Haddy, a member of the UI athletic staff for 41 years and Iowa’s Sports Information Director from 1993-2010, is currently the longest-serving member of a Big Ten Sports Information Office. He joined the Iowa athletic staff as assistant sports information director in 1971 and became the third sports information director in school history in 1993. He began a two-year phased retirement in 2010.

Only two athletic department employees, former SID Eric Wilson (46 years) and former swimming and diving coach Dave Armbruster (41 years), have worked for the Hawkeyes as long, or longer, than Haddy. Haddy and his wife, Elaine, have worked at the University of Iowa a total of 86 years.

Haddy was named Wrestling Publicist of the Year in 1992 by the Wrestling Media of America and was recognized with the 2001 Elmer “Scoop” Hudgens Lifetime SID Award from the All-America Football Foundation. His UI wrestling guides were judged “Nations Best” three times, as picked by CoSIDA and Amateur Wrestling News.

Haddy is a native of Cedar Rapids, where he graduated from Washington High School. He holds two degrees from the University of Iowa.

Former Iowa Sports Information Director George Wine received the CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. Eric Wilson (1969) and Wine (1985) are also members of the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.

The Hawkeyes won two field event titles on the final day. Troy Davis won the triple jump with a leap of 54 feet, 8 inches to defend his title from a year ago, and Matt Byers won the javelin with a throw of 222-11.

Doris twice broke his previous school record en route to the championship.

“Jumping was good today,” Doris said. “I’m never really content but I am happy today.”

Byers became the fourth Hawkeye in school history to win three Big Ten outdoor titles in the same event.

“The winning throw was my first throw and it felt all-right,” Byers said. “I’m still working through some kinks with my mechanics but the main thing is to come out here, compete and get the win.”

The Iowa women finished eighth with 53 points.

McKenzie Melander won her second title of the weekend for Iowa on Sunday, winning the 5,000 meters in 16 minutes, 14.03 seconds. Betsy Flood was second in 16:21.21.

MEN

Team scores – 1. Wisconsin 121; 2. Nebraska 115½; 3. Indiana 115; 4. Ohio State 86; 5. Iowa 80½; 6. Penn State 80; 7. Minnesota 70½; 8. Illinois 65; 9. Michigan 50; 10. Michigan State 19; 11. Purdue 15½.

Iowa place-winners:

Triple jump – 1. Troy Doris 54-8.

Javelin – 1. Matt Byers 222-11.

4×100 – 4. Iowa (D’Juan Richardson, Josh Larney, Tevin-Cee Mincy, Justin Austin) 40.18.

110 hurdles – 2. Ethan Holmes 13.74; 5. Jordan Mullen 13.97; 6. Dan Davis 14.05.

100 – 4. Justin Austin 10.52.

800 – 3. Erik Sowinski 1:47.18.

400 hurdles – 5. Ethan Holmes 51.10; 7. Keaton Rickles 51.69.

200 – 3. Justin Austin 20.65.

4×400 – 4. Iowa (Patrick Richards, Brenna Davey, Ethan Holmes, Erik Sowinski) 3:05.77.

WOMEN

Team scores – 1. Ohio State 117; 2. (tie) Illinois and Nebraska 110; 4. Penn State 87; 5. Wisconsin 78; 6. Michigan State 72; 7. Michigan 67; 8. Iowa 53; 9. Minnesota 45; 10. (tie) Indiana and Purdue 40.

Iowa place-winners:

Discus – 8. Majesty Tutson 163-2.

4×100 – 4. Iowa (Erin Jones, Raven Moore, Ashley Liverpool, Hannah Simonson) 45.51.

1,500 – 4. Betsy Flood 4:19.62.

400 – 2. Ashley Liverpool 52.47.

200 – 7. Erin Jones 23.88.

5,000 – 1. McKenzie Melander 16:14.03; 2. Betsy Flood 16:21.21.

4×400 – 5. Iowa (Hannah Simonson, Ashley Liverpool, Kelsey Quinn, Nicole Erickson) 3:38.49.

SOFTBALL: The Hawkeyes failed to make the NCAA Tournament field of 64 teams, announced Sunday night.

Iowa finished the season 27-26.

BASEBALL: The Hawkeyes lost to Michigan State 7-3 in East Lansing, Mich.

Michigan State pitchers shut down Iowa until the eighth inning. Starter David Garner (4-2) allowed just two hits with three walks and six strikeouts through the first seven innings.

Chett Zeise doubled and had an RBI for the Hawkeyes, and Jacob Yacinich also had an RBI.

