Max Urick

[Pope]

IIRC, Max did hire Criner, but Max had John Cooper (Iowa State Dirty Thirty player) lined up to be the Iowa State coach until Prez Bob Parks unexpectedly veto'd the hire. Max then had to quickly find another coach and hired Criner.

In my opinion, Bob Parks was the main culprit in Iowa State's football problems in the late 80's and into the 90's. What did you get for it? The library named after him. Go figure.

Max was a good guy. Can't blame him for leaving ISU for KSU.

I'm not sure how much of the blame Bob Parks should get for allowing our athletic department to fall way behind, but I will say he did more to grow Iowa State into one of our nation's top tier public universities than any other president in ISU history.

You might be right, though. Because he focused so much on growing the academic side of the university, the athletic side probably got neglected. Regardless, I believe he belongs on the Mt Rushmore of ISU presidents.

 

[4cy16]

Max also had to deal with his wife leaving him for the ISU women's basketball coach, who was female.

 

[Drew0311]

Cooper was in play to replace Earle Bruce after the 1978 season and he got turned down (supposedly by Parks) due to his alleged involvement in a minor recruiting violation when Cooper was an assistant to KU.

I don't recall Cooper being in play to replace Donnie Duncan when Criner was hired instead. Obviously, both of those hires were poor decisions. Max hiring Walden wasn't a bad hire. The problem there was more so Gordon Eaton replacing Parks in 1986 and not being a strong advocate/supporter of ISU Athletics which handcuffed Walden and Max.

Criner and Walden were not bad hires. We just had nothing to work with. Our facilities were trash. We could have hired anyone and they would have done nothing. That is why McCarney was our savior. He started pushing to help get facilities built.

 

[jbhtexas]

Criner and Walden were not bad hires. We just had nothing to work with. Our facilities were trash. We could have hired anyone and they would have done nothing. That is why McCarney was our savior. He started pushing to help get facilities built.

The facilities were terrible and the administration and key faculty were decidedly anti-athletics. Not a great recipe for success

Walden had a winning season in his third year with a probation-hampered roster and terrible facilities. I don't think many ISU fans appreciate the difficulty of accomplishing that under the circumstances. His biggest mistake was not taking the Arizona job after the 1989 season. Urich didn't make the same mistake, and he did quite well at KSU.

Gene Smith fixed the facilities by nearly- bankrupting the AD. I guess that is one way to do it.

IMO, the Big 8 merger started to shift the attitude of the ISU administration/faculty. UT and TAMU were respected academic universities with notable athletic programs, and demonstrated that athletics can compliment the academic mission of the university.

 

[BCClone]

The facilities were terrible and the administration and key faculty were decidedly anti-athletics. Not a great recipe for success

Walden had a winning season in his third year with a probation-hampered roster and terrible facilities. I don't think many ISU fans appreciate the difficulty of accomplishing that under the circumstances. His biggest mistake was not taking the Arizona job after the 1989 season. Urich didn't make the same mistake, and he did quite well at KSU.

Gene Smith fixed the facilities by nearly- bankrupting the AD. I guess that is one way to do it.

IMO, the Big 8 merger started to shift the attitude of the ISU administration/faculty. UT and TAMU were respected academic universities with notable athletic programs, and demonstrated that athletics can compliment the academic mission of the university.

When Criner was hired, our facilities weren’t that far behind. Problem was we didn’t update anything until about 95-96 timeframe. During that time period, That was when money was starting to come into ADs heavier but we made little effort to improve them.

 

[Pope]

When Criner was hired, our facilities weren’t that far behind. Problem was we didn’t update anything until about 95-96 timeframe. During that time period, That was when money was starting to come into ADs heavier but we made little effort to improve them.

Yeah, I think Max was pretty much an old school AD who didn't put a lot of time in courting donors, fund raising, and long range facilities enhancement planning. His department relied pretty much on ticket sales and their annual appropriation from the university.

That's not a knock against Max because most AD's at that time were pretty old school. The job has changed dramatically since then.

 

[cykadelic2]

Criner and Walden were not bad hires. We just had nothing to work with. Our facilities were trash. We could have hired anyone and they would have done nothing. That is why McCarney was our savior. He started pushing to help get facilities built.

Criner did nothing to build rapport with donors and others in the AD at a time that was badly needed which made him a bad hire IMO. He could coach up what talent he had available but getting that talent was obviously an obstacle to success. Plus, he did not exactly recruit and play by the rules.

Walden did build rapport with donors and AD co-workers. And his 1989 team that finished 6-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play was a great coaching job given the circumstances but after that season, the recruiting obstacles become too much and he kind of gave up when started to run a service academy triple option offense in an effort to overcome the recruiting obstacles.

The tandem of Gene Smith and McCarney did help to slowly turn things around but Gene should have hired Joe Tiller at the time instead of Danny Mac.

