Surrounded By Talent

Iowa City, Ia. -- One of the pleasures of watching my 30th Iowa-Iowa State football game yesterday was being able to have John Carlson on one side of me in the Kinnick Stadium press box and Thom Cornelis on the other side.

Carlson, of course, is the standout newsside columnist for the Des Moines Register, and Cornelis is the longtime and talented sports director at KWQC-TV in the Quad Cities.

If I anticipated having any problems figuring things out in this game, I knew Carlson and Cornelis would be able to come to my assistance.

Both guys, you might say, have been around the block.

I mean, Carlson has been to Oakville and Iraq, so you can figure he knows how way around everywhere.

"Have you heard that there's a graveyard under this stadium?" he asked me during a lull in the action.

[By the way, there a number of lulls in the action in a game Iowa won, 17-5, before a sellout crowd of well over 70,000 at Kinnick Stadium.]

"That's what I understand," I told Carlson. "I guess there are horses buried under there."

Well, that's the story I've been hearing for years anyway, although there are doubters.

Long before Kinnick Stadium got its present name, it was called simply Iowa Stadium.

Historians tell us the stadium was built in just seven months, which is a story in itself.

The story goes that workers used lights at night and horses and mules [pictured, courtesy of Special Collections, UI Libraries] as the primary heavy-equipment movers.

There was a rumor for many years that horses that died during the process were buried under what now is the north end zone.

However, Wikipedia reports that others say the animals that died during the process were thrown into the Iowa River before the round-the-clock construction came to an end in July. The first game was played there Oct. 5, 1929.

If Al Grady were still alive, I'd check all of this out with him. Grady, the longtime sports editor of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, knew everything there was to know about Hawkeye football.

I suppose I could check with Jim Zabel. "Z" probably broadcast the first game at Iowa Stadium, and maybe was on hand when horses were being used to carry equipment there in 1929. It could be he even rode one of them.

*

I had my laptop computer in front of me in the press box, acting like I was a real working guy in Row 3 between Carlson and Cornelis.

But I closed the computer up shortly I began my conversation with the two guys.

Then I was convinced I was keeping Carlson from doing his job by talking to him.

After all, he was there to write a page 1 story for Sunday's paper.

"No problem," he said, "I've got most of the story finished."

John told me he was writing about 94-year-old John Brockway, who watched his first Hawkeye game in 1922.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading his story in today's paper.

Of course, I enjoy everything Carlson writes.

He's a pro, and always has been.

He's been a reporter, an bureau guy in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and now a columnist.

He's one of the best in the business, and he's a good guy.

As far as I'm concerned, he's the heart of the newsroom in a business that's facing difficult times.

*

John and I talked about Ken Fuson, the tremendous former Register writer who recently accepted a buyout and is now out of the newspaper business.

"Ken is writing a book," Carlson told me.

Great.

If Fuson is writing a book, I know it'll be a good one. If he has a book-signing when it's published, I'll try to be the first guy in line to get a signed copy.

I think Kenny might have misinterpreted some things that I wrote about him a couple of weeks ago when he announced he was taking the buyout.

I used the words "rats leaving a sinking ship" when I described Kenny's bailout.

I don't think he liked those words, but I meant no harm.

I had always heard that rats were smart and they were always the first to leave a ship that was going down in the sea.

That's all I meant by my reference to rats.

Kenny, if I ever run into you in a coffee shop, I'm buying. You're the best.

*

Jake Christensen has to be Iowa's starting quarterback in Saturday's game at Pittsburgh.

The way I look at it, coach Kirk Ferentz has no other choice.

*

It was good seeing Tom Kroeschell yesterday in the press box.

He's the longtime sports information director at Iowa State, and I told him I think the Cyclones will do all right this season.

Indeed, they could do better than the 4-8 record I predicted.

And Iowa is well on its way toward reaching the 8-4 record I predicted. The Hawkeyes will go to 4-0 Saturday at Pitt.

*

Jeff Valadez, a former Iowan who now lives in Bend, Ore., e-mailed me this message about the Hawkeye quarterbacks:

"Well, it's great to have two decent quarterbacks, as long as we get the 'W.' That is all that counts!!!! Oregon looks like they are down to their No. 3.

"Please don't say that Pitt is not all that good....you know the story!!!

"I'm going to try to go to the Wisconsin game this year. My cousins from Des Moines always have the tailgating going on (Villalobos family with the best Mexican breakfast in the parking lot!!!) and the last time I went to a game in Iowa City was when we beat the Buckeyes, 33-7. So I think I need to take the good luck to that game!

"Glad to hear you had a good time with your family and enjoyed a good win. ISU is always a good one!!!!"

Jeff

[RON MALY'S COMMENT: Jeff, I'll see you in the parking lot at the Wisconsin game. You're making me hungry with talk of that Mexican breakfast].