of a sudden, he said, "They tell me Maury John at Drake is a very good coach."

"Yes, he is," I answered.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I'll bet Stapleton had already made contact with John about becoming Anderson's successor.

John took his final three Drake teams to the NCAA tournament, and his 1968-69 squad finished third in the Final Four at Louisville, Ky.

John, the best coach Drake ever had, clearly had the Bulldogs' program in an elite status.

Unfortunately, John didn't live long enough to get the Iowa State program built to where he wanted it.

His first two Cyclone teams went 12-14 and 16-10. He soon became ill with cancer and couldn't finish the 1973-74 season, which ended at 15-11 with assistants coaching the team. John died soon thereafter.

*

I covered numerous basketball games and wrestling meets in the Armory [which is pictured], and enjoyed being there every time.

I covered an NCAA wrestling tournament there, and Dan Gable was still competing for the Cyclones at the time.

"Harold Nichols had it rolling in the Armory," Mike Swan told me of the longtime Cyclone wrestling coach. "You wrote about 'ghosts' one time regarding Drake's 1969 basketball team. Sometimes when I go back to Ames, I pop into the Armory and you can hear the 'ghosts' of ISU athletic teams of the past.

"I've been on quite a nostalgia kick recently, I guess because I'm getting older and I get to see my kids go through some things I did. We are quite settled here [in El Dorado], 20 minutes from Wichita.

"My wife is a former Young Iowa Journalist of the Year when she worked at the Iowa City Press-Citizen."

*

Thanks for the memories, Mike.