Iowa State was 1-1 in Super Sports Week, after the women’s basketball team rallied to beat Drake and the men’s team lost. With a $11 $17 ticket waiting for me, I headed to Jack Trice Stadium hoping that the Cyclone football team would make the inevitable loss look respectable.
Interspersed with the official play-by-play, here’s what I was thinking: Continue reading
July 31, 2005: The north end of IA 14 in Charles City, east of here, was (likely) unchanged from its creation in 1920 until 2006, when US 18 was rerouted and two of Charles City’s three interchanges got re-signed. Now 18 continues on the four-lane past this point to the next exit.
Ames, Iowa — Now that is how you end a Super Sports Week. Article here.
Condolences to Oklahoma State University, not on the loss, but on the fatal plane crash that is a reminder there are more important things than sports.
(BTW, regarding my previous post about milestones: How’s that for one version of #600?)
July 10, 2008: The southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula, just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It’s only 140 miles up the peninsula through Maryland’s Eastern Shore and southern Delaware.
Friday’s game against Oklahoma State is Iowa State’s 1137th. That much the athletics office and the NCAA agree on. But even before superficially drilling into the numbers there’s a discrepancy.
The NCAA says that through the end of 2010, Iowa State’s record was 494-587-46. Iowa State said it was 493-588-46. It is not one game in question, but three.
November 2, 1907: The Des Moines Register mentioned the controversy with this Nebraska game last year. A drop-kicked field goal bounced twice before going through the uprights. Iowa State said the four-point field goal counted, and Nebraska said it didn’t. College football rules chairman Walter Camp ruled months later that the field goal was good. The NCAA and Nebraska don’t accept that ruling. (The official NCAA record book says Nebraska is 86-17-2 in what was the 20th-most-played rivalry in history, while ISU says Nebraska is 85-18-2.) Continue reading
By virtue of contracts, the women’s tournament is the next to go.* It’s heading to Oklahoma City, two years before the men potentially follow. Memorial Auditorium is old, and even in the Big 12 the women’s tournament pales in comparison to the men’s, but the men are likely to follow (quoted from the link above):
The Sprint Center is located in Missouri, a state that soon will not have a Big 12 member. The facility is located less than two miles from the Kansas state line, but some tax payers might not approve of an SEC state reaping rewards from the Big 12 tournament.
This continues the shifting of power from the old Big Eight southward. That era is going to lose another one of its facets soon — Kemper Arena is likely to be torn down.
In all likelihood, it would be a futile effort for Des Moines to try and get the women’s tournament, because so much would hinge on Iowa State being good those years. But even Wichita would be a little more manageable for the remainder of the Big 12 North than OKC.
*In the immediate past, there was the 11-1 decision in 2010 to keep the football championship game in Cowboys Stadium for a little while longer instead of rotation with Arrowhead Stadium. Take a second to guess the dissenting vote.
June 14, 2004: The north end of IA 12 in Hawarden. This sign, facing east on an unnamed road that came in from South Dakota, points to IA 10 going back into South Dakota but not continuing east into Iowa (bottom right).
The color may look off because this comes from a period when my camera inexplicably died and, after being sent for repair, didn’t come back the same.
July 1, 2009: Middlesex, Pennsylvania, near Carlisle. This is how I-83 connects to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Eleven is one of Iowa’s longest dormant numbers, and certainly the longest dormant two-digit. It was replaced by a fourth version of IA 150 in 1941. (Or arguably third. The second designation was made but likely superseded before signs went up.) Compare to WI 11, which runs across the southern length of the state and ends within a couple miles of Dubuque.
The Cyclone men and women really need to work on their layups.
Last basketball season, I took my first trips to the McLeod Center (UNI men 60, ISU 54) and Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Iowa women 62, ISU 40). I was hoping to even my in-state away-game record with a men’s-women’s doubleheader in my first trip to the Knapp Center. (The Creighton game at Wells Fargo Arena was neutral.)
It was only a partial success.
The Cyclone women started out very sluggish and only made five shots from the field in the first half. By the middle of the second period, Drake was up 11. Iowa State, the owner of the nation’s longest streak of games with a 3-point shot, had not made a single one. (For what it’s worth, there was one shot early counted as a 2-pointer with a foot on the line. The women’s line moved back this year to match the men’s. You can see above that there is no longer a line touching the top of the key.) Continue reading
May 11, 2010: Pierce, Wisconsin. I’ve traveled the entire western segment of US 10 — or HAD, until Wisconsin opened a couple of new segments. This is also my northernmost segment traveled of US 63 to date.
