The 25 most powerful people in Iowa sports
By RANDY PETERSON
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
1. Bob Bowlsby
Iowa athletic director
Oversees budget of $45 million, the state’s largest.
2. Michael Gartner
President, Iowa Board of Regents. Also is majority owner of the triple-A Iowa Cubs.
3. Kirk Ferentz
Iowa football coach
Turned so-so program into one of the most prominent in the nation.
4. (tie) Troy Dannen and Rick Wulkow
Executive directors, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, Iowa High School Athletic Association
6. Richard Jacobson
Chairman, D.M. Jacobson Cos.
Made major financial contributions to Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Drake. His name is attached to athletic buildings at Iowa and Iowa State.
Drake plays women’s softball at the Jacobson Athletic Complex.
7. Dan McCarney
Iowa State football coach
The most visible face of the Cyclone athletic program. Second in tenure among Big 12 conference coaches with 10 seasons at the school.
8. Steve Alford
Iowa men’s basketball coach
Removing star player Pierre Pierce from the team last winter garnered national headlines. He has led the Hawkeyes to five straight winning basketball seasons.
9. Wayne Morgan
ISU men’s basketball coach
Former New Yorker returned respect to a program reeling from Larry Eustachy-gate. Signed nationally ranked recruiting classes each of the past three seasons.
10. Bryce Miller and Tom Witosky
D.M. Register sports editor and sports projects reporter
Miller leads a sports staff of 30 at the state’s largest newspaper, with a daily circulation of 150,000 and a Sunday circulation of 239,000. Witosky’s stories resulted in the firing of Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy. Has written major sports projects for the Register for nearly 20 years.
11. Christine Grant
Former Iowa women’s athletic director
A national sports authority who helped implement Title IX, the law requiring institutions to provide comparable opportunity to males and females.
12. Joe Crookham
President of Musco Lighting
The Oskaloosa-based company provides outdoor lighting for events ranging from football to NASCAR, from the Olympics to Disney’s Wide World of Sports.
13. Bruce Van De Velde
Iowa State athletic director
Leader of successful athletic department whose budget of $28 million is larger than only Baylor in the Big 12 Conference. Made decisions to drop baseball, swimming.
14. Dan Gable
Former Iowa wrestling coach
Ex-Iowa State gold medal wrestler. Remains influential in international wrestling circles. Coached Iowa to nine NCAA titles in a row, and 15 NCAA titles in 21 seasons.
15. David Blank
Drake athletic director
Lured former Iowa basketball coach Tom Davis back into the gym. Currently is overseeing $22 million renovation of Drake Stadium and track.
16. Ralph Capitani
Knoxville Raceway promoter
Responsible for bringing the Knoxville Nationals sprint car races to town each year. Knoxville is recognized as the sprint car capital of the world.
17. Rick Hartzell
Northern Iowa athletic director
Instrumental in raising money for McLeod Center, which will be home for Panther basketball. He also is a respected college basketball referee.
18. Tom Davis
Drake men’s basketball coach
Former Iowa coach provided new spark and enthusiasm in a once-proud program that was struggling in the won-lost column and at the Knapp Center turnstiles.
19. Greg McDermott
UNI men’s basketball coach
Cascade native has led the Panthers into the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons while turning the program into a Missouri Valley contender.
20. Cael Sanderson
Iowa State Olympic champ
Garnered national attention for the school and the state while posting a 159-0 collegiate record. Won an Olympic freestyle gold medal at 2004 Olympics.
21. Bill Fennelly
ISU women’s hoops coach
Has coached the Cyclones into seven NCAA Tournaments. Average attendance at home games has risen from 733 before he took the job to 7,396 last season.
22. Lisa Bluder
Iowa women’s hoops coach
Successful as an athlete at Northern Iowa, and as a coach at St. Ambrose, Drake and Iowa. With 96 wins, she is the second-winningest Hawkeye coach.
23. Tim McClelland
MLB umpire from W.D.M.
Worked three World Series, but also was the home plate ump who discovered cork in Sammy Sosa’s bat and too much pine tar on the bat of George Brett.
24. Bobby Douglas
Iowa State wrestling coach
Brought Cael Sanderson from Utah to Ames. Was on the coaching staff of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. W.I.N. Magazine’s 2002 coach of year.
The Register’s Sports Power Poll
By RANDY PETERSON
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Iowa City, Ia. – Who can cause change with a single phone call or signature? Whose decisions have lasting repercussions? Who has border-to-border-and-beyond name recognition?
The same person whose daughter cried when students chanted at a men’s basketball game that her father should be fired. The same person who hired the state’s most successful college football coach.
The person deemed by a majority of Iowa’s most prominent and influential people to be the state’s most powerful sports figure is Iowa athletic director Bob Bowlsby, whose broad reach has included hiring and firing some of the state’s most popular coaches, helping choose the 65 teams for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and raising money for an $86.8 million renovation of one of the most hallowed football stadiums in the country.
“Bob Bowlsby runs the largest athletic organization in Iowa and also plays an important role in collegiate sports nationally, “said Michael Gartner, president of the Iowa Board of Regents and No. 2 on the Des Moines Sunday Register ‘s list of the state’s sports power brokers. “He is recognized as one of the most fair and smart and effective leaders in the state and in the nation.”
The state’s sports power elite was selected from suggestions submitted by 34 Iowans ranging from athletes to attorneys, from coaches to sponsors, and from owners to promoters to politicians.
They were asked one question: Who wields sports power in Iowa?
The respondents set the parameters. They defined power.
“An unbelievably tough task, yet interesting, “wrote Troy Dannen, executive secretary of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and among the top five on the list.
