Mt. Flushmore of ISU Athletics
- Thread starter Cyched
- Start date
History is always relevant to understand today's situation, regardless of the issue.
President Robert Parks built the Foundation for the Iowa State University Modern Era. He was transformational.
I know who Parks is b/c my parents are ISU alums, but if you’re a younger fan who didn’t become an ISU fan before college, I can see why they wouldn’t know.
Maybe it’d be more productive to educate people on the topic instead of whining about the site?
No one knew that Gable would become the coach that he is - as you said, what do you do? Athletes like Gable leave their school for their first full-time coaching opportunity all the time.
The big difference here was: Gable never returned to coach at his alma mater.
I am not 70+. Not really that close. President Parks retired in 1986. That was 35 years ago. Anyone with a pulse and any sort of knowledge knows that Jack Trice Stadium, Hilton Coliseum, Scheman, Fisher, CY Stephens, etc. all built under Parks. Johnny Majors, Earle Bruce, Johnny Orr, all hired during Parks tenure. President Parks launched the Modern Era as he led us from the Old Armory and Clyde Williams Field to Hilton Coliseum and Jack Trice Stadium.
Cooper was a guest speaker at the Chizik coaching clinic i attended in 2008. Said he wanted the job but ISU admin wanted someone with head coaching experience. ISU came back to him later but he declined and recommended Walden. Straight from Cooper's mouth during his speech.
They were built under Parks, but the true visionary of transforming Iowa State was President Hilton. He did the planning and set in motion these outrageous thoughts of the Iowa State Center in the 50's. An no, I wasn't born yet......much later.
Wait, how is this relevant? From everything people are saying, Parks should be nowhere near ISU's Mt. Flushmore
Steve Prohm delivered us a worse season than Jim Walden did in 1994. He definitely belongs.
I don’t agree with Berryman or Irving. Sam Mack and Levin White did far worse than those two.
Nichols tried to get Gable back in '74, after Les took the Washington job. Nick basically offered Gable the "head coach in waiting" spot -- be an assistant for 3-4 years, then Nick would retire and Gable could take over.
Gable talks about the decision to go to Iowa in a recent JRE. He tells the story like Iowa wooed him, talked to his parents, talked to his friends, and made it really hard for him to say no. Then when he got there he made the culture his own and that was that.
