Great Moments in Iowa Hawkeye History

(Reader Warning: If you are not a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes, you may actually die of boredom by reading this)

Iowa 30, LSU 25
Capital One Bowl
January 1, 2005
Orlando, FL

This is the only bowl game on the list, and there’s a reason for that. With the exception of the big one, bowl games are little more than exhibition games designed to extend the college football season and give us all something to watch when the NFL isn’t on. This year, there were 35 bowl games, the majority of which will be all but forgotten by all but the most rabid fans of the teams who participated. Every now and then, however, two good teams hook up in a neutral site in late December / early January, and treat us to a game that folks will remember. The 2005 Capital One Bowl was one of those games.

New Years Day is when all the trash talking between the Big 10 and the SEC takes a day off so the teams can settle things on the field. I was not a big Nick Saban fan (still am not), so there was a houseful of heartbroken Hawkeye fans (including my aunt and uncle) when LSU scored late in the 4th quarter to take a 25-24 lead. As the seconds melted off the clock in the game’s final minute, I was furious at the Hawks’ clock mis-management, and as the Hawks lined up for what I figured to be the game’s final play, I was terrified at the prospect of the game ending with 2 Iowa timeouts left on the board.

Eleven…ten…nine….

Quarterback Drew Tate took the snap and 5 Hawkeye receivers streaked downfield. Darting between LSU pass rushers, Tate set his feet and spotted Warren Holloway, a senior with 29 career catches and no TDs who somehow managed to get behind the LSU prevent defense, and let it fly, and even then, I was asking myself “Why didn’t Ferentz use a timeout earlier in the drive?”.

Six….five…four….

Almost as if he had done this 20-30 times in the previous 4 years, Holloway snatched the ball out of the air at the 15, and outran 2 LSU defenders to the end zone. Touchdown Iowa, clock reads :00, HAWKS WIN, and a guy named Warren whom moments ago I had never heard of was the hero of the game!

What was LSU defense thinking letting a receiver get between them and the end zone? Here it is years later, and fans of both teams still ask that question, but as the Hawks lined up to kneel down for the point after touchdown they did not need, we didn’t care. The Hawks had beaten LSU, the Big 10 had beaten the SEC, and our little house in Minnesota was literally shaking as we jumped up and down and screamed the Iowa Fight Song.

Iowa 81, Georgetown 80March 16, 1980
NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament, East Regional Final
The Spectrum, Philadelphia PA

The “Fabulous Few” earned an improbable Final Four trip to Indianapolis, overcoming a 10-point halftime deficit, making 17 of their final 21 shots and going 15-15 from the free-throw line. The winner was Steve Waite's 3-point play in the closing seconds.

The Hawkeyes’ spectacular play throughout the 1979-80 season in spite of injuries to key players (including star point guard Ronnie Lester, who missed 15 regular season games that year) helped them earn the nickname “The Fabulous Few”. Without Lester and freshman Mark Gannon, who was lost for the season in a game at Michigan, Coach Lute Olsen usually went with 6 guys: sharpshooting swingman Vince Brookins (#32), “twin towers” Waite (52) and Steve Krafcisin (54), defender extraordinaire Kevin Boyle (40), freshman Bobby Hansen (24), and backup point guard Kenny Arnold (30).

The Hawks started the season with 10 straight wins and a top 10 national ranking, but struggled with injuries to finish 5th in the Big 10 with a 10-8 record. Seeded #5 in the East Regional, they disposed of Virginia Commonwealth, North Carolina State and top seed Syracuse to get to the Regional Final.

As a young Hawkeye fan, the 1980 Tournament was my first real taste of March Madness, perhaps before they even started calling it March Madness, and for a couple of weekends in March some 30 years ago, the Hawks were indeed fabulous, and I fell in love with Iowa Basketball watching them with my dad in our downstairs den (with that ridiculous orange shag carpet).

