Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 37

Saturday, June 19, 2004 Iowa City Press-Citizen 3D SPORTS Rec standings B9SS lowaCityJoftball Rolling ball what? Of all the nicknames coined by former Iowa football coach Hayden Fry, the one given to fullback Richard Bass had a special After watching Bass plow through defenders i with his short, stocky frame, Fry labeled the for- I met Hawkeye the "rolling ball of butcher knives." The name still follows Bass around today, even at work. "People still ask me about' It now," Bass said. "As a matter of fact, I had a guy start working here i I three years ago and he came from Iowa. I "He looked at me and he said, 'What's your And I said, 'Richard And he said, 'Didn't you play at I said, And 'i he said, The rolling ball of butcher I -Pat Harty Co-Rec Division Slagle Pharmacy Iowa City Tire Dolls Inc Co-Rec CC Division Dairy Queen Brew Crew Shakespeare's Hanrahan's Pub Dan's Short Stop Wig Pen Chilli Heads Chico's Bail Bonds Co-Rec Division ACT Condors Systems Unlimited Glottal Attack Geico Direct Bockenstedt Excavating Hometown Painting Mclnnerney's OCC The Pearson Prowlers Co-Rec Division Ttie Swingers Svapakas Best Buy Pizazz Team Moose Black Plague Team Ramrod BCPC's Iron Children Zorn's Lemons Billionaires for Bush Fighting Biochem Base Runners Pleasant Valley AFGE Fed-ups Double Con Panna Men's Monday Carpet Specialist Sundogs Loparex Inc LV Floors Inc No Brainers SummitOne Eyed Jakes TPC Men's Monday Thundering HerdMclnnerney's City Sluggers XYZ Homeless Cowgirls Cornwell Lawn Care The Squirrel Sideburns Watertront RAGNAH Men's Tuesday The Dublin Underground AAA Mechanical McGregors Lumberjackz Batteries Included Got No Game The Wools Thirsty's Men's Wednesday Old Chicago PIAS Auto Trim Design OralB Vic's Auto Body Copy Cats Men's Wednesday A Welt Ambrisco Hanrahan's Pub Mclnnerney's Pub Dirt Bags Liberty Bank Ross' Buddies River City Auto Geico Geckos Mac's Crew Really Rotters Women's Division Beaver Healing Air Cond. Iowa Eye Prosthetics Deadwood Fountain's Trans.Gary Harding Const.

Slugger's Grill Shakespeare's Knights The Scoots Hilltop Heartbreakers WRAC Shakespeare's Rats 6-1 4-3 2-5 2- 5 6- 1 4-3 4-3 4- 3 3- 4 3- 4 2-5 2- 5 7- 0 5- 2 5- 2 4- 3 3- 4 3-4 3-4 3- 4 2- 5 0- 7 7-0 6- 1 6-1 4- 1 5- 2 4-3 4-3 3- 4 3-4 3- 4 2- 5 1- 6 0-6 0-7 6- 0 4- 0 3- 3 3- 3 2- 4 3- 4 0- 7 5- 2 4- 2 4- 3 4- 3 3-3 3- 4 2- 4 1- 5 5- 1 5- 1 4- 2 3- 3 3- 3 2- 4 2-4 0- 6 7- 0 5- 2 4- 3 4-3 1- 6 0- 7 6- 1 6- 1 6- 1 4-3 4-3 4- 3 2- 5 1- 6 1-6 1- 6 7- 0 6-1 6-1 5- 2 3- 3 2- 4 2-4 2-5 1-5 0-6 Submitted photo Richard Bass, a former Iowa football player and now a vice principal in Chesterfield, poses with five sets of twins during Marquette High School's 2003-04 school year. Ill's Mims says Bass set good example year or two to make the transition "I've always used the thought that in your first year or two there's a lot of wiggle room and waffling going on by young people trying to find themselves and trying to get accustomed," Mims said. "But after that second year, you've got to be self-sufficient. You've got to be able to make the right decisions. "If you're still stumbling after that second year, then it's on you." Reach Pat Harty at 339-7368 or getting much sleep to get that paper or project done.

"That might mean going in and talking to a professor because I didn't do very well on an exam. It might mean coming in and saying, 'Hey, I can't handle this. Can I get a It also means learning to trust those in position to help. "Once we change that mentality, people understand that there is support here and the people want them to succeed," Mims said. "You've got to be self-reliant" Mims said most students need a By Pat Harty Iowa City Press-Citizen Iowa associate atliletic director Fred Mims praised Richard Bass for doing whatever it took to succeed academically.

Mims just wishes more student-athletes would follow Bass' example. "It comes down to the desire of the students who want to achieve," said Mims, who also is the director of Athletic Student Services. "And that might mean staying up late at night and not From ID "When he got his master's, I told my wife, This is unbelievable. Richard Bass is getting his master's Jackson still uses the Bass story to motivate his players. "I tell my players about him all the time," Jackson said.

