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Your Best Johnny Orr Stories here.

CyCy said:
I remember reading about how great a high school athlete that Johnny was. His basketball team at Taylorville, Il was undefeated state champs, his football team was undefeated (no playoffs back then) and his baseball team was close to being state champs.

He skipped a grade in school somewhere and went to Illinois a year early. I believe he still holds the record for the youngest player to letter in both basketball and football at a Big 10 school. Left Illinois for the military after one year and then finished at Beloit College.
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1. I'm a bit ashamed to admit I didn't know that Johnny went to Taylorville, which is very near to where I live now.
2. I'll be you all would be interested to know that Taylorville High School's mascot is the Tornadoes.

How 'bout that for a little bit of full circle goodness.
 
Classic Johnny...

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/ar...ver-forget-Johnny-Orr-?Frontpage&sf21186407=1

I can still feel Johnny Orr’s index finger poking me in the chest.
The Cyclones had just won a 1993 basketball game at Colorado, 67-66, when Justus Thigpen took off on the wrong foot and hit a running buzzer beater.
Earlier in the week, I had written a story about Iowa State’s lack of success on the road in Big Eight play under Orr. Obviously, he had read the story.
“I don’t want to hear any more about my road record,” Orr said to me after popping out of the winning locker room, making his point with that index finger.

[video=youtube;1_PhZ3pyCnI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_PhZ3pyCnI[/video]
 
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This is one of my first posts, but it's hard to not contribute to this thread.
I had an uncle on the team during the Orr ear so I would be at tons of practices and games. I was under 2 years old so this story has just been told to me.
One time during practice he was holding me and decided to have me score a basket on the floor. He then put a chair on the court and held me up while I put the ball in. Before he put me down, I took a dump in my diapers and it leaked from my pants and got crap all over him. He then preceded to say "Will somebody get this ****** kid off of me?!" It may have not been a good memory but I will never forget it
 
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Johnny had lots of off-the-record stories. I'll be darned if I'm going to post any of them on a public message board after he's gone, but catch me over coffee or a cold drink sometime. I think the one about a certain player who mysteriously disappeared from the roster (and Ames, and ISU) is probably my favorite.
 
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B.L. said:
I remember watching one of the games on TV at Hilton and they made the mistake of pointing the camera in the huddle for a time out (big mistake) Johnny looks right at Elmer Robinson says " and God Damn it Elmer wake up!!!! RIP Johnny
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This.
 
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It was incredibly awesome to have him lead the team on to the court for the Iowa State / Michigan game this year!

I'm so glad that we played Michigan at home this year, if for no other reason, because of what it must have meant to Coach Orr.
 
Worked at DMGCC in HS and a bit during college and Johnny would always be there for the Variety Club outing. I remember one year he brought in Jerry Tarkanian as the keynote speaker. Good lord...between the two of them it was a night to remember. I think I learned some new curse words and talk about stories. Thank goodness it was an all male audience because much of the discussion would have set the ladies movement back quite a few years...LOL.
 
Go2Guy said:
Anybody remember Johnny got Bobby Knight & Indiana to commit to a home-n-home series?

Think about it; Bobby Knight & his Indiana team played in Hilton. Thanks how much Knight admired Johnny.
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Bobby Knight wrote the forward for Johnny's book.
 
Beyerball said:
Many of you were likely not around for the Sam Mack era. He was a tremendous talent, got in bad trouble and Johnny testified as a character witness for him in court. It was an armed robbery attempt of Burger King on Lincoln way with a couple of fball players. Mack claimed he was forced to do it and was acquitted. Mack later transfered to Arizona St. and then played many years in the NBA. Had that not happened ISU might have had a great team that next season. Any way, that's the kind of person Johnny was, he would stand up for you and fight for you if he believed in you. Tremendous human being.

Side note, I was at the video store "that's entertainment" right next to the burger king when the incident was occurring watching out the window. Wild night.
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Sam later left ASU and eventually landed with the Houston Cougars. I'm not sure if Sam ever played at Arizona State.
 
Go2Guy said:
I attended ISU from 1975-1980 and no one today could even imagine the game experience at Hilton in that era. Attendance barely filled the lower marquee - probably averaged a little over 5,000. So In the spring of 1980 We just fired Lynn Nance, who had a minor scandal hurting our reputation, and Lute Olson really had things going at Iowa; things at ISU were kinda grim.
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I can. I was there. I only went to one or two games, because it was like a high school game atmosphere.
 