Iowa 9, Michigan 7October 17, 1981
Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor MI

This one looked like a laugher on paper: the Hawks traveling to Ann Arbor, where they had won only once since 1924. In fact, none of the networks even bothered to televise what promised to be a convincing win for the Maize & Blue, but just 5 weeks after the jaw-dropping 10-7 upset of Nebraska at Kinnick, the Hawks took their act on the road and shocked another national football power in front of 100,000 hostile fans without scoring a touchdown.

Bob Brooks brought the game into our living room as Dad and I listened in awe. Tommy Nichol’s third field goal of the game provided the winning margin, and Iowa’s suffocating defense, led by Andre Tippett and Larry Station, held mighty Michigan to one touchdown. The win improved their record to 5-1, their best start since 1960. The Hawks would go on to earn a share of the Big 10 Championship and their first trip to Pasadena since the 1958 season.

After 19 straight years without a winning season, a new era began on a warm September afternoon in Iowa City when the Hawks shocked Nebraska, and 5 weeks later, for the first time in a generation, the entire college football world was paying attention to the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Iowa 12, Michigan 10October 19, 1985
Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City

In a battle of teams ranked #1 (Iowa) and #2 (Michigan) in the nation, 4 Rob Houghtlin field goals, including a 29-yarder as time ran out, were enough to beat Bo Schembechler and the mighty Wolverines under temporary lights installed at Kinnick for this nationally televised game, which started at 2:30 p.m..

This is the only televised game on the list where I did not actually see the ending live. Brent Musberger and Ara Parsegian had the call on CBS, but I had to work the 5 to close shift at Burger King that night and was forced to settle for Bob Brooks’ call on the radio. The whole place went crazy when Houghlin’s kick from the right hash mark split the uprights, and my feet barely toughed the floor that night as I prepared Whopper after Whopper for happy Hawkeye fans who saw history made in person. The Hawks would win 4 of the next 5 for a share of the Big 10 title and their second Rose Bowl in 5 years.

Iowa 15, Michigan State 13October 24, 2009
Spartan Stadium, East Lansing MI

It was a hard-hitting game of nothing but field goals, 3 by Iowa’s Daniel Murray and 2 by Michigan State’s Brett Swenson, until Michigan State’s Blair White hauled in a 30-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to give Sparty Spartan a 13-9 lead late in the 4th quarter, and the Hawkeyes’ perfect season was in jeopardy.

My neighbor Justo, a transplanted Columbian who has developed a deep appreciation for American football, helped keep me calm on the couch as I tried to come to grips with the fact that a guy named Blair was about to end our dream season. Seriously, who names their boy BLAIR? Justo handed me a New Glarus Spotted Cow longneck, claiming that it was good luck beer, and I was desperate enough to actually think a beer brewed in Wisconsin could help a football team from Iowa.

As we sipped on our Spotted Cows, Justo and I watched Ricky Stanzi lead the Hawkeye offense onto the field. They were 70 yards from the end zone and a field goal would not help them. 1:32 left on the clock.

Three Stanzi completions (16 yards to Marvin McNutt, 21 yards to Trey Stross, 16 yards to Derrell Johnson-Koulianos) moved the ball to the Spartan 15, and a controversial holding call have the Hawks a 1st and goal on the 7. Three incomplete passes later, it was 4th and goal when Stanzi found McNutt on a slant pattern. Touchdown Iowa, no time left on the clock, HAWKS WIN.

The win improved Iowa to 8-0. Their bid for perfection would end 2 weeks later in Iowa City, but they finished 10-2 and earned a bid in the Orange Bowl. The McNutt catch in East Lansing was an incredible finish to one of the best college football games I have ever seen.

Iowa 55, Minnesota 0November 22, 2008
HHH Metrodome, Minneapolis, MN

Most of the games on this list were in doubt until the last few seconds, but not this one. The last Gopher game in Metrodome history was over not long after the coin toss. Tailback Shonn Greene, who would finish 6th in 2008 Heisman Trophy balloting, shredded the Gopher defense en route to his 12 consecutive game with 100+ yards. It was 27-0 at halftime, and by the time it was 41-0, the Hump was half empty and only about 20,000 delirious Hawkeye fans remained.