"It shows you what hard work will do." Bass praised the University of Iowa for helping to change the course of his life. "I was very fortunate that the university took a chance on me," said Bass, who is married and has a 2-month-old daughter. "That's something I can never thank them enough (for). I realize that I wouldn't be here if they didn't" The next goal for Bass is to become a high school principal, then ultimately a school superintendent It is similar to when he played fullback for Iowa in that he refuses to be stopped. "When I look back on where I came from, yeah, I've surprised myself," Bass said recently.

"I think football motivates you to continue to push and don't settle. "Whenever I get to the point where I feel too comfortable in my job, that lets me know that it's time for me to get out" Bass serves as hope and inspiration at a time when big-time college football has been rocked by scandal. "This is how you hope it would always work," Jackson said. The light turns on Bass was fortunate that he attended college in the 1980s instead of now when academic standards are more stringent "Based on today's standards Richard Bass couldn't get in school," Jackson said. "But here's a young man that got a chance and took advantage of it "Now he's a very successful person, but he's also a good citizen, which he always was." Bass learned after enrolling at Iowa in the fall of 1985 that he would have to motivate himself as a student or risk going back to Omaha as a failure.

It wasn't like high school, where he could go through the motions and still get by. "I had low self-esteem and doubted my own ability," Bass said. "So when you have that much doubt in your own ability, you learn to cover it up, and I covered mine up through athletics." At some point early in college, the light turned on for Bass. "Iowa gave me the opportunity to realize that there is something different in the world besides living in Omaha, Nebraska that I could decide how I wanted to live my life," Bass said. "But I was going to have to be patient and bust my butt.

No one was going to give me anything. That's the first lesson that I really had to learn." He also had to learn to accept his own limitations and failures in college. If at first you don't succeed, you take the same class again and work even harder. That is what Bass did after flunking a biomechanics course as a freshman. The following year he took the course and received a passing grade.

The experience of flunking a course taught Bass something about college professors. "That teacher never gave me a thought He didn't care if I played football," Bass said. "He made me realize that you have to do the work." Goodbye to football Bass represents what is good about college athletics. He needed the university more than it needed him. And while he was good in football, rising to the rank of team captain and co-most valuable player as a senior in 1989, he wasn't good enough that he could take academics for granted.

That became painfully clear in the spring of 1990 when Bass was not selected in the NFL draft "It hurt, because in my own mind, I believed that I could play (in the NFL)," Bass said. Though he believed it, he didn't rely on it Bass landed a teaching and coaching position at Kirkwood High School near St Louis shortly after graduating from Iowa. Soon after that, football came Teammate helped Bass join UI "Sean Ridley was the big-time recruit," Bass said. "So at the time people were saying, They're just throwing Richard Bass in there because dial's liis wliich could have been (the Bass didn't care about the circumstances surrounding his recruitment because all he wanted was a chance to prove Iiimsclf. "I knew one tiling: I was going to take advantage of it," Bass said.

Reach Pat Harry at 339-7368 or City From ID good football player but a marginal student. "(Ridley) was a guy that we had actually started recruiting," Iowa running backs coach Carl Jackson said. "And then during the process we saw Richard on tape and started visiting with him and decided he was worth giving a scholarship." And while Ridley played sparingly at Iowa, earning only one letter in 1987, Bass became a team captain and co-most valuable player as a senior in 1989. By Pat Harty 'Iowa City Press-Citizen Sean Ridley never had much success as an Iowa football player, but he did help bring Richard Bass to campus. Ridley was considered one of the top high school defensive ends in the country when he signed with Iowa in 1985.

He also was a good student and Bass's teammate at Omaha Central High School. Bass, on the other hand, was a calling again. Bass was offered a contract to play in the newly formed Arena Football League. He turned it down. "I said, 'Hey, I enjoy what I'm doing Bass said.

"I look back on it and I have a lot of fond memories. Football shaped my life so much. "I had to prove to myself that I could do something outside of athletics." Bass, an avid weightlifter, said he also had a chance to be the strength and conditioning coach for the Kansas State football team in the mid-1990s, but also turned that down. That would have reunited him with Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder, who was the offensive coordinator at Iowa for three of the four seasons that Bass played for the Hawkeyes. "It wasn't a good time," Bass said.

"At the time, I was working on my master's. I knew there was a different calling, but it was hard. Every day I was like, should I do it or should I not?" So much heart Bass had to learn to speak up after enrolling at Iowa. He also had to quit feeling embarrassed about having some academic shortcomings. "When I came to (Iowa) one of my tutors told me these teachers get paid to educate you," Bass said.

"You've got to be willing to ask them for help." Easier said than done. "There was a lot of pride involved," Bass said. "But you've got to be willing to say, 'I need Help came in a variety of ways, from tutors to study halls, but mostly from within. "The guy has so much heart, it's unbelievable," said Susan Walker, assistant director of UI student services and Retention Coordinator. "I can't tell you how much he appreciated all the help we gave him here.