The first three positions belong to Bowlsby, Gartner and Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz – administrator, the man who heads the organization that oversees his university and the successful coach Bowlsby hired.
The leaders of the high school associations, Rick Wulkow of the boys’ Iowa High School Athletic Association and Dannen, share No. 4 because their decisions directly affect the 122,000 boys and girls competing in athletics.
Sixth is Richard O. Jacobson, whose name is on athletic buildings at Iowa State and Iowa and whose financial support helps drive their athletic departments.
“Who’s the most powerful person in Iowa that I know? “Jacobson e-mailed when asked his list of powerful people. “Kirk Ferentz could run for governor – and win in a landslide.”
But Bowlsby hired him.
“Everything I’ve done has been through a collaborative effort from my staff, “Bowlsby said. “You get things done by surrounding yourself with good people and through strong relationships. I’ve been very fortunate in those respects.”
Men most powerful
The list is mostly male.
The highest woman is Christine Grant, former women’s athletic director at Iowa whose congressional testimony in the early 1970s led to a federal Title IX guideline mandating gender equality in athletics.
Grant is No. 12 on the list largely because she remains an advocate for women in sports, but likely would have been higher during her time actively running the department.
“I don’t think this situation of having men regarded as the most powerful in sports is unique to Iowa, “said Grant, an associate professor at Iowa. “This is the status quo in our nation at this time, especially at the intercollegiate level.
“The people in athletics who are viewed as the most powerful are in very prestigious positions and they are very wealthy, and until fairly recently, sports quite honestly was male-dominated.”
But that’s changing.
“I had a very nice awakening at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, “Grant said. “I had trouble getting tickets for women’s events, and there were 70,000 fans who were fanatical at the women’s soccer venue. My goodness, what a massive change occurred in our society in a very short amount of time.”
Grant called Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder and Hawkeye softball coach Gayle Blevins potential high-ranking sports leaders of the future.
“They’re both very respected in their fields, and they both have strong knowledge on a broad range of topics and ideas, “Grant said. “I see women such as them becoming more and more powerful.”
Few minorities
The list is mostly white.
“I don’t know how many minorities have been given an opportunity, or how many minorities have even tried to get jobs, “Iowa State wrestling coach Bobby Douglas said. “Actually, I’m even surprised to be on the list; there are a lot more people in Iowa with more power than me.”
Most of them are white males.
“There used to be more of a problem with opportunities than there is today, “Douglas said. “Professional sports have addressed it; colleges are starting to address it, but are they addressing it fast enough and fair enough?
“I don’t know.”
Douglas and Wayne Morgan (men’s basketball) are the only black head coaches at Iowa State. Donald Reed is the only black listed among the school’s senior athletic administration.
The only black head coach at Iowa is women’s track coach James Grant. There are two senior black administrators – associate athletic director Fred Mims and assistant athletic director Anthony Dean.
“I think the pool should be larger, but there are three (black) head coaches at Iowa State and Iowa, which probably would rank our state as one of the leaders in that aspect if you look around the country, “Douglas said.
State Rep. Wayne Ford said many former black Iowa collegians do not return to the state after successful professional careers.
“Many black athletes have gone from our Regents universities and other universities in Iowa, gone on to make millions of dollars, and never stepped one foot back in this state, “said Ford, a Washington, D.C., native who has remained in Iowa since playing football for Drake in the early 1970s.
“Dan McCarney at Iowa State – he was a successful high school athlete from Iowa who stayed in the state of Iowa to educate and teach young men of all races. He’s the kind of positive role model who can educate and instruct, but what’s wrong with minority guys like Fred Brown or Ricky Davis, great black basketball players at Iowa who have played and left big impressions in our state, coming back to live and become our sports leaders?
“We have a tremendous alumni of black athletes all over the world. We need these legendary athletes to come back and make a positive influence.”
Remembering his roots
And eventually become a leader like Bowlsby.
“His roots are right here – and he’s stayed here, “Ford said.
Bowlsby, a West Waterloo graduate, is a former athletic director at Northern Iowa. He has been athletic director at Iowa since 1991.
“I don’t know what I’d do if I weren’t in this business, “said Bowlsby, who has led many NCAA committees. “There’s only so much wood to cut, and only so much grass to mow.”
He hired coaches such as Ferentz, who brought name recognition back to the football program – and state – while turning the Hawkeyes into a nationally respected team.
Bowlsby spearheaded a fund-raising effort that will result in modernizing the school’s 75-year-old football stadium.
He just finished two years as chairman of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament selection committee that, for the first time, picked three teams from Iowa to compete in the 2005 tournament.
“If that’s power, then so be it, “said Bowlsby, 53. “I don’t think of myself as having power. Perhaps I have some influence because I’ve developed relationships over the years, but as far as being the most powerful – I don’t know about that.
“I’d prefer to defer to Michael Gartner, since I essentially work for him. That would make him first, in my mind.”
Readers’ rankings
A DesMoinesRegister.com poll asked readers who they thought was the most powerful sports figure in Iowa. With more than 3,500 votes cast:
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa football coach ” 57.2%
Bob Bowlsby, Iowa athletic director ” 14.1%
Dan McCarney, Iowa State football coach ” 10.2%
Troy Dannen, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union executive director ” 6.0%
Wayne Morgan, Iowa State men’s basketball coach ” 3.2%
Rick Wulkow, Iowa High School Athletic Association executive director ” 3.1%
Michael Gartner, Board of Regents president, owner of triple-A Iowa Cubs ” 2.8%
Bruce Van De Velde, Iowa State athletic director ” 1.8%
Steve Alford, Iowa men’s basketball coach ” 1.1%
Christine Grant, former Iowa women’s athletic director ” 0.6%
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