It’s the only game on this list I saw in person. In fact, Collin and I were in the front row, right behind the Iowa bench, and were right in the middle of it all when the Hawks paraded around the perimeter of the Metrodome with Floyd of Rosedale. We high-fived all the guys and Collin even got to touch Floyd! Never had I had more fun at a sporting event. 5 weeks later, the Hawks would notch only their 3rd January win since 1959 with a 31-10 victory over South Carolina in the Outback Bowl.

Christmas Letter 2010

Alright, here we are…Christmas 2010 is just around the corner. You know, years that end with a “0” are a pretty big deal in our family. More on that a little later in the letter. In the meantime, our year on one sheet of paper:

The kids are sophomores at St. Louis Park High school. Academically, the deal we make with both of them is if it’s all As and Bs, and more As than Bs, they won’t get any trouble from us, and on the most part, they hold up their end of the deal. It is also my duty to inform all of our readers that by the time you read next year’s letter, both kids will be licensed drivers. YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WARNED.

Collin took a year of baseball off to rest a sore arm and basically see what summer is like when you back out 40 games and 40-50 practices. He will never admit this, but I think he found it uncommonly boring, so he plans to be out there on the diamond next spring. Oh, and remember my prediction that he would be 6 feet tall by Christmas? He was there by Easter, and he’s only about an inch shorter than I am! Adrienne, on the other hand, filled many of her summer evenings up polishing her babysitting skills, mostly with two cute little girls who live down the street. She really has a soft spot for little kids.

One of Adrienne’s babysitting adventures on a Saturday back in June had a strange but fun ending. Our friends Reid and Ally dropped their little guy off with Adrienne to run an afternoon’s worth of errands, and we planned to have them stay for supper that evening. Meanwhile, I’m somewhere in South Minneapolis watching the USA vs. Ghana soccer match with Collin, Justo (my crazy Colombian neighbor) and many of his crazy Colombian friends. After the match, it was back to the house to get ready for supper. There had been a storm the night before and power had not been restored, so Reid and I were sitting in the front yard when Justo strolled up the sidewalk with a 12-pack of beer. Moments later, Justo’s friend Jose showed up with a case. Then another friend of Justo’s. Then some kids. Then neighbors Robyn and Full Nelson wandered over to see what was going on. Connie’s not seeing any of this because she’s out back grilling, but she wondered who could possibly be consuming all the beer she saw me hauling into the front yard. A moment later she looked out the kitchen window to a yard full of people tossing back beers waiting for the lights to come back on. Just like that, dinner for 7 became dinner for 20. Without hesitation, she cut all the ribs and chicken into little pieces, tossed the skillet beans and some chips out there and yelled “Come and get it!”. We ate, drank, and laughed the evening away. Never did run out of food. Great little impromptu party. WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

Back on June 23, Connie and I marked our 20 year anniversary and celebrated by spending a couple of nights in Red Wing, MN. Red Wing is just 60 miles down the road, and the kids jumped at the chance to have the house to themselves. We stayed at the historic St. James Hotel, ate a couple of nice meals, hiked Barn Bluff, took a riverboat ride, and walked all over the place. A nice weekend getaway.

About 7 weeks later, Mom & Dad celebrated their 50th anniversary, so Mike, Paula, Connie and I treated them to dinner at the White House in St. Lucas, IA. Not to be confused in any way with The White House in Washington DC, but a very nice meal just the same, and Mom & Dad had a mighty good time.

And just a few weeks after that, we all went to Cedar Falls to help Dad celebrate the 50th anniversary of the great 1960 Panther football season. The 1960 Panthers rode a balanced offense and thoroughly suffocating defense to a 9-0 start, a feat that would not be repeated by a Panther team for 47 seasons. They allowed only 2 touchdowns and a field goal in 6 conference games, and earned a bowl berth for the first time in school history. Dad wore #83 and scored 7 touchdowns in 1960, his senior season. In all, 22 teammates, 2 widows and an assistant coach came to town for the gathering, not bad for a team of 39 guys a half century after their last game together. The university invited them onto the field before the North Dakota State game, and showed them a great time all weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking football with all of Dad’s teammates who made the trip, and Dad had a blast.

