never got the warm n' fuzzy's with Carver Hawkeye.
lute lute LUTE gone...
Bruce Sky King, Ronnie, Kenny, heck I even miss CARFINO
lute lute LUTE gone...
Bruce Sky King, Ronnie, Kenny, heck I even miss CARFINO
nothing like BB in the ole' FIELDHOUSE
- Thread starter PlyHawk
- Start date
and the partial obstructed view seats in the two balconies.
1976: Undefeated Hoosiers come calling. Hawks up 3 (or maybe 5) late first half. Crowd roaring. Buckner travels. Crowd loses it. Loudest indoor sound I’ve ever heard.
FH was gutted just a few years before I was born. Loved walking by the display in the main gym almost every day looking at the pictures and the history of the old Field House/Armory.
Always took me a while to get my shot down in there because of the back drop compared to the South Gym.
I gladly threw away a couple hours of my life to watch some of the old games in the FH that finally started appearing on YouTube over the last decade, just to see what it was like.
/csb
Always took me a while to get my shot down in there because of the back drop compared to the South Gym.
I gladly threw away a couple hours of my life to watch some of the old games in the FH that finally started appearing on YouTube over the last decade, just to see what it was like.
/csb
I was there.
Scottie May went off in the second half.
Last edited:
And stomping on the metal stands with everything shaking. Ralph Millers fast paced offense. Carver like an assisted living facility after that place.
The Fieldhouse was also the student rec facility and always open, so I would often hang out in the stands and watch Lute’s practices. Only after some success did he wrap the court with canvas curtains for secrecy. So I moved to the upper deck. No problem.
It was pure smelly, smokey, uncomfortable, completely antiquated magic. Good times.
? Have you been in the old Field House? It doesn't really exist anymore. Very different now.
Incredibly loud in the old Fieldhouse with the metal seats banging up and down. Still, watching a game in Carver provides a great view, just not the same atmosphere. I don't understand the super-wide aisles, going all the way down to the court, and why they didn't design courtside area differently to create a a student section behind the benches.
I also enjoyed sitting in the upper balcony and watching Lute's team practice. I can remember when Ronnie Lester arrived in the fall of 1976 without a lot of hype , but it was immediately apparent that we had a special player. By late January that season Lute said in a post game interview following a Hawkeye victory that he felt Ronnie was playing as well as any point guard in the nation. Around that time the Hawks played Michigan led by All American point guard Ricky Green. Michigan ended the previous season playing Indiana in the National Championship game and were the Big Ten Champions in 1977. Michigan beat the Hawks, but Ronnie had a great game. Afterwards an Iowa sportswriter asked Ricky Green if Ronnie had any of his moves. Ricky ( who had an excellent 15 year NBA career) replied, " Man, he has all my moves !" Lute used to say that the Fieldhouse on game night was a great atmosphere to show a prospective recruit, but that showing a recruit around the Fieldhouse when it was empty was a different story, the place was a dump. I enjoyed attending lots of games at the Fieldhouse like others on this site, but there seems to be some romanticizing about the fan experience. It was loud for sure, but the obstructed vision that everyone in the two balconies dealt with meant that you couldn't see a sizable area of the court depending on how close you were to the beam . People seem to forget that that Carver was pretty much sold out for the first 8 to 10 years it was open and it was plenty loud , just as it is today when the place is full. If the fans want Carver to be loud they need to fill the place and be loud ! ( like it is at a wrestling match). Go Hawks !
Yeah, the old Fieldhouse could rock for the Hawks, but as a student I didn't really like not being able to see 1/3 of the floor due to the pillars.
If my memory is correct, I think the last game there was against the Russian National team. I was there. Tickets to games in Carver were tough and demand for tickets was enough students could only get split season. Oh the good ole days.😉
last game was USC.
Payne & Wright were thrown out with about a minute to go...ironically sir jamalot transfered when Raveling replaced Lute
Payne & Wright were thrown out with about a minute to go...ironically sir jamalot transfered when Raveling replaced Lute
I still have ticket stubs stamped with "Obstructed Vision" from the old Field House days. Some seats in the balconies, and I had those seats once, were such that the massive support beam blocked out one end of the court from the free throw line on, which meant you could NOT SEE THE BASKET!
And if you never attended a game there, it's hard to explain, but the metal bleachers in the upper decks were the football bleachers from the old stadium that was down by the EPB, in the library/river area. But the thing is, the rows were deep, so the feet of the person in the row behind you were on your same seat and against your back. That person's foot rest was the back half of your seat. Try to picture that. And so when people sitting behind you brought in snow on their shoes or boots, it melted into where you were sitting. No place to put your bulky winter coats. It was, to borrow from Dickens, the best of venues and the worst of venues. But if you sat in the very top row of the upper deck, you were as close to the floor as people sitting in the first row of folding seats at Carver. So yah, I'd take the Field House, warts and all, over Carver every day of the week.
BTW: Until the late 70s, the floor of the Field House, except for the court itself, was DIRT. The baseball team practiced in the far west half of the building, which was the largest facility of its kind in the world, I believe, when it was built in 1922. And it was massive. Looking at it today gives you no sense at all of what it was like then. Look up the pictures. It's worth it.
BTW2: Army ROTC had an indoor firing range behind the upper deck, and there were classrooms and racquet ball courts up there as well. And even on game days, the main Field House court was open for students to play pick-up games until about 4 p.m. before 7 p.m. games. Can you imagine?! But it's true.
