You could watch ISU games in the mid '90s. I'm not sure what it was like before that.
Mac McCausland passes away
- Thread starter CyNews
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You could watch ISU games in the mid '90s. I'm not sure what it was like before that.
It was tough to get ISU coverage OTA outside of central Iowa.
In Grayer's senior season, CTN produced 10 games. All 10 of them were on WOI, naturally. However, only 4 of the 10 were picked up by a Sioux City station. They also showed the Saturday Big 8/Raycom games, which was another ~5 games.
ITN (with Larry Morgan and Mac McCausland) had a 20-game slate that year, and the Sioux City market was all over it. That, plus another handful of games airing via whatever syndicated network the Big 10 had set up.
We watched whatever games were available, and most of the time that was Iowa. So Morgan and McCausland became familiar names, even in ISU households.
RIP.
Some of my earliest sports memories are watching him call Iowa basketball games.
Time catches everyone eventually.
Some of my earliest sports memories are watching him call Iowa basketball games.
Time catches everyone eventually.
Growing up in NW IA the Clones were rarely on until the mid to late 90's when the whole ESPN+ regional games started. I grew up watching Iowa games because that's all we got. Even though I'm not an Iowa fan there is definitely a nostalgia factor when you hear the name Mac McCausland.
Guarantee a ton of us CBB diehards have a lot of memories tied to Mac. For a long time the only CBB I could watch was ISU and Iowa, especially weekday games in dreadful Iowa winters.
The 90s were a different story than the 80s. Started to change when Johnny showed up, but it was a slow process.
Did you live in eastern Iowa? I remember getting ISU games on WOI back in the mid-late 80's.
Agree with your sentiment though.
If you were alive in Iowa in the 80's/90's, and you watched basketball, you know who Mac McCausland was.
Sad to hear. RIP.
The way it worked was the two Cedar Rapids stations had to split allegiance because of network/contractual boundaries. By default KCRG (TV and Radio?) had some Iowa State Games and Channel 2 KGAN had the corner on Iowa stuff. Does that sound right for the late mid-80's early 90s?
Yep. KGAN showed every Iowa game and KCRG showed all the weekend Iowa State games and select big games that happened during the week (Kansas). When KFXA was founded, because of FOX getting the NFL (we didn't have FOX before then), they picked up UNI.
It's a lot easier to find games now but I definitely have some nostalgia for those days.
I don't specifically remember watching Iowa games but back then you just didn't have the content so you watched whatever you could. I can actually remember his voice so must have watched more than I think. Watching and listening to broadcasts that have announcers who actually know something about the team (and opponent somewhat) is a much better experience than having someone announce a game from their couch at home.
Naively, I did not associate McCausland as an Iowa Hawkeye pitchman, but a congenial general sports guy presenting a good sports voice and knowledge.
When Jim Z and "The Drunk" were out there as the aces of iowa it was an easy mistake to make.
I remember Iowa being on KWWL first because they would bump the powerful lineup off of NBC on Thursdays (The Cosby Show, Cheers, Family Ties). Then KGAN got the rights to the Hawks. I loved watching ISU on KCRG on weekends but it was a pain not to see all of the weeknight games. Frustrating!
The biggest pain of all was stringing up antennae, carefully moving the radio dial, and straining through the static, to get some distant AM/FM channel fading in and out to hear Pete's pXp. Meanwhile, iowa games were an "event" live on TV. My b-i-l told me "well it's because of iowa's Final Four, Eastern Iowa being more populous...and Lute."
