college football – Go Retire Psychiatrist

I was outside doing yard work the day before yesterday and my neighbor across the street walked over to say hello. We got to talking about sports and football came up. His wife stopped watching football because it was so violent—but then switched to watching hockey. He wondered when the Iowa Hawkeye vs Penn State game was going to be on. No, I’m not going to discuss that any further.

Anyway, that led to my mentioning how brutal college football was back in 1923 when Jack Trice, Iowa State University’s first black athlete was killed on the field during a game with the University of Minnesota. My neighbor was incredulous. He’s in his 80’s and he’s never heard the story.

In fact, I had just learned about the whole Jack Trice story and commemoration event in his honor the day before that, only because Sena told me about it.

All this year long there has been a 100-year anniversary commemoration of Jack Trice, Iowa State University’s first African-American athlete. The program will culminate on October 8, 2023 with the closing ceremony.

Football was a rough game in that era—but rougher still because Trice was black. Many believe his injuries were deliberately and maliciously inflicted because of his race. It’s more than plausible. In 1997, the football stadium was renamed Jack Trice Stadium. It’s the only major college football stadium named for an African-American.

Sena and I moved to Ames in 1981 so that I could enroll in Iowa State University. I was so immersed in my studies that I never gave a thought to Jack Trice. I don’t remember the football field being named Jack Trice Field in 1984.

As I looked through the commemoration website, I wondered how it was possible for me to have ignored the story of Jack Trice while I was there.

I think it’s for the same reason I never knew anything about James Alan McPherson, the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and who was teaching at the Iowa Writers Workshop during the entire time I was in medical school, residency and a faculty member at The University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics.

I was working hard. I finally found out about McPherson after reading a news item about a neighborhood park being named after him in 2021.

I should pay more attention. Anyway, Iowa State University did a tremendous job putting this commemoration event together.

OK, I know it’s in the books. Wisconsin won the football game with Iowa today, 27 to 7. Anybody can have a bad day. Iowa quarterback, Spencer Petras scored the only touchdown for Iowa. We hope the best for Wisconsin player Clay Cundiff, who had to be taken off the field in an ambulance after a leg injury. You know the game is over when the announcers start chatting about things like Wisconsin player, Braelon Allen, who can squat 610 pounds, and Halloween candy. I’m not going to tell you how early that chatter started.

Actually, I learned something new about the Iowa head football coach staff. It was from a trivia question during the game. Kirk Ferentz and Hayden Fry have been the only head coaches for the Iowa football team since 1979. How many head coaches have the other 13 teams in the Big Ten conference run through in the same time period? The answer is 94 (about 7 per school). Are there 13 or 14? I don’t know but 13 is how many the trivia question mentioned. Details.

How’s that for continuity of leadership? I’d say that’s a win.

Anyway, we tend to have a soft spot for Wisconsin. We visited a couple of times a dozen years ago before moving there briefly so I could try private practice psychiatry. My first vivid memory is of some guy walking down the middle of State Street in Madison wearing a live rattlesnake on his head. I can think of safer hats. But a rattlesnake says something more about you than your fashion sense. I’m just not sure what.

We also visited the Henry Vilas Zoo, where we saw, among other things, a real live badger. It doesn’t look like much. I guess the reason why the Wisconsin football team adopted the name of that animal is that it’s said to be totally fearless.