Members of the 1969-70 Iowa basketball team were (left to right): Front row, Chad Calabria, Glenn Vidnovic, John Johnson, Dick Jensen, Ben McGilmer, Tom Schulze, Jim Hodge. Back row, Gary Lusk, Joe Miranda, Lynn Rowat, Omar Hazley, Tom Miller, Ken Grabinski, George Conway, Fred Brown. Photo courtesy of University of Iowa
By Don Doxsie
Even in this age of extreme offensive basketball, the numbers seem impossible to fathom.
The 1969-70 University of Iowa basketball team scored 100 or more points in 14 of its 25 games. The Hawkeyes averaged 98.7 points per game for the season, 102.9 in Big Ten play. Four different players averaged more than 17 points per game.
Collectively, they made 52.3 percent of their shots from the field and a school-record 78 percent of their free throws. They won games by scores such as 121-106, 119-100, 115-101 and 108-107. They won one game in which an opposing player scored 61 points and another in which that same player scored 53.
And they did all of this long before the advent of the 3-point field goal and during a nine-year period in which the slam dunk was outlawed in college basketball.
The 1969-70 Hawkeyes were that special.
“Once it rolled, it rolled good …’’ said Glenn Vidnovic, one of the stars of that team. “We had some players. We had four of the best players in the Big Ten that year, four of the top 10 anyway.’’
Somehow, with all those gaudy statistics, the Hawkeyes did not make the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. They lost their opening game in the tournament although they did become one of only three teams in the past 50 years to go undefeated in Big Ten play (14-0) while compiling a season record of 20-5.
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