So while we spent the better part of the summer celebrating some milestones, we close out the year in a familiar way: Thanksgiving at home, Christmas in Iowa if the weather doesn’t stop us. They’re saying it’s going to be a colder, snowier winter, so keep your fingers crossed for us!
Well that's just about it from here. If your travels ever bring you to the Twin Cities, please be sure to give us a call. St. Louis Park is a stone's throw from downtown Minneapolis, and we love to have visitors. Until then, warmest wishes for a safe, happy holiday from our home to yours,

Warren, Connie, Collin & Adrienne

Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas from the Reyersons!

You know, I think I can almost still taste the stamps I licked for LAST year’s Christmas cards, so to say that this year went by in a hurry is an incredible understatement. Truth is, I don’t know where the year went.

Kids are doing great. They are just finishing up their first semester of 9th grade at St. Louis Park Senior High. Connie and I are both amazed at the SIZE of this place, but for 1,100 kids, you NEED a place that big I guess. Last time Connie checked grades, it was all As and Bs for both of them, so no complaints there. Collin opted for the Honors course load right away, and Adrienne will move into Honors English and maybe 1 or 2 others next year. I must also warn our readers that Collin began Driver’s Ed this semester and Adrienne is next.

Collin landed his first job this summer, as a caddy at the golf course here in town. He liked the work, but he often showed up but then would get sent home right away because nobody was asking for a caddy, so he’ll be looking for steadier work next summer. Collin also got in another season of baseball (team finished 18-17), and he found some time to volunteer at the Westwood Hills Nature Center between games and practices. Busy kid, and as you can see in the enclosed picture, he is growing like crazy. Grew 6 inches this year alone, and his feet are now bigger than mine! I predict he will be 6 feet tall by next Christmas.

At the tender age of 14, Adrienne doesn’t reveal a lot of information to her pop, so I struggle to come up with things to write about her. She just goes about her business at school and hangs out with her friends. Ridgedale Mall is one of her favorite places, which is what you might expect from the typical American teenage girl. She doesn’t fancy herself much of an athlete, but she ran the 200 meter on the track team this spring and WON a couple of heats. And when she’s not knitting baby blankets or the red scarf I have been asking her for years, she’s either texting or Facebooking somebody.

As the days grow shorter and colder, Connie is preparing for her favorite time of year in a familiar way: putting the holiday decorations on display, wrapping and hiding presents, and cranking up the goody machine. This time of year, when I get home, there‘s always Christmas music playing and the house smells great. Cookies, fudge, peanut butter balls, popcorn cake, Connie does it all. She’s been at the elementary school for 8 years now, helping out wherever she’s needed, and a lot of the ladies there buy goody baskets from her this time of year, which means (you guessed it) even MORE baking. She tried to talk me into a second oven when we remodeled a few years back and I just laughed. Now I’m starting to get her point.

What a season for the Iowa Hawkeyes! 9 straight wins to start the season, including wins at Penn State, Wisconsin, that heart-stopper in East Lansing, and a berth in a January bowl game. They are not the most talented Iowa team ever, but they fought through injuries, ground out 10 wins, and earned everything they got. What an EASY team to root for! I must say that a win in January would be a great way to not only kick off 2010, but also to take the sting out of what promises to be a pretty bad season of Iowa basketball this winter.

Mom and Dad came up from Oelwein for Thanksgiving and spent 3 nights. We’ve done that for 6 years now, and Connie likes to put out a big spread, and it‘s so fun to have folks up. As for our Christmas plans, it looks like 5 nights on the road: 3 in Oelwein, then off to Webster on Christmas Day for 2 nights with Connie’s side of the family. It is such a treat to have a few days off around Christmas to really enjoy friends and family, and it’s a shame we can’t get together more often.