Javinegli said:
This is one of my first posts, but it's hard to not contribute to this thread.
I had an uncle on the team during the Orr ear so I would be at tons of practices and games. I was under 2 years old so this story has just been told to me.
One time during practice he was holding me and decided to have me score a basket on the floor. He then put a chair on the court and held me up while I put the ball in. Before he put me down, I took a dump in my diapers and it leaked from my pants and got crap all over him. He then preceded to say "Will somebody get this ****** kid off of me?!" It may have not been a good memory but I will never forget it
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Lol, wut? Javinegli **** on Johnny Orr?
 
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Beyerball said:
Many of you were likely not around for the Sam Mack era. He was a tremendous talent, got in bad trouble and Johnny testified as a character witness for him in court. It was an armed robbery attempt of Burger King on Lincoln way with a couple of fball players. Mack claimed he was forced to do it and was acquitted. Mack later transfered to Arizona St. and then played many years in the NBA. Had that not happened ISU might have had a great team that next season. Any way, that's the kind of person Johnny was, he would stand up for you and fight for you if he believed in you. Tremendous human being.

Side note, I was at the video store "that's entertainment" right next to the burger king when the incident was occurring watching out the window. Wild night.
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I remember hearing that Mack would have gotten away with this, but Lafester Rhodes was driving the get-away car, and was parked in front of MacDonads! :smile:
 
We sat behind the scoring table one game against OU that had Tubbs and Tisdale. I can't remember the player that was called for a foul at mid court, but Johnny's wife threw some ice on the court and the refs were looking at us and were ready to have us kicked out. We pleaded our case as we had no cups of pop or anything around us. Later in the game she thanked us taking the heat. She learned a lot from Johnny when it came to the one liners, as we had more fun listening to her than watching the game!
 
After Johnny retired he represented INS and my late father in law was the manager of a local phone co-op that was celebrating their 100th anniversary. There was a dinner and reception and my wife and I attended. Johnny was glad handing and there was a lull in the line so I went up and started talking to him. It was right after we hired McD, so I asked him what he thought of him. Johnny said, in his best raspy voice "I'll tell you what coach, he's the first F***ing guy they've hired there since I left that I like". I said "you didn't like Floyd?" He said, and I am paraphrasing now "I left him all those F***ing players, and we were driving him around town, and I told him how much he was going to like it here. And he told me "I don't give a SH#$, I'm only going to stay here a couple years"
 
83Clone said:
After Johnny retired he represented INS and my late father in law was the manager of a local phone co-op that was celebrating their 100th anniversary. There was a dinner and reception and my wife and I attended. Johnny was glad handing and there was a lull in the line so I went up and started talking to him. It was right after we hired McD, so I asked him what he thought of him. Johnny said, in his best raspy voice "I'll tell you what coach, he's the first F***ing guy they've hired there since I left that I like". I said "you didn't like Floyd?" He said, and I am paraphrasing now "I left him all those F***ing players, and we were driving him around town, and I told him how much he was going to like it here. And he told me "I don't give a SH#$, I'm only going to stay here a couple years"
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Wow. Very Chizik-ish of Timmy.
 
83Clone said:
After Johnny retired he represented INS and my late father in law was the manager of a local phone co-op that was celebrating their 100th anniversary. There was a dinner and reception and my wife and I attended. Johnny was glad handing and there was a lull in the line so I went up and started talking to him. It was right after we hired McD, so I asked him what he thought of him. Johnny said, in his best raspy voice "I'll tell you what coach, he's the first F***ing guy they've hired there since I left that I like". I said "you didn't like Floyd?" He said, and I am paraphrasing now "I left him all those F***ing players, and we were driving him around town, and I told him how much he was going to like it here. And he told me "I don't give a SH#$, I'm only going to stay here a couple years"
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That must have broken his heart. Orr was so emotional in his retirement speech.
 
83Clone said:
After Johnny retired he represented INS and my late father in law was the manager of a local phone co-op that was celebrating their 100th anniversary. There was a dinner and reception and my wife and I attended. Johnny was glad handing and there was a lull in the line so I went up and started talking to him. It was right after we hired McD, so I asked him what he thought of him. Johnny said, in his best raspy voice "I'll tell you what coach, he's the first F***ing guy they've hired there since I left that I like". I said "you didn't like Floyd?" He said, and I am paraphrasing now "I left him all those F***ing players, and we were driving him around town, and I told him how much he was going to like it here. And he told me "I don't give a SH#$, I'm only going to stay here a couple years"
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I believe it. Floyd has been a nomad his entire career, and has never really duplicated the success he had in Ames after he left.
 
Just remember how much Jim Rome respected Johnny. Beating michigan this year with Johnny in attendance, I knew this year was gonna be a special one. We lost a great one Cyclone Nation. My heart is sad
 
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