Henry Iba was born 111 years ago. He arrived in Stillwater 81 years ago. Last coached OSU basketball 46 years ago. Died 23 years ago.
It's getting harder and harder to find the links to Iba. The Iba coaching tree, the grand men who learned under Iba and proudly kept his legacy alive, the Eddie Suttons and the Don Haskinses, are grayed or gone.
(Story continued below...)
Third-generation Iba men are the best for which you can hope here in 2016. And Mike Holder found one Monday night when OSU announced that Brad Underwood would become the Cowboy basketball coach. Underwood became one of the hot names of this NCAA Tournament when his Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks took down third-seeded West Virginia 70-56 Friday in the East Regional, and the ‘Jacks dang near did the same to Notre Dame on Sunday before losing 76-75 amid a bunch of late whistles that went the Irish's way.
But Underwood was a hot name already among anyone who respects the Iba tradition. Underwood played basketball at Kansas State in the 1980s for Jack Hartman, who is in the trinity of Iba's greatest coaches. Haskins, who won the 1966 NCAA championship with Texas Western and became an El Paso legend. Sutton, who you know all about. And Hartman, who coached Southern Illinois and Walt Frazier to the 1968 NIT title (a big deal in that day) then spent 16 years coaching Kansas State to great heights.
Hartman was an OSU man through and through. I got to know Hartman late in his career and late in his life, and he, like Haskins, always wanted to talk Stillwater and how things were going. Hartman loved Iba and loved the OSU basketball legacy. And now one of his players is taking over the whistle that once was blown by Iba.
“All I can think about is how proud Jack Hartman would be of Brad,” former Kansas City Star writer Howard Richman tweeted Monday night.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Hartman grew up in Shidler, 70 miles north and a little east of Stillwater, then played football and basketball at OSU in the 1940s — he was the Cowboys' starting quarterback.
Hartman played quarterback in the Canadian Football League, went into coaching, spent a year on Iba's staff and became head coach at Coffeyville Community College in southeastern Kansas. Coffeyville won the 1962 juco national title.
Then came Southern Illinois and Kansas State. Hartman won three Big Eight titles. His Wildcats never reached the Final Four, but they reached four NCAA regional finals and two more Sweet 16s.
Hartman was a heck of a coach. I got an email a couple of days from a Kansas fan who corresponds regularly and is usually level-headed. Most Jayhawk fans are. But this time, the guy was railing on West Virginia and Bob Huggins, saying the Mountaineers played ruffian basketball. Just like Jack Hartman's old teams, and this guy didn't like it one bit.
Of course he didn't like it. Hartman's teams were tough. They had shooters and scorers — Lon Kruger, Rolando Blackmon, Chucky Williams, Mike Evans, others I've forgotten — but they came to play tough.
It looks like Underwood's teams play the same way, judging from my limited exposure to Stephen F. Austin and from some other Underwood roots, notably on Frank Martin's KSU and South Carolina staffs.
The idea of one of Iba's favorite players begetting the newest OSU coach should stir passions in Stillwater. This wasn't a PR move. This was a basketball move.
Underwood, who grew up in McPherson, Kan., is not fancy and not slick. He's coached in jucos and at Hardin-Simmons and been an assistant and worked his way up.
“I guess my old Midwestern values kinda just always came into play, at some point, because I've always been a guy who thought, 'Just do your job and you'll get rewarded for it,'” Underwood told cbssports.com a year ago. “I've never been big at self-promoting. I've always just believed that good things come to those who work hard. So I was always happy for other guys when they got their chances, and I never really lost doubt, even for a second, that mine would come."
Underwood's chance came at Stephen F. Austin, and he made the most of it. Now another chance comes at the alma mater of his first mentor. Jack Hartman would be proud. So should every OSU fan.
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It's getting harder and harder to find the links to Iba. The Iba coaching tree, the grand men who learned under Iba and proudly kept his legacy alive, the Eddie Suttons and the Don Haskinses, are grayed or gone.
(Story continued below...)
Third-generation Iba men are the best for which you can hope here in 2016. And Mike Holder found one Monday night when OSU announced that Brad Underwood would become the Cowboy basketball coach. Underwood became one of the hot names of this NCAA Tournament when his Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks took down third-seeded West Virginia 70-56 Friday in the East Regional, and the ‘Jacks dang near did the same to Notre Dame on Sunday before losing 76-75 amid a bunch of late whistles that went the Irish's way.
But Underwood was a hot name already among anyone who respects the Iba tradition. Underwood played basketball at Kansas State in the 1980s for Jack Hartman, who is in the trinity of Iba's greatest coaches. Haskins, who won the 1966 NCAA championship with Texas Western and became an El Paso legend. Sutton, who you know all about. And Hartman, who coached Southern Illinois and Walt Frazier to the 1968 NIT title (a big deal in that day) then spent 16 years coaching Kansas State to great heights.
Hartman was an OSU man through and through. I got to know Hartman late in his career and late in his life, and he, like Haskins, always wanted to talk Stillwater and how things were going. Hartman loved Iba and loved the OSU basketball legacy. And now one of his players is taking over the whistle that once was blown by Iba.
“All I can think about is how proud Jack Hartman would be of Brad,” former Kansas City Star writer Howard Richman tweeted Monday night.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Hartman grew up in Shidler, 70 miles north and a little east of Stillwater, then played football and basketball at OSU in the 1940s — he was the Cowboys' starting quarterback.
Hartman played quarterback in the Canadian Football League, went into coaching, spent a year on Iba's staff and became head coach at Coffeyville Community College in southeastern Kansas. Coffeyville won the 1962 juco national title.
Then came Southern Illinois and Kansas State. Hartman won three Big Eight titles. His Wildcats never reached the Final Four, but they reached four NCAA regional finals and two more Sweet 16s.
Hartman was a heck of a coach. I got an email a couple of days from a Kansas fan who corresponds regularly and is usually level-headed. Most Jayhawk fans are. But this time, the guy was railing on West Virginia and Bob Huggins, saying the Mountaineers played ruffian basketball. Just like Jack Hartman's old teams, and this guy didn't like it one bit.
Of course he didn't like it. Hartman's teams were tough. They had shooters and scorers — Lon Kruger, Rolando Blackmon, Chucky Williams, Mike Evans, others I've forgotten — but they came to play tough.
It looks like Underwood's teams play the same way, judging from my limited exposure to Stephen F. Austin and from some other Underwood roots, notably on Frank Martin's KSU and South Carolina staffs.
The idea of one of Iba's favorite players begetting the newest OSU coach should stir passions in Stillwater. This wasn't a PR move. This was a basketball move.
Underwood, who grew up in McPherson, Kan., is not fancy and not slick. He's coached in jucos and at Hardin-Simmons and been an assistant and worked his way up.
“I guess my old Midwestern values kinda just always came into play, at some point, because I've always been a guy who thought, 'Just do your job and you'll get rewarded for it,'” Underwood told cbssports.com a year ago. “I've never been big at self-promoting. I've always just believed that good things come to those who work hard. So I was always happy for other guys when they got their chances, and I never really lost doubt, even for a second, that mine would come."
Underwood's chance came at Stephen F. Austin, and he made the most of it. Now another chance comes at the alma mater of his first mentor. Jack Hartman would be proud. So should every OSU fan.
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