Well, I‘m out of paper, so I‘d better wrap up! If you’re ever in town, be sure to stop by. Our house is just a few minutes from downtown Minneapolis and we love to have visitors. We hope this letter finds you in good health and good spirits, and we wish you all a happy and safe holiday.

8 Tips for President Obama

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I am a committed conservative (fiscal and social) who is rooting like hell for President Barack Obama. We don’t have 4 years to waste, so to President Obama in his first week in office, I offer 8 tips for leading our nation to a better place. First, here are 4 things he can do that will almost ensure that President Obama will be a very unsuccessful 1-term President:

(DON’T) Pursue investigations of Bush & Cheney. I can’t think of one thing that would be more damaging to an Obama presidency than spending one moment contemplating the lawfulness of the Bush administration in its prosecution of the war on terror. Throughout his campaign, Obama’s message and tone was optimistic and forward-looking, and not once did he even hint that he would support an investigation. Even as unpopular as Bush was exiting office, an investigation would be political suicide.

(DON’T) Close Gitmo. I almost left this one off the list because he signed the order to close on Day #2 in office, but he still has nearly a year to reverse the order. There is no place in the world to put these 245 prisoners that will make Americans more safe than where they are today. And bringing them onto U.S. soil and try them in our criminal justice system is the worst possible option.

(DON’T) Issue tax rebates to people who pay no taxes. By any reasonable definition, such a practice is “redistribution of wealth”, something our tax code has enabled for generations. Checks for the non-tax-payers out there is welfare, no more, no less, and putting into action the “spread the wealth around” comment that brought fame to Joe the Plumber, will spell doom for President Obama.

(DON’T) Roll back the Bush tax cuts (or let them expire in 2011). After running as a “tax cutter”, increasing the tax rates on the majority of Americans is tantamount to the “Read my lips: No new taxes” campaign statement that sunk Bush #41. Saying one thing and doing another almost never works, and screwing tax-paying Americans will cost him in November 2012.

Here are 4 things that will help him earn a second term:

Capture or kill Bin Laden. This one is a no-brainer. While we can debate the long-term impact it would have on Al Qaeda, or the war on terror in general, nailing Osama Bin Laden would be jet fuel for President Obama’s re-election campaign.

Enforce the law, which is what the Executive Branch of the government is supposed to do. Hire an Attorney General who will go after Immelt, Madoff, O’Neal and all the other corporate crooks who have not yet been introduced to the world. Nothing will restore Americans’ trust in government more than nailing to the cross people who are even less worthy of our trust.

Back off nationalized health care. Tom Daschle is going to go after this hard, just like Bill and Hill did 16 years ago, but as financially over-leveraged as our nation is, there could possibly be no worse time in our history to pursue such a program. Didn’t make sense 16 years ago, makes even less sense now.

Drop this Fairness Doctrine nonsense. Like the 43 guys before him, Barack Obama took an oath (twice!) and pledged to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I don’t you can do that and pursue the idea that government has any role in the programming of talk radio stations. Being President of the U.S. means respecting and protecting the freedoms and rights of all Americans, even Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt and others you don’t agree with.

Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas from the Reyersons!

ANOTHER year almost in the books. The kids are doing great, bringing home mostly A’s on their report cards, are about to trade their braces for retainers and are both as tall as Mom. Adrienne may be done growing, we’re not sure, but Collin is just getting warmed up. He is eating literally everything.

Last Spring, Collin was one of 16 recipients of the St. Louis Park Caring Youth Award. His Language Arts teacher Mr. Pollack nominated him for his work planting milkweed to preserve the monarch butterfly habitat on school grounds, and we were invited to City Hall to watch Collin receive a certificate signed by Governor Tim Pawlenty. No football this year, but he’s still a baseball player and had a fine summer at the plate to go with his very reliable glove. He’s also playing basketball this winter and we like watching him battle out there. I am also pleased to inform you that Ozzie the Lizard is still on top of Collin’s dresser basking under a heat lamp. 2 years and counting.

