Yes Duncan quit to go to work for some buddy just before National Letter of Intent Day. It was either to sell insurance or real estate. He was terrible. I have blamed Dorky Donnie for ISU's football woes. Criner was hired on very short notice because of the timing of Duncan's resignation. He squandered everything Earle had built and more. Duncan didn't recruit or coach. He used up Chris Boskey like cannon fodder. If remember correctly Dennis Gibson, who played for San Diego for several years, wrote a scathing review of Duncan after he left.
A question to you older fanatics: Donnie Duncan
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Donnie (along w/ a handful of administrators, professors and Terry Branstad and Marvin Pomerantz) were all culpable for the demise of ISU football. ISU has 3-straight 8 win seasons and were widely considered the 3rd best programin the Big 8 Conf. Additionally, Earle had taken advantage of a relatively new rule and redshirted nearly his entire frosh class. The program was stacked w/ talent.
No coach in ISU history inherited more talent and did less than did Donnie.
The sad part is he is/was a very nice guy. Donnie ran a bowl game for a while and also was an associate commish for the B-12 at one time.
ISU AD Lou McCoullough wanted to hire KU assistant coach and ISU alum John Cooper. President Parks was hesitant due to the KU staff being under NCAA investigation (despite no wrongdoing by Cooper). We settled on Donnie.
While we were worried about ethics (and rightfully so) Iowa went out and hired a coach who had left two schools on probation in hopes of ending the Hawks string of 20 straight losing seasons and saving Bump Elliott's job. His name was Hayden Fry and the rest is history. With Pomerantz and Branstad determined to make ISU a satellite campus of the U of I. They went out and hired the worst president of ISU history in Gordon Eaton who hated and demphasized athletics and then broke off sources of ISU pride like giving away WOI TV and getting rid of academic programs similar what were offered in Iowa City claiming duplicate programs would be eliminated. Last I checked, Iowa still has a sub par engineering program thus making Branstad's Pomerantz words ring hollow.
Anyway, Donnie was not good
Sorry for the rant and my revisionist history
You hit it spot on - through administration and coaching - we hit with a thud. Cooper nearly begged to come here, he loved ISU. As for Dandy Donnie, his main focus was to beat Iowa and please the Hawkeye hater boosters with that one win. He let Crutchfield create his own rules - and soon he failed by those rules very early in his pro career. Duncan had some great athletes - just zero coaching. I have been saying since day one, he was the beginning of the downfall, not Walden.
I think the article came from linebacker Mark Carlson. (It was a great read and seemed pretty much dead on relative to the rumors on campus at the time. Hopefully someone can dig this up?)
I have never heard this...Bruce had a great career at OSU. Im not saying he didnt im just wondering where you heard that.
Think about if he would have stayed...we might have at least kept pace with Iowa over the years.
You know I can't tell you. I did not hear it directly. May have heard it on this site from some one else.
Agreed. I don't think Bruce ever said he should have never gone to Ohio State. He did say that if the Ohio State job didn't open up, he would have spent the rest of his career at Iowa State. So I guess in a way, we can also blame Woody Hayes for the demise of Iowa State football in the '80's
It's kind of interesting to think what would have happened had Bruce stayed and what would have happened with his staff, including a young secondary coach by the name of Pete Carroll. Especially if all the rumors were true and Bruce wanted Carroll to eventually replace him.
the biggest problem that Donnie Duncum had was that he could NOT beat KU, Mizzou or KState and dont forget Colorado, when these teams were very average to poor teams!!! esp.colorado and kstate!!!!
good old donnie quit and then applied for the head coaching job at wichita state and got turned down and eventually went back to norman okla and became the athletic director.
when you tie oklahoma on a missed field goal and you lose to colorado-kstate-ku-mu....its time to move on and let jim crymore criner take over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:yes:
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Got a chance to talk to 2 very interesting folks affiliated with ISU after the Oklahoma State game, at Old Chicago. One worked for ISU in radio (not a broadcaster) and the other did the stats for FB, MBB and WBB. Both have been around for a while.
Talked about Bruce, Duncan and Walden (Criner for a second, but just about the helmet debacle and we moved on).
We'd be a very different program today if a certain coach had not punched a player out east and Bruce had more years in Ames. Both of these guys were surprised I could recall that. They both vividly recalled that memory and each knew the second they heard about it, Bruce was gone.
On Duncan, both felt he could really bring in talent but just could not coach - especially on game day and making adjustments. That's why his seasons would start well and then fall apart as it grew on.
Both of them really liked Walden. The sad thing was, our athletic department didn't like him...thus gave him no support. Felt Walden was a good coach that never, ever got a fair shake.
They also said, going to MBB, that Orr "quit" his last 2 seasons because again, the athletic department didn't like him and just "beat him down". Found that to be very interesting.
Talked about Bruce, Duncan and Walden (Criner for a second, but just about the helmet debacle and we moved on).
We'd be a very different program today if a certain coach had not punched a player out east and Bruce had more years in Ames. Both of these guys were surprised I could recall that. They both vividly recalled that memory and each knew the second they heard about it, Bruce was gone.
On Duncan, both felt he could really bring in talent but just could not coach - especially on game day and making adjustments. That's why his seasons would start well and then fall apart as it grew on.
Both of them really liked Walden. The sad thing was, our athletic department didn't like him...thus gave him no support. Felt Walden was a good coach that never, ever got a fair shake.
They also said, going to MBB, that Orr "quit" his last 2 seasons because again, the athletic department didn't like him and just "beat him down". Found that to be very interesting.
That's funny they said that because I just happened to be watching the Ohio State-Clemson game on TV when Hayes threw the punch. And, INSTANTLY I had this sick feeling that our coach was gone. I heard later that they offered the job to Lou Holtz but he didn't take it, then offered it to Earle. Who knows if that part is true.
I still think Bruce would have moved on to greener pastures even if OSU hadn't come calling. ISU's never been in a real postion to match an arms race in pay for a hot coach like he was.
I liked Walden until his last year. He really burned the bridges with me when he turned really negative about ISU at the end. Maybe he didn't get help, but he should have been more classy at the end.
Johny Orr quit.? Hmmm I don't remember that happening. He handed over a pretty talented basketball team to Tim Floyd who did some good things with it. I do know Johnny didn't really want to retire, but was forced out. Maybe his drinking had a little to do with it. I remember seeing him really lit up at a Cyclone Golf outing.
My recollection is that Johnny was interested in being the AD and wanted to hand the program off to a successor chosen by him (likely Halihan).
Obviously, the ISU administration wanted neither of those things and I think that led to the tension during the end of the JO era. But I do not believe JO "quit" on ISU...he was plenty ******...but did not quit.
Thanks to everyone for the history lessons. It's amazing how a few jerks in high places (Branstad, Pomerantz, etc) can really affect a program. It is really sad to think about what could have been with ISU football. I really only remember the McCarney years and beyond. Keep the stories coming!
