In a column last week, I used the comments of an Iowa basketball fan who is already upset, even though the season has barely begun.

The fan went on to say, "Alford just isn’t doing the job. How can they expect to win a Big Ten road game when they can’t win at UNI?"

Alford, of whom much more was expected, hasn’t yet had any of his four Iowa teams finish in the first division of the Big Ten standings. Consequently, I pointed out that he’s skating on thin ice with lots of Hawkeye fans.

This week I received an e-mail from another Hawkeye fan who pointed out that there is plenty of discontent with how the coach of another sport is doing.

"I don’t think Steve Alford is the only Hawkeye coach treading on thin ice," the woman writes. "At the end of the wrestling season last year, Jim Zalesky was skating right there, leading the way."

That fan’s thinking is sound, too. Iowa finished second to Minnesota in the Big Ten meet last season, then wound up a very disappointing eighth in the NCAA—the Hawkeyes’ poorest finish since 1972.

There’s no easier way for an Iowa coach to get himself in trouble with fans than to lose to Iowa State—and that has already happened this season. The Cyclones ended a whopping streak of 30 successive losses to Iowa with a 21-13 victory Dec. 7 at Ames.

Before the season began, Zalesky said, "Last year we had a great season up until the Big Ten and NCAA Championships." He added that the Hawkeyes "faded when we normally come on. We have to be ready for the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments."

Fans are wondering if it will happen.

John had taken three consecutive Drake teams to the NCAA tournament, and his 1968-69 squad finished third in the nation.

` "Would Iowa State be a better job than Drake when Maury John departed?" the reader asks. "At that time, the Missouri Valley Conference was one of the best conferences in the country while the Big Eight did not have that reputation.

"Possibly the dismantling of the Missouri Valley Conference had begun when Maury John left for Iowa State? Or simply, John felt unappreciated at Drake and Iowa State offered more money and a chance to coach in brand-new Hilton Coliseum."

[MY COMMENT: Iowa State came after John hard when it was looking for someone to be the coach to revive a near-dead Cyclone program and be the man who filled Hilton Coliseum with fans. At the time, I considered the Drake coaching job a better one than the Iowa State job because John had made it that way. He was recruiting better players, he was winning more games and certainly more postseason games, and he was competing in a much stronger conference. But Iowa State no doubt offered more money to John, more money to his assistant coaches, the use of dealer cars (that was something John or the assistants did not have at Drake) and what was thought to be a bright future. However, cancer of the esophagus cut Maury’s life short and cut short his dreams of building the program he wanted at Iowa State].

From retired University of Iowa sports information director George Wine: "He was a good Catholic who believed in the hereafter and, as a friend said, he is probably visiting with Nile Kinnick about Iowa’s win over Minnesota in 1939."

From Bill Maurer, a writer from Des Moines: "One of my part-time jobs in Iowa City was writing basketball stories for the Press-Citizen. I would come in real early on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and get info from the coaches—that, of course, after having written my story about the University High team that I watched on Tuesday and Friday nights.

"Al was a good guy. I first met him when I was a freshman covering Iowa sports for the AP. (I was Ike Skelly’s man in Iowa City). He never treated me like a stupid kid, which I was.

"I envied the way he wrote. The guy was good."

From Carl Gonder, a former high school and small-college basketball standout from Cedar Rapids who now lives in Australia: "It’s a sad day in Hawkeyeland."

From Al Schallau, a transplanted Iowan who now lives in Palos Verdes, Calif.: "Al Grady has gone to be with the Lord. I will miss him a lot.

"Al Grady was a dear friend of mine. Iowa sports will not be the same without him. My family moved to Iowa City in September, 1955.Al Grady was then the sports editor of the Iowa City Press-Citizen. He covered almost every St. Mary’s High School basketball game and his columns showed that he was openly rooting for us to win the Class B state championship. St. Mary’s did win that title in 1956 and 1957, and finished second in 1958. Al Grady was present at almost every game.

"On Sunday mornings, you could find Al at the 10:15 Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Iowa City. He sat on the right side of the church about halfway from the front. He and I always talked sports for about 10 to 15 minutes after Mass. Our Sunday morning visits started when I was in eighth grade and continued until I graduated from Iowa in 1964. He always had time to talk to me.

"After I moved to California in 1964, my visits to Iowa City included going to the Press-Citizen to chat with Al Grady. He always had time to talk to me.

"On a Monday evening in March, 1974, Dick Schultz announced his resignation as Iowa Hawkeye basketball coach. I called Al Grady at his home late that night to discuss two potential successors. I suggested that Iowa should consider hiring either Denny Crum of Louisville or Lute Olson of Long Beach State.

"Al said, ‘Who is Lute Olson?’ (He was already familiar with Denny Crum).

"I said, ‘Lute Olson is the head coach of the team that is ranked eighth in the nation. And he is very available. He is very unhappy at Long Beach State.’

"The next morning, I called Lute Olson at Long Beach and asked him, ‘Is there any possible way that you could be interested in coaching at the University of Iowa?’

"Lute said, ‘Are you serious? It has been my lifelong dream to coach in the Big Ten.’

"When I called Bump Elliott 10 minutes later, Al Grady had already talked to him. So Bump did not ask me, ‘Who is Lute Olson?’ He already knew.

"Seven days later, Lute Olson was introduced at the Iowa Fieldhouse as the Hawkeyes’ new basketball coach. When Lute was named national coach of the year in 1980, Al Grady wrote the article about Lute for the Sporting News. In his article, he recounted the exact details of that late-night phone conversation that he had with me in March, 1974. I was touched that he remembered every detail with perfect accuracy.

"Al Grady was a consummate Chicago White Sox fan. The ChiSox teams of the late-1950s and early-1960s always had strong pitching staffs and very little run support. The Sox’ anemic hitting went on for so many years that Al sometimes wrote that putting on a White Sox uniform caused everyone to become banjo hitters. Al once wrote, ‘I am convinced that if Roberto Clemente was traded to the White Sox, he would bat .251.’

"Al Grady lived a wonderful life and his writings brought great reading pleasure to hundreds of thousands of people. I will miss him very much. My most cherished memory of Al Grady is that he always had time to talk to me."

From my West Coast Correspondent: "Wow, what stunning news about Al. That’s sad. In the meantime, opportunity knocks at the Los Angeles Times."

The opportunities are spelled out in this Times internal memo:

"The foreign staff is seeking a few experienced reporters in Baghdad. The first will be over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays and then into the beginning of next year. If this is an opportunity that interests you, please contact me or foreign editor Marjorie Miller as soon as possible.

"Thanks,

"Leo Wolinsky"