Connie and I have both observed that Adrienne is a 50/50 blend of our DNA: she looks mostly like Mom and acts mostly like her pop. A few months shy of her 14th birthday, Adrienne just adores babies, and got a few chances to perform some babysitting this year. She’s a natural, and watching her with young kids, I see a future pre-school teacher, although she’ll tell you that she wants to be a fiction writer. We’re just impressed that she’s thinking about that stuff…a lot of girls her age are far more fixated on the opposite sex. While boys are on Adrienne’s radar, she’s not going out of her way to capture their attention. Still plenty of time for all that nonsense.

What a year it’s been for Connie. Back in January, she was selected for jury duty. A bit apprehensive about driving and parking downtown, she took the bus back and forth and made her way around the big town quite nicely, finding the Hennepin County Courthouse with little trouble. Not bad for a gal who grew up in a town of 100. She served on a jury and had quite an experience. Connie still fills in at the elementary school here in St. Louis Park, and for a 7 week stretch this fall, she worked every day in Room #105, where the developmentally disabled kids are. And now with Christmas coming, she has transformed into a baking machine. Big shock, right?

For the second consecutive summer, we did not get in a week of fishing up north, but we did get on the road to connect with family. We spent a couple of nights in Davenport with Uncle Kurt and Aunt Jenifer, who moved to the Quad Cities not quite 2 years ago after 20 years in the Twin Cities area. Mom and Dad came down from Oelwein, as did Scott and April from Iowa City. The boys golfed, the girls shopped and we all went to the ballpark for a Quad City River Bandits game, which is not a bad way to spend a beautiful summer evening.

On the gridiron, my beloved Iowa Hawkeyes have had a roller coaster season, defeating Iowa State to go 3-0, dropping a few close games, then galloping into November with a full head of steam, shocking #3 Penn State at Kinnick Stadium. Was really something to watch the students flood the field after the game winning kick. Back on November 22, Collin and I had front row seats right behind the Iowa bench (about 20 feet away from Floyd of Rosedale), and cheered the Black & Gold to a good old-fashioned butt-whooping of border rival Minnesota, 55 - 0. We stayed around after the game, high-fived the guys, sang the fight song. Collin even got to touch Floyd! I can’t think of 2 or 3 sporting events where I had a better time.

Is there anybody besides me who is happy to see this election cycle end? What a filthy business politics is! There are so many crooks, it’s almost impossible to spot the few true public servants employed in Washington. I don’t trust any of them anymore, and while I’m thrilled we live in a country where the choice is ours, I’m not crazy about a lot of the choices. And don’t get me started on the collapsing journalistic standards of the news media. Regardless of which candidate you supported, if you watch much news, I’m sure you’ll agree that this last two years has been little more than an infomercial for Barack Obama. I didn’t vote for our President-Elect, but with the shape this country’s in, I’m sure as heck pulling for him now.

As far as holiday travel plans go, we have settled into a comfortable routine. We go to Iowa for Christmas (3 nights in Oelwein, 3 in Webster), and “Iowa comes to us” for Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad came up for their 5th consecutive Thanksgiving feast in St. Louis Park, staying for 3 nights, and weather permitting, we’ll be on the road to Iowa on December 22 to have Christmas with the whole family.

After moving 7 times in our first 8 years together, Connie and I have no regrets settling in St. Louis Park, buying the 3rd house we looked at, 12 years ago. Over the years, my job has taken me to a lot of big cities, but I still haven’t found one that I would pick over the Twin Cities area. Years from now, I envision a little house with a big porch in a little town, but for now, it’s a little house with no porch in St. Louis Park and we couldn’t be happier or more thankful.

Well, that‘s our year on one sheet of paper! If you’re ever in town, be sure to stop by. Our house is just a few minutes from downtown Minneapolis and we love to have visitors. We hope this letter finds you in good health and good spirits, and we wish you all a happy and safe holiday.