Iowa fell to 20-26 overall and 8-13 in the Big Ten. Michigan State is 33-17 and 12-9.

MICHIGAN STATE 7, IOWA 3

Iowa
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Jarred Hippen, Nick Hibbin (7), Andrew Hedrick (7), Andrew Hanse (8) and Keith Brand, Dan Sheppard; David Garner, Trey Popp (8), Bryce Jenney (9) and John Martinez. W – Garner (4-3), L – Hippen (3-7). 2B – Jake Mangler (UI), Phil Keppler (UI), Chett Zeise (UI), Ryan Jones (MSU), Blaise Salter (MSU). HR – Martinez (MSU), Salter (MSU).

ROWING: The Hawkeyes finished seventh with 29 points at the Big Ten Championships in Indianapolis. Michigan won with 147.

Annemarie Bernhard made the all-Big Ten first team for Iowa, Katy Kroll made the second team, and Sarah Radke earned the Sportsmanship Award for the Hawkeyes.

Team scores – 1. Michigan 147; 2. Ohio State 145; 3. Wisconsin 122; 4. Michigan State 80; 5. Minnesota 77; 6. Indiana 44; 7. Iowa 29.

The University of Iowa’s top athletic department administrator wants to improve the quality of teams that participate in bowl games.

Hawkeye Athletics Director Gary Barta, saying this week that he feels a playoff system is inevitable, favors increasing the NCAA’s minimum postseason eligibility requirement from six victories to seven for teams playing 12-game regular seasons.

“The six-win requirement was established when there were 11 games in the regular season,” Barta said. “Six wins represented a winning season. When the schedule was switched to 12 games, we didn’t change the bowl requirement from six to seven.

“With a 12-game schedule, seven represents a winning season. That’s a good barometer in my opinion.”

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard favors leaving the eligibility requirement at six.

“We have gone to two bowl games in the past three years with six-win teams, and our players and fans have had great experiences,” Pollard said.

Sixty teams with .500 regular-season records have played in bowl games since colleges were allowed to play 12-game regular seasons in 2006, including Iowa that season.

The Hawkeyes were not invited to a bowl after going 6-6 in 2007.

Bowl-game eligibility will be discussed during a BCS commissioners meeting on June20, although the dominating topic will be playoff proposals that university presidents will consider when they meet on June 26.

The current BCS agreement ends after the 2013 season.

“It looks to me like a four-game playoff is a foregone conclusion,” Barta said.

Meanwhile, Northern Iowa athletic director Troy Dannen endorses whichever number benefits his Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) program.

He figures major colleges, some of whom play nine-game conference schedules, will seek as many traditionally less-powerful schools as they can with the notion of lightening non-conference scheduling loads.

Major colleges can play as many FCS teams as they want during the non-conference season, although they can count only one FCS victory toward bowl eligibility.

“A seven-win requirement will help us from a leverage standpoint,” said Dannen, whose Panthers will play at Wisconsin and Iowa this season. “If the FBS goes to seven wins (for bowl eligibility), it will help us.”

While potentially watering down non-conference schedules of BCS teams, according to Pollard.

“If the change was made to seven wins, it will have the opposite effect on college football than what most think,” he said. “Schools will stop playing tough non-conference schedules in order to make sure they get to seven wins.”

Dahm’s contract will expire after the season and Iowa athletics director Gary Barta would neither confirm nor deny through a statement if Dahm would be given a new contract.

“As is always the case with all our teams, we won’t conduct a season evaluation until the year is over,” Barta said. “Jack has always represented the Hawkeyes in a first-class manner and stands for what we’re about.

“We’ll finish the season strong, evaluate the prospects and potential for next year and go from there.”

Dahm said Monday that he thinks he deserves a new contract, but he also acknowledged that his program has been short on victories, especially this season.

“I think I deserve to be back, that’s how I feel,” Dahm said. “But we need to win more.”

Iowa lost two of three games at Michigan State over the weekend to fall to 20-26 overall and 8-13 in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes will play Creighton today in Omaha, Neb., before hosting Big Ten leader Purdue for three games over the weekend to close out the regular season.

Iowa already has been eliminated from making the Big Ten Tournament, which features the conference’s top six teams.

Dahm said he expects to meet with Barta and with associate athletics director Fred Mims, who oversees the baseball program, shortly after the season to assess the future.

“They’re very fair here,” Dahm said. “I have a trust with Fred and I have trust with Gary. Could they come back and say something? Who knows?

“But I fully expect to be back because of the things we have going on. If it’s strictly about winning, now it might be fifty-fifty. The bottom line is they have been incredibly fair to me and to this baseball program.”

