I agree Pomerantz deserves a spot, but if you include him, you need to include the guy that appointed him to do what he did, Branstad
Mt. Flushmore of ISU Athletics
- Thread starter Cyched
- Start date
I agree Pomerantz deserves a spot, but if you include him, you need to include the guy that appointed him to do what he did, Branstad
GORDON P. EATON
I was looking for him in this thread. "We are an academic institution and athletics are not important". Said that about 5 minutes before ESPN took off and changed everything. So short sighted.
Eaton and BVDV are 1 and 2 on this list. After that i am less sure. But those two did more damage than almost anyone.
Pomerantz was always trying to wreck ISU athletics AND academics, but he was a huge Hawk so idk if he belongs on this list.
Father of a late 70s wrestler told me many times that Gable wanted ISU (McCullouch?) to fire Harold Nichols, and left in a snit when they wouldn't.
not sure how much of that is accurate. Dan would LOVED to have coached here but he would NEVER have undercut Les Anderson for that job. He LOVED Coach Nichols and Les. He did want on staff badly and we had him as a GA. It was way too easy for Iowa to poach him but what do you do? At that time, Nichols was considered one of the two greatest coaches of all time- you don't fire him for that.
I had always heard it was related to wanted to replace Les and not wanting Nichols fired. Nichols pined for Les to be his replacement so if Gable could have replaced Les, he would have been the preferred replacement.
Bruce Van De Velde and Gene Chizik are the 1st 2 names that come to mind and after that I'd have to start nitpicking who would be next. Prohm doesn't make my list and I know the last 2 seasons are still fresh in everyone's minds but he did have 3 20+ win seasons and a Sweet 16 appearance as well as 2 Big 12 Tournament championships and multiple players sent to the NBA so it wasn't all bad under his watch to the point where you could include him on this list. McDermott would be more deserving of it than Prohm given he never had a winning season in 4 years at ISU.
We lived across from the Knoll when Gordy was Prez. During the Veishea riots of ‘88 some folks torched his Sunday paper and the folks started chanting, “Gordy! Gordy! Go back to Texas!” So yes he deserves the wall of shame.
Serious question, I attended isu from 90-94. I met Jim a few times & he was always a nice guy. I always felt sorry for him as it was obviously he had NO support from the administration. He had some success in the late 80’s , then we stunk it up during my time in Ames.. seemed like injuries & just apathy set in, & he gave up.. for some people older than me?? Why did isu hire Duncan when cooper obviously was a prime candidate & would have stepped in? & the criner deal? Still boggles me mine.
I wasn’t around for Eaton but there probably was not a guy employed by or associated with ISU that was openly hostile to athletics as he was.
Nobody on here young enough to remember President Parks. Explains a lot about this site.