We just couldn't give him enough." Walker holds a special place in her heart for Bass. "He's a once-in-a-lifetime type of guy," she said. "You just don't see a lot like him. He had a passion to get a degree from here. He had a passion for learning." Bass takes a similar approach to his job as vice principal.

To say that he is tough on his students would be an understatement He wants them to avoid making the same kind of decisions that plagued him during high school. He wants them to accept challenges rather than avoid them. "I enjoy working with kids because I'm still trying to give back what the system gave to me," Bass said. "It was so good to me that my job now is to give back. "I'm always challenging kids to make sure they realize how important their education is." Reach Pat Harty at 339-7368 or Jay Haas, the first-roiuid co-leader, made double bogey on the final hole for a 74 and slipped six shots behind.

"The Icadcrboard is shaking out a little bit, and yoinv getting a good look at guys tliat are going to liave a chance on Sunday," Maggert said. It all stalls witii Mickelson, who has made only one bogey in 36 holes. He has the most exjx'ri-ence, the most game and the loudest support. Mickelson had to play three holes Friday morning to complete his first round, and he immediately got in trouble by going long on the par-3 seventh. I lis ball was biuied in a thick mess of grass, and he faced a steep slope to a green that went down toward the biuikers.

But he safely chopped it up the hill, rolled his par putt some 8 feet by and holed that for a worthy bogey. with the "best to never win a major" label until his 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Augusta National to beat Els by one shot. Now that he has a green jacket, Mickelson has a healthy appetite for more majors. "I really haven't felt that sense of relief," he said. "What I have felt is a sense of excitement and anticipation.

I can't wait for the upcoming majors now because I feel like I'm onto something to play well in the big tournaments." Lefty spent three days at Sliinnecock Hills last weekend, learning all the nuances on the links-styled course. He attributes his great play more to preparation than a burden being lifted from ending his major drought Angel Cabrera had a 71 to join Els at 3-under 137, wluie 1995 U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin had a 71 and was in the group at 138 with Singh. U.S. Open From ID Well, all but No.

1. Ernie Els birdied four straight holes to jump into contention and finished with a 67, only tliree shots out of the lead at 137. Vijay Singh had a 70 and was another stroke behind. As for Tiger Woods, he spent much of the round flirting with the cut line until a couple of big par saves, back-to-back birdies and an 8-foot par putt on the final hole gave him a 69. He was at 141, seven shots behind and still holding out hope.

"The great thing about it is the guys aren't going to run away and hide on this golf course," Woods said. Maybe not, but catching Mickelson will be no picnic. "You win a major, you know you can do it, and there's a definite psychological jump you make," said Els, a three-time major champion. Mickelson was 0-for-42 in the majors as a pro and was saddled he said. "We had just lost a heart-breaker, and then their first guy almost hits one Senior, after failing to get a hit the first three innings versus MulUenbruch, got RBI singles from Jeff Iliatt and Andy Brenner in the fourth.

The Rams added two more runs in the fifth and two key insurance runs in the seventh. "Every time we made a mistake it cost us a run," Knoop said. City had six errors in the twinbill. City Iligh meanwhile, stranded eight runners. The Little Hawks tried to get something going in the seventh inning of Game 2 after an RBI double from Smith lifted the shutout, but the rally died quickly.

"I don't think we could get anything going," Muhlenbruch said. "Balls were never dropping for us. We had line-drive hits, but right to them." Senior (8-12, 4-8) put a scare into City in the opener, as well. After Bob Ilesseltine blasted a three-run double in the bottom of the first, the Rams responded with four runs on five hits in the top of the second off Joel Rocca. Rocca settled down, however, and gave up just one other hit in five iimings, striking out six.

Down 4-3, City tied the game in the fourth inning when Rocca walked, advanced to second on a passed ball, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mulilenbruch. The game remained tied until the bottom of the seventh when freshman Jonathan Gilmore blasted a leadoff triple to right field. Jack Butler was working the count at the plate when Gilmore scored on a passed ball. "That was a huge hit," Knoop said of Gilmore's triple. "He does a good job of getting on base when we need him to, and he came tlirough there." The doubleheader was the second of three dates at the University of Iowa baseball field for City.

The Little Hawks, whose home diamond is in a construction zone this season, host No. 2 (3A) Cedar Rapids Xavier on July 6. GAME1 Dubuque Senior 040 000 0 4 6 1 City High 300 100 1 5 1 3 Chris Winner and Luke Kalb: Joel Rocca, Jell Greenwald and Matt Maynard. Greenwald (3-2). -Winner (1-4).

2B Bob Hesselline (C). 3B Jonathan Gilmore (C). GAME2 Dubuque Senior 000 220 2 6 6 0 City High 000 000 1 1 7 3 Ryan Tnlk and Luke Kalb; Nick Muhlenbruch and Keaton Jones W-Tnlk (1-3) L-Muhlenbruch (4-1). 2B Muhlenbruch (C). Pat Hurm 2 (DS), Jefl Hiatt (DS).

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