One week to go until ink dries on this year's 2022 class. Tonight I'm remembering one of the first if not the best recruiting guru I ever met.....Paul Boettger who started. Wrote and edited the original HRN (Hawkeyes Recruiting Notebook) Gold pages with black print was always a treat to get from our mailboxes. Had many lunches and a few beers with this wonderful man. Nobody bled Black and Gold like Paul. He died way too young but his stamp will be forever on Hawkeyes Nation. If he were alive today I would probably ask him on the phone what he thought X would do tomorrow. He then would ask me....what do you think happens ? I would retort....He's a Hawk. Somewhere, right now tonight, in Hawk Heaven, Paul has a big smile. RIP. Paul. 😎❤️🏈
Paul Boettiger recruiting tribute
- Thread starter SuperSK
- Start date
Knew him so well you couldn't even get his name correct
Good Guy
It was fun talking to him on the phone. Really filled me in on Tom Davis. I remember him sending his stuff out over the computer. Someone who actually had one at the time would print it off and and we'd pass it around to our fellow Hawk fans. Good times. R.I.P. Paul.
Those gold letters were gold to me. Talked to Paul several times on the phone and he was so nice...great guy. RIP.
I knew Paul pretty well. He usually stopped by our tailgate before games. Great guy! Getting HRN in the mail was a special treat! R.I.P. old friend.
1. His mailers were so jam-packed with recruiting dope that the envelopes were almost always partially torn when they arrived.
2. I remember one time he positioned himself at a specific spot outside Kinnick so his subscribers could enjoy a "meet and greet" with him before the game.
3. If a nicer person than Paul exists, I'd love to meet him.
4. His wife had to be an absolute saint to tolerate the hundreds, maybe thousands of hours he fielded phone calls from his admiring fan base.
Covering Iowa recruiting was a labor of love for him and nobody has ever done it better, all due respect to the fantastic product Tom and Blair put out, when you consider the limited resources available to him in the pre-Internet days of the 1980s.
The man is a legend.
Agree with all of above. I was always thrilled to get that gold envelope in the mail.
Never met him in person and phone relay services didn’t exist in those days but always appreciated his efforts.
Was Paul the infamous "shadow" that the old list serve/message board would communicate? I seem to remember that nickname or something to the effect circa 1999. The Shadow says "wind coming in from the East" meant that a recruit from the East Coast was coming. I remember getting the hard copy Voice of the Hawkeyes in the 90s and really enjoying that read!
Back in those pre-internet days, those of us who lived out of state subscribed to Hawkeye Recruiting Notebook and Voice of The Hawkeyes for recruiting news. It always made my day when I got home from work, checked the mailbox and there would be an envelope from HRN, stuffed to bulging.
I just called him once, it sounded like he may have been eating so I kept it short but a really nice guy. As a poster above noted his wife must be a saint. When I go to my Hawkeye reward I want to seat next to Paul for football games. It will probably be a crowded section.
Latest posts
-
HawkCast Ep. 80 OVERREACTION TIME? Iowa Releases Pre-Camp Depth Chart- Latest: Eliot Clough
-
Top-50 2025 Prospect, Mazi Mosley Talks Plans to Officially Visit Iowa
- Latest: Eliot Clough
-
-
-