The 45-year-old Dahm has 210 victories to rank third all-time at Iowa behind Duane Banks and Otto Vogel. Dahm also led Iowa to a runner-up finish at the 2010 Big Ten Tournament, its best showing since 1983.

However, he also has lost 274 games as the Iowa coach and this season marks the sixth time in nine seasons under Dahm that Iowa has failed to make the conference tournament.

“We’re excited about what we have going,” Dahm said. “The biggest thing is winning consistently. We’ve been to three Big Ten Tournaments; that’s not enough. Our resume is good, it’s not great. We need to win more.

“I didn’t go ask for any contract or to get it rolled over because I was thinking we were going to win big (this season) and then that’s going to help me in my contract negotiations. So I probably should have gone in and asked for more after we went to the Big Ten championship.”

Iowa struggled last season largely because of injuries, but this season it’s been more about poor execution and not coming through in the clutch. Iowa has lost 10 games this season by two runs or less and has scored three or fewer runs in 24 games.

“It hasn’t been frustrating from the standpoint the year has gone by fast and between me and the coaches and everybody, we felt like we were going to get it going and get over the hump and put a nice run together, which we’ve done in the previous few years,” Dahm said. “But we just haven’t been able to do it. We’ve lost some games in some tough ways.”

“Talking to Gary and Fred, they’ve been incredibly positive toward us. However, we need to win more games.”

Dahm took over at Iowa in 2004 after spending the previous 18 seasons as a member of the Creighton baseball program. His first four seasons at Creighton were spent as a player beginning in 1986. He then went on to become the school’s all-time winningest baseball coach with a 283-276 record in 10 seasons.

Dahm said he worked with one-year contracts throughout his time as the Creighton coach. That changed when he came to Iowa and was given a four-year deal. He then signed his current five-year contract before the 2008 season.

“It’s just starting to trend that way (in baseball) now where people are signing (long-term contracts),” Dahm said. “Of course, the Southeastern Conference and the ACC, those guys are getting the bigger contracts and they’re getting four- and five-year deals. It’s just starting to get in the Midwest where you’re getting more than one year.

“A lot of people do one-year contracts. Here at the University of Iowa, we’re fortunate that they gave me a four- and then a five-year deal. But we’re going to let it play out.”

Dahm points to a number of factors that he thinks should help earn him a new contract. Iowa’s graduation rates in baseball are among the best in the Big Ten and his players are active in community service. He also has the Big Ten’s top recruiting class coming in next season, but that could change depending on what happens in the draft over the summer.

“Our meetings have been very, very positive because if you look at what we’ve done as a whole in the program, they have no complaints,” Dahm said of Barta and Mims. “The one thing I want to do is win more games.

“We’ve done some good things in every facet. But we haven’t quite got over the hump to be consistent.”

Reach Pat Harty at 339-7368 or pharty@press-citizen.com.

The Hawkeyes will play at Virginia Tech in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 27. Iowa has lost its previous two challenge games with the Hokies, a 69-65 decision in Blacksburg, Va., on Nov. 29, 2006 and a 70-64 loss at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Dec. 19, 2009.Those are Virginia Tech’s only two victories in seven challenge appearances.

Iowa lost at home to Clemson in last season’s challenge game, 71-55, and is 2-9 in the event.

“We always look forward to this event and this year is no different,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “Anytime you play an ACC opponent on the road, you know it will be difficult. We have a great deal of respect for Virginia Tech. This will be a good road test for our basketball team early in the season.”

Virginia Tech will have a new coach in James Johnson, who from elevated from his assistant’s position after Seth Greenberg was fired.

The Hokies return nine lettermen, including two starters, from last year’s team that finished 16-17 overall and 4-12 in conference play. That includes Erick Green, who led the team in scoring (15.6), assists (88), steals (41), field goal percentage (.438), free throws made and attempted (101-of-122), and minutes played (34.5). The guard, who scored double figures in 30 of 31 games, was a second team all-ACC selection. Forward Jarell Eddie ranked third in team scoring (9.1) and second in rebounding (4.8).

Iowa was 18-17 last season, finishing tied for seventh in the Big Ten with an 8-10 league record and advancing to the second round of the NIT. Iowa returns five of its top six scorers from a year ago.

The 2012-13 ACC/Big Ten Challenge is listed below:

Tuesday, Nov. 27
Minnesota at Florida State
North Carolina at Indiana
NC State at Michigan
Maryland at Northwestern
Iowa at Virginia Tech
Nebraska at Wake Forest

Wednesday, Nov. 28
Purdue at Clemson
Ohio State at Duke
Georgia Tech at Illinois
Michigan State at Miami
Boston College at Penn State
Virginia at Wisconsin

Fact: Former Cedar Rapids Jefferson star Jarrod Uthoff spent this past season being redshirted as a freshman at Wisconsin, but now the 6-foot-8 forward is looking to transfer and has Iowa among the schools he is considering.