Warren, Connie, Collin & Adrienne

Welcome to Barack Utopia

As a committed conservative who last voted Democrat in 1984, I was very disappointed with the outcome of this year's Presidential election. I will readily admit that I wasn't crazy about either major party's nominee (McCain was my 4th choice coming out of the GOP behind Romney, Huckabee and Thompson), but evaluating the content of both their messages, thought the choice was very clear.

In my opinion, Senator McCain and his campaign made several mistakes that cost him votes, including avoiding the Jeremiah Wright issue, their mis-handling of Sarah Palin, and voting for the bailout. To be fair, I'm not sure that McCain could have won even with the "perfect campaign". 2008 will go down as the Year of the Donkey I guess.

In the end, Barack Obama won the White House at least partially through very skillful delivery of the standard boiler plate Democratic Party message: country's going the wrong way, Bush did it, we can fix it, blah blah blah. During the campaign, especially in the 3 debates, he came across as a "plausible" President among voters who had not yet made up their minds. The financial crisis that emerged in September pretty much sealed the deal for Obama and the Democrats.

The thing I like about blogging is it allows the blogger to establish a permanent, time-stamped record of what he's thinking at that very moment. The election is over, my guy didn't win, but here are 3 thoughts from a John McCain supporter 3 days after Senator Obama became President-Elect Obama:

1. Barack Obama will take office with a clean slate with me. None of this "not my President" garbage that we heard 8 years ago. I had my reasons for picking the other guy, but 60 million Americans have spoken, and I am ready to see what he can do. The voting record, the "spread the wealth around" comment, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Joe the Plumber are all in the rear view mirror, and none of it moves our troubled country forward. Clean slate. Clock starts NOW.

2. I want Barack Obama to succeed. If he can lead us out of this financial mess, keep our nation safe, respect and protect our freedoms, protect U.S. interests abroad and not tax us all into oblivion, I will be first in line to re-up President Obama for another 4 years. If it turns it into the Harry Reid / Nancy Pelosi / MoveOn.org Show, he's going to lose me fast and he will be a very unsuccessful one term President. We are a center-right country, and if President Obama has the courage to stand up to the far left moonbats who claim responsibility for President Obama, he has a chance to lead us to a better place.

3. Barack Obama demonstrated real class on the eve of the election when he offered very kind remarks about John McCain after McCain contacted him to offer sympathy after the death of his grandmother. He did not have to do that in the hours leading up to the opening of the polls, but doing so speaks to the kind of stuff I want my Prez to be made of.

100 Years of Misery

My dad, who is the biggest St. Louis Cardinals fan in the world, introduced me to the game of baseball at a very young age. I thanked him by pledging my allegiance to the Cardinals arch-rival, the Chicago Cubs.

Rooting for the Cubs came so easily to me. When cable TV came to my town, they were always on TV. I'd bust out of school and rush home to watch the last 3 or 4 innings and hear Harry Caray and Steve Stone break down the game. Harry and Steve were generally not very happy during the telecasts, because the Northsiders were pretty lousy.

Throughout my childhood, the Cubs' futility was one of those constants that helped assure a young boy in Iowa that there was order in the world. You could always depend on the Cubs. Always, that is, until 1984, when a young 2nd baseman named Ryne Sandberg came in and wrecked everything.

In 1984, I was a freshman at the University of Iowa, and I was still a rabid Cubs fan. All the Cub fans knew that the Sandberg kid was going to be good as soon as he joined the club in '82, but he was just one guy, as Dad reminded me, and it was still the Cubs. After all, they traded future Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter away (to the Cardlinals no less), and got somebody named Leon Durham in return. With a roster full of has-beens and never-will-be's surrounding Ryno, most observers had no reason to believe that this team with one post-season appearance since World War II wouldn't be mathematically eliminated by Labor Day.

But then something bizarre happened. Something that had never happened for any sustained period in my lifetime. The Cubs started playing with skill. Veterans Ron Cey, Larry Bowa and Gary Matthews blended with younger guys Bob Dernier and Jody Davis. Closer Lee Smith was lights out and made us all forget about Bruce Sutter very quickly. Leon Durham was so good that the Cubs traded Bill Buckner to Boston, where he would make some history of his own a couple of years later. Meanwhile, Ryne Sandberg was having a season that would define his career. Everything, literally everything, was working, so how were the Cubbies going to screw this up?

