Anyone remember this other tragedy of Hawkeye basketball? The coach of Iowa's back to back Final fours killed at age 44--car and truck accident.
Bucky O'Connor
- Thread starter IamHawkeye
- Start date
I think it’s likely Iowa would have snagged a natty, maybe even two, had he coached another decade.
My dad said Iowa would have been like North Carolina or Kansas if he would have lived.
Bucky O'Connor's Fab Five had 2 guys from the Quad Cities
Sharm Schuermann (Rock Island and Bill Seaberg (Moline) on
those back to back Final Fours.
The other 3 guys were Carl Cain (Freeport, Illinois) Bill Schoof
(Homewood, Illinois) and Bill Logan (Keokuk, Iowa) So the
Fab Five had 4 men from Illinois and 1 man from Iowa.
Sharm Schuermann (Rock Island and Bill Seaberg (Moline) on
those back to back Final Fours.
The other 3 guys were Carl Cain (Freeport, Illinois) Bill Schoof
(Homewood, Illinois) and Bill Logan (Keokuk, Iowa) So the
Fab Five had 4 men from Illinois and 1 man from Iowa.
Last edited:
Unfortunately for the Fab Five, USF had Bill Russell.
Yeah, he really had it going in the 50s. Him and Forrest Evashevski probably marked the high point in Iowa sports. Closest we’ve come since then was Hayden Fry/Lute Olsen/Dan Gable.
And K. C. Jones, who played with Russell on all the great Celtics teams.
If Bucky would have lived and Evashevski would have never been the A.D. things would have been much different.
It's easy to forget this because it was so long ago. Tragic.
Could Iowa have built a program comparable to KU in the midwest otherwise?
This program must be jinxed.
Could Iowa have built a program comparable to KU in the midwest otherwise?
This program must be jinxed.
I was very young. Bucky was killed in a car accident. Originally, he was from Monroe, Iowa. share Scheuremann took his place and did well for a few years ( the Gunther years)….O’Connor really had the Hawks rolling at the time oh his death.
Sharm was a great guy. I was around 12-13 and started writing letters to him. He would be on road trip and would write to me using the hotel stationary. He met me after a game and took me down to the lock room for post game. One weekend he even drove over to williamsburg to visit. He older I got, the more amazing I realized this was
Let's not forget --Deacon Davis, also from Freeport, who started on the 1955 FF team, probably in Schoof*'s spot. Davis started at Iowa in Chuck Darling's last year--and started. Hard to believe Davis at 6-2 and Cain at 6-3 were starting fowards.
Bucky was from Monroe. His family moved to Newton where his father ran the Newton Country Club. Bucky was a very good golfer. He graduated from Newton High School and did very well in sports although he was slight of build and wore glasses.
I think I knew that about Bucky and his golf game. I can barely remember him though as I wa only about 6-7 when he died. I do remember Scheuremann as coach and Dave Gunther as his post player.
The Newton CC. Was unique as it had like 11-12 holes… you’d had thought Maytag would have insisted on more!
He swerved to avoid something in the road and hit a truck loaded with concrete pipes which broke loose, fell on his car and crushed it ,killing him instantly.*
Last edited:
Cursed is more like it. Too many weird bad things happen over a very long period of time.
Found and sold 2 Bucky O’Connor autographs a couple years ago. They were among a bunch of old newspaper clippings and garbage. Signed just days before the accident. They were certificates that so n so was 1st team all state basketball in Iowa 1959.
Nobody talks Bucky and the 50s, but that was Iowa basketball’s golden age.
Nobody talks Bucky and the 50s, but that was Iowa basketball’s golden age.
Why not? What was so special about any of the schools at that time? Transcendent coaches attract generational type talent. That is what creates great programs.
Laughing at the notion that anyone would give a flying f*ck what some rando's dad said in what was likely a drunken stupor.
Any barstool fan of any program can come up with some story about how their program would have been like Duke if only this one thing happened or if this other thing didn't happen.
It's inane loser babble. Losers love "ifs."
But it is funny.
I don't care what a "random dad" thinks - just like I don't really care what some invisible "expert" on this Board thinks. I simply made a comment in support because some bag didn't have enough intelligence to argue against it.
lol
What is there to "argue against?" It's a complete fantasy based on things that didn't happen.
What the hell is wrong with some of you idiots?
Bucky's grandson, Kent Riddle, has been a college football coach for several years, I think most recently at Boise State.
I was just starting to follow the team back then at about 8 years of age.
I also wonder if Bucky was in on the recruiting of Don Nelson who was at Moline or Rock Island. Nelson iirc was a freshman the next season after Bucky's death when Sharm S took over as coach. Nelson as you know was a great player, great pro, and great NBA coach.
Timing is everything so if Nelson would have been a few years older he might have made all the difference as a top player on the two final four teams.
We're all randos here and it was the 50's. You have no idea just how different and localized college sports was at the time. Televised college sports was rare until the late 80's when the NCAA antitrust suit ended up deregulating the sport.
For gosh sakes, for a while, Drake basketball became national contenders in basketball LOL. In that environment, anything back then was possible. if Iowa basketball gets the right coach, wins 4 or 5 titles, its not a stretch to say that we could have become a blue blood.
I mean, Duke was nothing until Mike Krzyzewski came along. Look at them now.
Similar threads
