It has been 42 years since I regretfully said goodbye to Iowa City. Today, it’s time for me to speak out against a Hawkeye sports tragedy.
University of Iowa athletic director Gary Barta has elected to add women’s wrestling to the sports program at a startup cost of $1.5 million. Just last year, he used the COVID-19 crisis as justification to eliminate women’s and men’s swimming, which cost about $3 million annually. Fortunately, the Hawkeye women were reinstated, but not so the men’s team. This is an injustice to the dreams of many boys age group and high school swimmers in Iowa.
I know from personal experience, having coached Iowa City High and West High girls’ and boys’ teams from 1968-1979, and the Iowa City Swim Club during the same time span.
Arriving in 1963, I had the opportunity to be a Hawkeye swimmer for coach Bob Allen. During four years, I swam 6 million yards, (3,400 miles) in the Fieldhouse pool, and during each stroke, I played the Iowa Fight Song in my head, because I was so proud to be a Hawkeye and represent my university in the Big Ten Conference. This is a theme I gave my Iowa City swimmers every year I coached: “Become a Hawkeye swimmer.”
It seems like Barta does not share the pride in all of Iowa’s sports teams. He was a football player at North Dakota State, winning three NCAA Division II championships, a school that has no swim team. At Wyoming, his administration made it very difficult to get a swim-coaching contract. At Northern Iowa, he worked at a school that has eliminated men’s and women’s swimming.
He may be a great leader in football and other revenue-producing sports, but not so in non-revenue producers. This is an unfortunate pattern. The All Big Ten Trophy should be the goal of all athletic directors, where each sport gets equal points. Every Hawkeye sport deserves — no demands — our respect.
Men’s swimming must be reinstated at Iowa because it violates the discrimination code of the Iowa Athletic Board of Control. Let’s be fair to all Hawk programs, even Olympic sports. You have a world-class facility … use it!
Come on, Gary Barta, step up and be a total sports leader!
Message to Grassley: Raise debt ceiling
This is the letter I sent to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley this week:
“You often refer to the need for common sense government. Yet you, along with all other Senate Republicans, are willing to play with economic fire by refusing to raise the federal debt limit. More than a quarter of the federal debt that the government needs to pay was accumulated during the Trump administration. You and your colleagues need to stop playing political ‘chicken’ with the American economy and with our efforts to get on with solutions to REAL not MANUFACTURED problems. Demonstrate some common sense, and vote to raise the federal debt ceiling.”
Iowa City bus routes neglect Buttonwood Plaza
I contacted Iowa City Transit on how to get to the Iowa City Post Office in Buttonwood Plaza. I was told to take the 1 South Bus. I took the bus, which dropped me off about three blocks from the Post Office, and was informed by the bus driver that I would have to walk the distance because this was as far as his route would take me. I asked him if no other buses ran closer to the Plaza and the Post Office. His answer was no.
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