Prediction: Uthoff will pick Iowa despite the restrictions that come with it, most notably having to pay for school for his first year and not being able to talk to the Iowa coaches until he enrolls as a full-time student this fall.

Opinion: Uthoff didn’t have enough proof that Iowa was headed in the right direction under coach Fran McCaffery when he signed with Wisconsin as a high school senior. But now there is proof with Iowa coming off its first winning season (18-17) since the 2006-07 campaign and with Iowa winning seven more games than the previous season.

Fact: Northern Illinois officials are reluctant to talk about the likelihood that their season opener against Iowa in football, which will be played Sept. 1 at Soldier Field in Chicago, will not be televised on a traditional network, but instead will be shown live on ESPN3.com on the internet.

Prediction: If it can happen to Wisconsin, it surely can happen to Iowa. Wisconsin’s 2011 season against Northern Illinois was shown on ESPN3, or in other words, on a computer screen.

Opinion: Iowa officials should arrange for the Iowa football team to open the 2013 season at Hawaii. They could call it “Payback in Paradise,” marking the 25-year anniversary of Iowa’s 27-24 season-opening loss at Hawaii in 1988.

Fact: The inaugural Big Four Classic will be played Dec. 15 at Wells Fargo Arena and will match the state’s four Division I men’s basketball teams in a doubleheader.

Prediction: The media will cover this event like the moon landing, or maybe even like the first ever Big Ten football game between Iowa and Nebraska, which was played this past November in Lincoln, Neb.

Opinion: The Big Four Classic was created mostly because playing Drake and Northern Iowa on the road had become too daunting a task for Iowa and Iowa State.

Fact: For the third year in a row, the state’s top-rated high school football recruit will leave Iowa to attend college, with West Des Moines Valley offensive tackle Jake Campos making a verbal commitment to Missouri this past week.

Prediction: It won’t be the last time that the state’s top high school football recruit says thanks, but no thanks to the Hawkeyes.

Opinion: This is a blow to Kirk Ferentz and his staff, but more so from a public relations standpoint because it looks odd when an offensive lineman from instate turns down a chance to play for Ferentz, whose area of expertise is the offensive line and whose program is known for producing NFL offensive linemen.

Fact: The Iowa football team has combined to finish 15-11 over the past two seasons and has won nine or more games only twice since its three-year run of double-digit win seasons from 2002-04.

Prediction: The 2012 season will be more of the same with the Iowa football team winning six or seven games and doing just enough to make a bowl game.

Opinion: Iowa has feasted on the rags-to-riches stories under Kirk Ferentz, with lightly-recruited players such as Dallas Clark and Bob Sanders rising to stardom. But now it seems the recent stretch of mediocrity is partly the result of the Iowa coaches relying too much on this process, or having to rely too much on it.

Fact: Walk-on Sam Brownlee, a fifth-team tailback, led the injury-riddled Iowa football team with 227 rushing yards on 94 carries in 2004.

Prediction: Iowa will have three running backs that gain at least that many yards this coming season.

Opinion: We’ll never see another season like 2004 in how Iowa was able to win a share of the Big Ten title and 10 games overall despite having a virtually non-existent rushing attack.

Fact: The Iowa men’s basketball team returns seven of its top nine scorers from this past season.

Prediction: Junior-to-be guard Devyn Marble will lead a balanced Iowa team in scoring next season at about 14 points per game.

Opinion: Devyn Marble probably won’t break his father’s all-time scoring record at Iowa, but Devyn has more upside as a player.

Iowa (27-26, 16-8) lost earlier Saturday 4-1 to Minnesota but won its fifth straight series by taking 2-of-3 games over the weekend in Minneapolis.

The Hawkeye might have their season extended. NCAA Regionals are announced at 9 p.m. today on ESPNU.

Watkins’ grand slam put Iowa ahead 4-3 in the fourth inning. Her four RBIs moved her into third place on the school’s all-time list with 137.

Iowa added an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning when junior Johnnie Dowling hit an RBI groundout.

Minnesota (31-22, 10-14) loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, and plated one run, before the Hawkeyes closed it out.

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Chelsea Lyong, Kayla Massey and Liz Watkins; Sara Moulton and Kari Dorle. W – Moulton (25-14). L – Lyon (12-15). 2B – Katie Keim (I), Erica Meyer (M), Kaitlyn Richardson (M), Bree Blanchette (M). HR – Erika Smyth (M). SB – Tyler Walker (M).

