Attitude, Timing & A Complicated Legacy

[Full Disclosure: Roy Marble was an avid listener to my various radio shows and late in his life I came to know him personally. I grew up idolizing him and other members of the 1986-1987 Iowa men’s basketball team whose portraits were featured on a calendar in Mrs. Hanesworth’s first grade classroom at Ekstrand Elementary school. For the purpose of writing about this matter I have attempted to compartmentalize both those facts, likely to no avail. Roy Marble died of cancer Sept. 11, 2015.]

[Photo courtesy of University of Iowa Athletics Communications]

By Todd Brommelkamp/KGYM Radio

It’s complicated.

Let’s just put that out in the open when it comes to discussing the University of Iowa’s affiliation with the late Roy Marble, who until recently was the school’s all-time leading scorer in men’s basketball.

That glass menagerie of a relationship has come to the forefront once more after Marble’s son, who himself played for Iowa, put the school on blast Monday night via his Twitter account.

Devyn Marble apparently wants nothing to do with his alma mater and the timing of his declaration isn’t a coincidence. A little over 24 hours after UI Athletics Director Gary Barta took to the floor of Carver-Hawkeye Arena to announce that Luka Garza’s No. 55 was being retired, here was the son of the man who now stands at No. 2 among Iowa’s all-time leading scorers (third if you count women’s star Megan Gustafson) publicly disavowing the school.

“I’ll never watch another iowa game in my life with the amount of disrespect that school has shown me and my family,” read Devyn Marble’s tweet. “Love the fans but I’m in no way affiliated or connected to the university.”

Here, it’s time to pause and make a few more acknowledgements. Devyn Marble’s tweet does not mention his former coach, Fran McCaffery, nor does it include Garza.

This is not a story about either of those individuals, but a third that goes unnamed. If you were reading thoroughly before now, you’ll notice he’s already been referenced.

Six years ago, Gary Barta decided the time was right to acknowledge Roy Marble’s place in Iowa Basketball history. The timing could not have been better. Devyn Marble had finished his career as a Hawkeye, playing no small role in helping the program transition through the early McCaffery years as it gradually built itself back into a Big Ten presence.
More importantly, Roy Marble was dying.

In August of 2014, a biopsy performed at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics revealed two malignant tumors in the senior Marble’s head and one on his face.

Honoring a man who was up against the shot clock for one last time seemed too easy.

With Roy Marble – and more importantly his legacy – nothing was ever easy.

For three decades Roy Marble’s accomplishments in Iowa City were confined to the pages of the media guide the school annually produced and there was a reason for that.

His off-the-court records were found elsewhere, often times in the police blotter.

For as great of a basketball player as Roy Marble was – and don’t let the lack of All-American honors or championships convince you he wasn’t – he was, by his own admission, not a good person during much of his life.

In fact, the same year Roy Marble was diagnosed with cancer he also faced allegations of domestic abuse.

Roy Marble has made mistakes,” he once confided to an Eastern Iowa radio host, “and I’ll be judged for those mistakes by one person.”

Roy Marble was not, for the record, referencing Gary Barta.

In March of 2015 Iowa announced the time had come to give its then-leading scorer the recognition it had long put off. During halftime of Iowa’s regular season finale against Northwestern, Roy Marble was brought out to center court and presented with a framed No. 23 jersey.

The ceremony was brief. It did not involve former teammates or coaches. It also did not involve officially retiring Marble’s jersey or number. [Iowa has bestowed both distinctions to various numbers in the past]

“Roy Marble enjoyed an outstanding playing career for the Iowa Hawkeyes and is more than deserving of this recognition,” Barta said in a release three days before the game. “While Roy’s number, or jersey, are not being retired today, we want to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for Roy’s contributions, and his dedication, to the Iowa basketball program.

Sometimes taking the easy way out isn’t always easy.

Plans for a Wall of Honor inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena were announced in the same news release. Roy Marble and his on-court accomplishments would find a home there, not among the arena’s rafters as some fans had hoped.

Six years later, that wall has yet to come to fruition.

Walls, we’ve come to learn, don’t just build themselves.

Something else happened in that time frame as well. Not one but two transcendent basketball players came through the tunnel of Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The first was Gustafson, who became Iowa’s all-time leading scorer in the sport of basketball by amassing 2,804 points over an illustrious career that spanned from 2015 to 2019.

The second? That would be Garza, who will leave Iowa City with a list of accomplishments unrivaled by an Iowa men’s player past, present and (more likely than not) future.

In 2019 Iowa retired Gustafson’s No. 10 jersey. Two years later an emotional Garza was surprised with the same honor.
If there’s one thing any of us have been reminded of in the past 12 months, it’s that life is nothing if not fluid. What makes sense one day may not make sense 24 hours later, let alone six years.

Devyn Marble likely saw something more than a jersey retirement Sunday afternoon. What he witnessed he did so through the eyes of a proud son, not as a former Hawkeye.

Likely is the key word here. We may not hear more from Devyn Marble on the subject. Many in the media have reached out offering him a chance to elaborate on his issues with Iowa. Whether he takes someone up on those offers will determine whether this story gets more life in the news cycle or becomes just another moment in time where passions flared up only to ultimately subside.

A week ago, I spent the better part of a morning researching how other Big Ten members have remembered their all-time leading scorers. The honors ran the gamut from retired jerseys to “honored jerseys” to not much mention at all.
Like so much of life, this story boils down to attitude and timing.

Iowa has changed its attitude about how it handles retiring numbers.

The timing did not sit well with Devyn Marble.

As stated previously, it’s complicated.