Beth Goetz stepped to the Kinnick Stadium podium Saturday night with an announcement for Hawkeye Nation.
“I gotta take the opportunity on behalf of the athletic department, the University of Iowa and all Hawkeyes to congratulate Coach on this monumental achievement.”
Iowa’s athletic director was speaking for a whole lot of people, curious for someone only at the school for three years. A history lesson could have prevented her from making an inaccurate assumption.
Goetz was wrapped up in the moment of Kirk Ferentz becoming the Big 10’s all-time winningest coach. The Hawkeyes overwhelmed lowly Massachusetts, 47-7, in a game that had the student section cleared out before the fourth quarter.
The vibe in the stadium after win No. 206 reflected her feelings, as did the reaction on social media. Fans celebrated a video of prominent former players paying tribute to the coach. Nothing he’d done in his past was a dealbreaker compared to most people’s emotional attachment to the program.
Studies have been conducted on this phenomenon. Sports fans overlook a lot when cheering on their favorite coaches and players. It explains Joe Paterno, Urban Meyer, Bob Knight and others still being viewed in a positive light.
Ferentz ran a racist program. After an internal report found racial bias, former players felt not enough was done in response to those findings. They spoke out. An external report confirmed the charge. (Both reports are embedded at the bottom of this article.) Bullying also was discovered. Student-athletes then added more details and context to the Iowa Football culture. A group of them won a $4 million settlement from the university.
In 2011, Iowa Football grabbed national headlines for hospitalizing 13 student-athletes with its workout. Ferentz stayed on the road recruiting, waiting days to check on his players in person or answer questions about the incident. The press conference included a doctor, a player’s parent and Iowa Football’s player personnel guy.
The hospitalizations mostly were explained away as an accident. What couldn’t be explained was Ferentz four months later handing out an assistant coach of the year award to the man who conducted the workout, strength coach Chris Doyle. It was the first and only time Ferentz named an assistant coach of the year.
Doyle is a story for another day. He’s intertwined in these events, which made him the fall guy for what was wrong with Iowa Football. He’s responsible. But if you believe he acted alone, you’re probably still searching for a second shooter in the grassy knoll.
Most fans reading won’t click on the links in this column. They dismiss the charges completely, downplay them or rationalize them. It’s cognitive dissonance.
I get it and am not here to pee on anyone’s parade or change their minds. Celebrate your guy being at the top of the Big 10 mountain for wins. No doubt, he can coach victories and makes you feel good.
But consider stopping short of calling him a great man, which often gets attached to these achievements even when history says otherwise. A great man doesn’t allow racism in his program or hand out an award after players are hospitalized.