And if you never attended a game there, it's hard to explain, but the metal bleachers in the upper decks were the football bleachers from the old stadium that was down by the EPB, in the library/river area. But the thing is, the rows were deep, so the feet of the person in the row behind you were on your same seat and against your back. That person's foot rest was the back half of your seat. Try to picture that. And so when people sitting behind you brought in snow on their shoes or boots, it melted into where you were sitting. No place to put your bulky winter coats. It was, to borrow from Dickens, the best of venues and the worst of venues. But if you sat in the very top row of the upper deck, you were as close to the floor as people sitting in the first row of folding seats at Carver. So yah, I'd take the Field House, warts and all, over Carver every day of the week.
BTW: Until the late 70s, the floor of the Field House, except for the court itself, was DIRT. The baseball team practiced in the far west half of the building, which was the largest facility of its kind in the world, I believe, when it was built in 1922. And it was massive. Looking at it today gives you no sense at all of what it was like then. Look up the pictures. It's worth it.
BTW2: Army ROTC had an indoor firing range behind the upper deck, and there were classrooms and racquet ball courts up there as well. And even on game days, the main Field House court was open for students to play pick-up games until about 4 p.m. before 7 p.m. games. Can you imagine?! But it's true.
Last edited:
Was Payne thrown out? I thought it was just Gerry Wright. I was a returning student then. I saw the whole thing (I was standing in the doorway just iff the floor. Bobby Hansen was pissed off about something so he threw a ball at one of the USC players when the refs were looking elsewhere. The USC player ducked out of the way and the nall nailed an Iowa player, can't remember who. Hansen stepped away and Gerry Wright was right behind him, totally unaware of what had happened. The refs looked at Wright, assumed he threw the ball (since it hit an Iowa player), and kicked him out, all the while he claimed innocence. Hansen was grinning like a Cheshire cat and trying to look innocent the whole time.
close.
Wright was thrown out for an elbow to Carfino's face...that's what Hansen was pissed at (the elbow to the face).
You are correct Hansen threw the ball (but the ref assumed it was Payne and tossed him).
Classic case of an official blowing his whistle at what he "thought" or assumed.
Lute didn't go crazy because the game was pretty much over by then.
The game was brutal from the get go.
I left Iowa City after the second year of Carver. (I was lucky enough to arrive in IC at about the same time as Lute and Hayden). At the time Carver was opened, I and others wondered why they didn't build a bigger arena, because fan support was unbelievable after the final four run. I remember waiting a few hours in line to buy season tickets. Too bad George Ravling was such a pathetic practice/game coach, because he sure had players to work with. Hawks were a top 10 preseason pick (maybe top 5?) the year after Lute bailed, but I think they were below .500 with an awful conference record. Not sure what happened to fan support, but that sure didn't help.
any of you ole' timers attend those epic mid to late 70'd Iowa vs ISU wrasslin' matches at the FH?
OH MY!!!!!
OH MY!!!!!
Probably early on they did. Back in the day there was no such thing as a non-smoking area. In the late 70's and early 80's they had a smoking area in the vestibule right outside the stands. It was jam packed, and because the doors separating it from the stands were always open, alot of it filtered into the building.
That impromptu evening rally in 1980 when the wrestlers returned from another NC, then the basketball team rolled in around Midnight after advancing to the Final Four was deafening.
I was there too. Scotty Thompson was lighting it up from the perimeter in the first half. It was the loudest game I can recall, but Indiana had 6 future NBA'ers on that team and they wore us down eventually. I imagine Booby got a few extra calls in there as well. The old steel bleachers were actually salvaged from the old Iowa football field along the river as they built Kinnick the same year. Back in the day they actually looked for ways to save money...
Fieldhouse Memories: Watching Bobby flip out. Watching Gene Keady flip out. Watching Iowa fans throw coins on the court when (dang, forgot is name "Kevin"?) got a BS charging calll against Magic and ole' Judd picking a penny off the floor and holding it up high, grinning to the crowd
The wrestlers also practiced there, out in the open to anybody that was around. You could watch Gable throwing guys around the mat
I have many memories of the Fieldhouse in the mid-70's when I went to school there - yes, both the stadium and the bar!
During the week you could just walk on to the main floor and play pick up games. I had played a lot of basketball in my day, but the first time I played on the main court it was airball city. The rim just seemed to be suspended in space since the place was so much larger (comparatively) than any gym I had ever played in. It gave me an appreciation for how difficult it must be for the Final 4 teams to get used to playing in a football sized stadium.
Sometime around that era, they replaced the floor with a "poured" floor - a liquid rubber surface that they literally poured onto the floor and let it dry. It had a nice cushion to it, but it just didn't seem "right". I hated it.
During the week you could just walk on to the main floor and play pick up games. I had played a lot of basketball in my day, but the first time I played on the main court it was airball city. The rim just seemed to be suspended in space since the place was so much larger (comparatively) than any gym I had ever played in. It gave me an appreciation for how difficult it must be for the Final 4 teams to get used to playing in a football sized stadium.
Sometime around that era, they replaced the floor with a "poured" floor - a liquid rubber surface that they literally poured onto the floor and let it dry. It had a nice cushion to it, but it just didn't seem "right". I hated it.
No. But the vestibule below the stairs was unbelievably smoky. The doors were continually opening so there was plenty of smoke in the fieldhouse. The fieldhouse was great and loud but I always had great seats (My Dad was the PA announcer). I do miss those days for sure.
Where was the column at floor level? I remember our seats being in the wood bleachers and then chairs around the court.