 

[DoctorZ]

Max also had to deal with his wife leaving him for the ISU women's basketball coach, who was female.

Was that Pam Wettig? I always wondered why she resigned without much explanation.

 

[4cy16]

Was that Pam Wettig? I always wondered why she resigned without much explanation.

I'm not sure if it was Wettig or Becker.

 

[Drew0311]

Criner did nothing to build rapport with donors and others in the AD at a time that was badly needed which made him a bad hire IMO. He could coach up what talent he had available but getting that talent was obviously an obstacle to success. Plus, he did not exactly recruit and play by the rules.

Walden did build rapport with donors and AD co-workers. And his 1989 team that finished 6-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play was a great coaching job given the circumstances but after that season, the recruiting obstacles become too much and he kind of gave up when started to run a service academy triple option offense in an effort to overcome the recruiting obstacles.

The tandem of Gene Smith and McCarney did help to slowly turn things around but Gene should have hired Joe Tiller at the time instead of Danny Mac.

Thats not true at all. My father was a booster and my fathers boss was one of the biggest boosters at the time. My dad still talks to Jim once or twice a week. Criner was also a great coach but could not recruit kids to come to Iowa.

 

[Drew0311]

Was that Pam Wettig? I always wondered why she resigned without much explanation.

Pretty sure it was Wettig. I remember my dad saying something when I was ten years old about it.

 

[Marcelason78]

Criner and Walden were not bad hires. We just had nothing to work with. Our facilities were trash. We could have hired anyone and they would have done nothing….

Other than 10 year newer concrete, what did Earle Bruce win with that Criner and Walden didn’t have?

 

[Drew0311]

Other than 10 year newer concrete, what did Earle Bruce win with that Criner and Walden didn’t have?

In the 80's, just like the 2000, there was a mad rush to build facilities. I remember walking into Nebraska's weight room and thinking it was better than an NFL stadium. So we got crushed at the start of the 80's by others building all kinds of cool stuff. Kansas State, kansas, Missouri, and Iowa State were left in the dust by OU and NU.

 

[cykadelic2]

Thats not true at all. My father was a booster and my fathers boss was one of the biggest boosters at the time. My dad still talks to Jim once or twice a week. Criner was also a great coach but could not recruit kids to come to Iowa.

Very few boosters were saddened by Criner's departure and he had very little to do with ISU after he left. He and Chiz are the most universally disliked former ISU FB HCs.

 

[Dryburn]

Wasn’t McCollugh the one that made 0 effort to keep Earle Bruce and ushered in the dark days of ISU football?

Yeah, and that was the start of his downfall at ISU, IMHO. Lou had been a coach on Woody Haye's staff at Ohio State, and he still had a lot of loyalty to that school. It didn't seem he even talked to Bruce about staying in Ames at all. That did not set well with fans and donors.

 

[Drew0311]

Very few boosters were saddened by Criner's departure and he had very little to do with ISU after he left. He and Chiz are the most universally disliked former ISU FB HCs.

Except he still talks to most of the boosters and still comes to games every once in a while. i know because I was in a suite with him.

 

[cykadelic2]

Except he still talks to most of the boosters and still comes to games every once in a while. i know because I was in a suite with him.

Most of the boosters? I doubt that.

Yeah, he evidently has kept in contact with some boosters which is actually an improvement from what I have heard from other Central IA boosters in recent years. Good for him.

 

[Kinch]

Was that Pam Wettig? I always wondered why she resigned without much explanation.

Yeah, and that was the start of his downfall at ISU, IMHO. Lou had been a coach on Woody Haye's staff at Ohio State, and he still had a lot of loyalty to that school. It didn't seem he even talked to Bruce about staying in Ames at all. That did not set well with fans and donors.

had Lou as a boss and Max as a boss. Liked Max 10 times better.

 

[Kinch]

Criner and Walden were not bad hires. We just had nothing to work with. Our facilities were trash. We could have hired anyone and they would have done nothing. That is why McCarney was our savior. He started pushing to help get facilities built.

I thought Criner was a good hire at the time. I think if he didn’t run into trouble probably we would have had a decent program. Donnie was not a good hire. As a side note, He tried to get me fired at KPGY as a student after I sang Turn out the lights during our football broadcast when OU returned a punt return for a TD.

 

[Drew0311]

I thought Criner was a good hire at the time. I think if he didn’t run into trouble probably we would have had a decent program. Donnie was not a good hire. As a side note, He tried to get me fired at KPGY as a student after I sang Turn out the lights during our football broadcast when OU returned a punt return for a TD.

Back then Iowa state was just trying to be the best of the rest. It was OU and Braska and everyone else trying for third. Cryner proved he was a good coach after he left Iowa State. Went on to win a title in the world football league if you remember that league