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Kayla Massey and Liz Watkins; Alissa Koch and Kari Dorle. W – Massey (15-11). L – Koch (6-8). 3B – Erica Meyer (M). HR – Liz Watkins (I). SB – Tyler Walker 2 (M).

BASEBALL: The Hawkeyes plated runs in the eighth and ninth innings to top Michigan State 2-1 on Saturday in East Lansing, Mich.

Jake Mangler hit in Nick Day on a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to tie the game. Iowa took the lead on a bases loaded walk by Anthony Torres in the ninth.

Iowa starter Sasha Kuebel gave up just six hits in seven-plus innings, and Nick Brown and Taylor Kaufman (3-0) closed the door for the Hawkeyes.

“I can’t say enough about Sasha’s performance,” Iowa coach Jack Dahm said. “We competed incredibly hard on the mound today.”

The teams play again at 12:05 p.m. today at McLane Stadium.

Iowa
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Sasha Kuebel, Nick Brown, Taylor Kaufman and Keith Brand; Andrew Waszak, Jeff Kinley, Tony Wieber, Bryce Jenney and Joel Fisher. W – Kaufman (3-0). L – Kinley (6-3). 2B – Ryan Jones 2 (MS). CS – Justin Scanlon (MS).

TRACK: Iowa’s Erik Sowinski broke the 800-meter school record in the prelims, crossing the line in 1:46.88, breaking the old record of 1:47.02. It also broke the facility record in Madison, Wis.

Iowa advanced to the finals in 14 events, but sits in eighth place after two day of the Big Ten Championships on Saturday.

Wisconsin leads with 62 points and Indiana has 44. Iowa has 12.5 points.

Jeffery Herron placed third in the high jump and seventh in the long jump. Gabe Hull was fifth in the discus.

For the Iowa women, Amanda Stahle was eighth in the javelin.

The Iowa women are tied for 10th place with 10 points. Wisconsin leads with 52 points.

An average of 11,908 fans per game watched the Iowa men’s basketball team in Carver-Hawkeye Arena in 2012, an increase of 273 fans per game than 2011. UI points out that the Hawkeyes were up an average of 1,066 fans during the team’s nine-game Big Ten schedule compared to the year before.

Iowa played a total of 32 games, home and away, averaging 13,515 fans, an average that ranked 21st nationally in 2012.

The Big Ten led the nation in men’s basketball attendance for the 36th consecutive season. The Big Ten led all conferences with an average attendance of 12,868, which is more than 1,300 higher than the next-closest conference (Southeastern).

So instead of accepting an offer to play at East Carolina or Eastern Kentucky out of high school in Flint, Mich., the 5-foot-6 guard spent this past season at Highland (Kan.) Community College.

“I pretty much accomplished everything I set out to do,” Thomas said. “Iowa needed a point guard, and we connected.”

Thomas is expected to fax in her national letter of intent Friday and join the Iowa women’s basketball team. She has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

Driving home from Kansas on Thursday evening, Thomas said she intended to enroll at Iowa this summer and play in the Game Time League with the other Hawkeyes.

“They are family-oriented, and it felt like home there,” Thomas said. “I had a close relationship with (assistant coach) Shannon Gage.”

Gage had recruited Thomas while she was in high school, but Iowa had plenty of depth at guard.

But with the graduation of Kamille Wahlin, plus injuries to Jaime Printy and Trisha Nesbitt, Iowa had a need.

“She is the ultimate competitor,” Flint Hamady coach Keith Smith said. “I don’t care if it’s a pickup game, she comes to win. She has an excellent work ethic. She’s a winner.”

Smith said that in Thomas’ four seasons, Flint Hamady only lost three games and won two state championships. Thomas played for two seasons with Michigan State guard Jasmine Thomas.

“We played them together, and I used Katherine to defend the other team’s best perimeter player and she would lock them down,” Smith said.

When Jasmine Thomas graduated, Kathryn Thomas had to take over a bigger scoring role and a bigger role as an offensive facilitator. Smith said she took to both roles.

It carried over to college. In her one season at Highland, she led the Scotties to a 28-4 record, was named the Jayhawk Conference Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, and earned NJCAA first-team All-American honors.

She led the conference with 20.3 points per game and averaged 2.94 steals per game. She made 30 3-pointers and 154 free throws over 32 games.

“She’ll be fine in the Big Ten,” Smith said. “She’s strong for her size, and she’s been playing against good competition.”