On June 13, two days before the trading deadline, the Chicago Cubs were in first place, but needed to shore up the starting pitching if they were going to get through the dog days of summer. Prospects Mel Hall and Joe Carter were sent to Cleveland for righthander Rick Sutcliffe. A lot of Cub fans, including me, thought the Cubs gave up too much for a guy who was 4-5 with the Indians. Finally, we thought, the Cubs screwed the pooch, the spell broken, order restored.

Wrong. It went the other way. The Cubs caught fire after the Sutcliffe trade, winning 32 of 46 games during one stretch, including a thriller on June 23 where Sandberg homered twice off Bruce Sutter to beat the Cardinals 12-11. Sutcliffe went 13-1 in Cub pinstripes and was borderline unhittable. The Cubs went 18-10 in July, 20-10 in August, and on a cool September night in Pittsburgh, they clinched the National League Eastern Division. My beloved Cubs were 3 wins away from the World Series, and the only thing standing in the way were the San Diego Padres.

It was only after the Cubs clinched that I started to visualize what I hoped would happen next: Cubs sweep Padres and take the National League Pennant, I run through the streets screaming "THE CUBS WIN THE PENNANT!", something I had been waiting to do for most of my short life. Gratuitous abuse of alchohol, a lifestyle I discovered earlier in my college career, would almost certainly follow.

As I recall, winning the World Series wasn't even on the radar. The American League Champion Detroit Tigers, winners of 35 of their first 40 games that season, appeared invincible to me and most observers. So all I wanted was to get past the Padres and take our best shot the Motor City Kitties. Win or lose, flying the "National League Champions" flag over Wrigley for the first time since 1945 sounded pretty good to me, and certainly no team in those ghastly brown and yellow uniforms could stop us.

The first two games of the best of 5 National League Championship series were like a dream. Bobby Dernier led off Game 1 with a home run, Sutcliffe himself launched one onto Sheffield Avenue and shut out the Padres 13-0. In Game 2, lefty Steve Trout was sharp and the Cubs won again 4-2.

In my dorm room, watching the games on the TV my grandparents bought the day the astronauts landed on the moon in 1969 (the last year the Cubs were in the playoffs), I was beside myself. I imagined what it was like in Wrigley as they sent the boys off after the Game 2 victory. The feeling was overwhelming: this was the year. Padres are COOKED. Jinx over. Bring on the Tigers. It was almost too easy.

The Cubs left town with a very simple mission: win 1 out of the next 3 in San Diego, win the pennant, end the drought, but everybody knows what happens next. Padres take Game 3, Garvey homers in the 9th to tie series, Cubs blow a 3-0 lead in Game 5, Leon Durham makes 2 errors in a 4 run 7th, Padres never look back. Cubs lose, order restored.

Years later, I still cannot define with words the heartache I felt in the moments after Game 5. What I can tell you is that it has never been the same with me and the Cubs after that. I am and always shall be a fan, but after 1984, I have never pushed in my whole stack of chips on the Northsiders. So while I can tell you that it stung when the Giants and Will Clark did them in 5 years later in the NLCS, I lived. The playoff failure in '98? No sweat. The Steve Bartman Debacle of 2003? Handled it. And in 2008, with the Cubs galloping to the best record in the National League and getting swept (SWEPT!) by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series, I watched quietly, shook my head and shut off the TV.

Nothing lasts anymore, but the Cubs have given us all a great gift that has endured 100 years: the rock steady feeling that in these uncertain times, there are a handful of things that you can count on. The Coyote never gets the Road Runner, James Bond always gets the girl and the Cubs will always find a way to spit out the bit. Reliable as the tides, predictable as a Disney movie. Someday the curse will end, and if I'm alive and still able, I will update the blog, but until then......