The 1980-81 University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team was the first to play Division I basketball in program history. This, and other photos featured in our story, were featured in the pages of that season’s press guide for the team.
Nov/Dec 2024 (Volume 16, Issue 6)
By Tim Harwood
Milwaukee Bucks guard A.J. Green will play in his 100th NBA game during the coming weeks. That 100th regular season appearance will be one more than the 99 times he was on the court in an unparalleled career at the University of Northern Iowa. Twice the winner of the Missouri Valley Conference’s Larry Bird Trophy, no UNI player has knocked down outside shots quite like Green. No other Panther has earned more than a glance from basketball’s most competitive league.
UNI gave Green a platform to attract NBA attention, but Northern Iowa’s arc of basketball success is longer than any of Green’s three-point attempts. There was the Panthers’ court-storming 2015 win against No. 1 North Carolina, a bracket-busting triumph over Kansas in 2010, and UNI’s national introduction with the 1990 upset of third-seeded Missouri during the first of eight NCAA Tournament appearances. Wes Washpun and Ali Farokhmanesh and Jason Reese all helped to prepare the way for Green. Quietly, so did Bill Jones, Rod Underwood and Tony Haupert.
Bill Jones was a key member of the 1980-81 University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team.
When those last three were on the floor in 1980-81 during UNI’s first Division I season, some Panther fans believed the university had made a terrible mistake.
“UNI will probably never be able to compete consistently with Iowa. Drake. Kansas State or even Iowa State. So why try to get on their schedule?” read one letter to the Waterloo Courier sports department, reprinted in February of 1981 when the Panthers were 8-15. “It’s time for UNI to face the facts. It is not a basketball power and is very unlikely to become [one] in the future. Especially in Division I.”
The facts UNI faced in the spring of 1980 involved an unsettled college sports landscape. The NCAA had introduced its three division classifications less than a decade earlier. Other universities — similar in size and history to Northern Iowa — were shifting to Division I. Conferences were being re-shaped and rivalries were being split up to a degree which would seem very familiar to 21st century sports fans.
Panther basketball did not attempt the climb from a position of strength. The 1979-80 team finished under .500. Despite a Division II National Tournament appearance capping the 1978-79 season, UNI’s woeful 1973-74 record (4-22) was still part of the program’s living memory. However, the Cedar Falls campus was home to a first-rate sports venue. The UNI-Dome had opened for football in 1975. Within two years, it was also home to Panther men’s basketball.
UNI also had a lot of seniors going into the fall of 1980.
“Tony Haupert and Steve Peters were two of our bigger guys … Steve Peters was a year ahead of us but tore his knee at one point in time and red-shirted a year,” said guard Randy Richards reflecting on the 1980 outlook. “Between Bill Jones, Rod Underwood, Haupert, myself — who were all in that [1977] freshman class together — and then Peters, who would have been a year ahead of us … you know, there’s a pretty good nucleus.”
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