You're Getting It All Today: Doreen & Skeeter Wilber, Scottish Highlanders, Marching Bands, the World Series, High School Football Playoffs

Two sound-thinkers who always have a lot on their minds -- longtime newspaper and Internet columnist Chuck Offenburger and play-by-play radio announcer Scott Pierce -- check in with me today via e-mail:

Hey Ron...

"I've been on the road, but I really appreciated your column after the death of Doreen Wilber of our county seat town of Jefferson. We moved into Greene County four years ago, and I was always hoping that I could get together with Doreen and Skeeter to hear their Olympics stories first hand. Alas, she was just too ill the last couple of years, and I never got to have the conversation. Thanks to you for re-publishing your story about when she went into the D.M. Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame. Reading it was almost as good as talking to her would have been. I was amazed to read that Skeeter stayed home from the Olympics to work, and that he first learned about Doreen's gold medal in an announcement on radio. That tells you about what a different time it was. Another fun vignette about that, my pal Rick Morain, the longtime editor and publisher of the Jefferson Bee & Herald, says that when Wilber won gold, it was the only time in his long newspaper career that he actually ran into the back room screaming, 'Stop the presses! Stop the presses!'

"Second thing, be sure to catch my new column about the marching band and football scene at the College of Wooster. I thought of you several times during that weekend, with all the Scottish music and regalia. I still remember you uniforming up and marching with the Scottish Highlanders at the U of I! [Oh, despite what the headline might infer on my column, I did not actually march with the Wooster band, just trailed alongside pestering them.]"

Chuck O.

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I always enjoy Chuck Offenburger's columns and his insight into what's going on around the state and nation. Chuck [pictured at the right], of course, wrote the popular "Iowa Boy" column for many years at the Des Moines Register, and was one of the best-known people in the state. He was such an influence in the lives of Iowans that he maybe should have run for governor. You can read his Internet columns at www.Offenburger.com. Chuck writes just as well, if not better, now than when he and I worked in the Register newsroom together for many years. Chuck is a guy who is, and has been, interested in marching bands for a long, long time. I always enjoyed it when he attended Iowa-Iowa State football games and made comparisons on which university had the best marching band. His reference to the Scottish Highlanders was in connection to my "guest appearance" with them a number of years ago. The Highlanders used to march at Hawkeye home football games, and they were a novel group, indeed. During the time Iowa had non-winning football records for 19 conescutive seasons [from 1962-1980], Gene Raffensperger, then my boss in the sports department, suggested that I march with the Highlanders at halftime of a game and write a story for the Sunday Register about it. I've reprinted the story a time or two in these columns, and it was a thoroughly refreshing experience to appear with them in Kinnick Stadium. I mentioned to Offenburger that Cole, my 14-year-old grandson, a student at Southwoods Freshman High School in West Des Moines, is now a drummer in the Valley High School marching band, and that's one reason I still have a strong interest in bands. Indeed, I told Chuck that our family tries to watch the Iowa marching band do its warmup in the Recreation Building at Iowa City before it appears at Hawkeye games. We also watch the drumline section of the band [pictured at the top] do its morning warmup near the stadium. "I've been to those Hawkeye marching band warmups in the Rec Building several times, and they are terrific -- sometimes the most fun part of the day!" Offenburger wrote me. "That's cool that your grandson is in the Valley band. Are they still called the Marchmasters? Talk about a tradition!" Indeed, the Valley band is still called the Marchmasters. It's impressive when their large truck, with VALLEY MARCHMASTERS in huge letters, is parked next to the Valley Stadium on game nights. The Valley band is, and always has been, one of the best in the state and the midwest].

*

Here's Scott Pierce's e-mail:

Ron:

"First of all, the Rays are not in a 'must win' situation, in my opinion. It takes 4 games to win this thing. Many teams have come back from 2-0 down. The '85 Royals did it down 2-0 and going on the road for 3.

"Second thought....I don't care about whether a sporting event is rated high across the country. While the Red Sox would have been a higher rating, it wouldn't have been for me. I care about what I like. And when I did talk radio, I only cared about what MY audience cared about. I didn't give a rats what the big markets went for. I hope that makes sense.

"Third thought.....This is my annual pet peeve about the Iowa high school football playoffs. The expansion to 32 teams per class is idiotic. In Class 4A, only 16 teams will be left OUT of the playoffs. My buddy Bob Dyer calls this 'socialized sports.'

"But here's the bigger gripe. To get to the semifinals, a team will play [tonight], Wednesday, the following Monday, then the following Friday. That's 4 games in 2 weeks. Is that safe for the kids? Is playing on a Wednesday night, then a Monday night in their best interests? The IHSAA has preached for years that no teams will be asked to travel more than 100 miles because it's not in the kids best interests. Well, whose best interests are being served now?"

Scott Pierce

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: I wrote yesterday that Tampa Bay was in a "must-win" situation last night in its World Series with Philadelphia. The last thing the Rays, who won Thursday night's game, 4-2, needed was to go to Philly down, 2-0, in the best-of-seven series. It was bad enough that the Ray lost the opener, 3-2, in their home ballpark. As for the high school football playoffs, it does seem that teams in the playoffs are going to very, very busy, and the players had better be in superb condition if they're going to survive the schedule they face. However, my son tells me that ALL high school teams in Minnesota qualify for the playoffs, so Iowa certainly isn't alone in the expansion. Pierce [pictured at the left] is the play-by-play radio announcer for Drake's women's basketball team, and I mentioned to him that the season wasn't far away. "8 days, 14 hours, 6 minutes, 43 seconds away until basketball season," he wrote in an e-mail that was sent to me at 10:58 p.m. Thursday].