Out in Greene County, Iowa

Launching sports icon Gary Thompson’s story where it began – the old gym in little Roland

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
December 13, 2008
ROLAND, IOWA

My new book about the life and times of one of the state’s genuine sports heroes Gary Thompson was launched on Saturday morning, December 6, at the spot where the story really started – at the old basketball gymnasium in this central Iowa town.

We introduced the 352-page “GARY THOMPSON: All-American” at what we called a “Norwegian coffee” in the Commons area just outside the old gym at Roland-Story Middle School, which is on the site of the former Roland High school.

We had a brief program. Thompson’s old friend Harris “Pete” Twedt, of nearby Story City, a ’48 graduate of Roland High and excellent vocalist, led the singing of the old Roland fight song. I did a couple of brief readings about just what happened here in Roland back in the early 1950s, and how it made a young boy the talk of the state before he was even old enough to drive.

Thompson began to offer a few heartfelt reflections by saying, “I have a hard time even now, all these years later, putting into words how much you people mean to me.” And then he was overtaken by emotion.

After a minute to 90 seconds of Thompson trying to compose himself, Glen Egland, the older brother of one of Thompson’s high school teammates, broke the silence by saying out loud, “Gary, that’s one reason we all like you. You’ve never forgotten where you came from, and even with all the great things you’ve done, you’ve always been the same guy you always were.”

Thompson then regained his composure and went on to tell some great stories.

Celebrating the time when Gary Thompson & the Roland Rockets were the talk of Iowa In the three years that Gary Thompson was in the basketball line-up for tiny Roland High School from 1950-'53, the Rockets played in the one-class state tournament every year and upset some of the state's biggest schools. Talk about March Madness! Roland lived it! Now, 55 years later, we celebrate with three of Thompson's old Roland pals doing the Rockets fight song. Brothers Harris ''Pete'' Twedt Jr. and Jerry Twedt are the singers, accompanied by Mary Severseike on piano. The recording was handled by by Dave Schubert of the Roland-Story Schools. CLICK HERE TO SEE AND HEAR IT!

“I can’t believe this turnout here this morning,” he said to the crowd – about 200 attended. “When Chuck said he’d asked the Salem Lutheran Church ladies to make some cookies for this, I told him I didn’t think many people would come, but to go ahead and get a dozen cookies and whatever was left over, we could take home.”

Then we began signing and selling books as fast as we could.

It was in that gym that Thompson led the Roland Rockets to basketball season records of 35-1, 31-3 and 32-2 in his three years as a starter from1950-’53. Five of those six losses happened in the one-class state tournaments, where the Rockets became known as giant killers for their upsets of Waterloo West and Des Moines East, and they nearly knocked off mighty Davenport in the ’51 championship game. Thompson set Iowa’s individual scoring records. And it was in that gym that the Roland boys established one of the state’s most amazing sports records, not losing a home game from 1946 to 1958.

Thompson, now an Ames business owner, says one of the best things about the run of basketball success he helped lead “is how much fun Roland people had with it.” Roland would be a ghost town during road games, and the fans of the Rockets were known for doing cheers in the Norwegian language of their ancestors. Basketball banquets at the end of the seasons would be packed by several hundred people.

Gary went on to become a two-sport All-American for the Iowa State Cyclones. In basketball, he led the Cyclones into the Top Ten in the national rankings, was the ballhawk and one of the heroes in the memorable 1957 upset of undefeated and No. 1 Kansas with Wilt Chamberlain, played in Ames during a blizzard. He and Chamberlain were on the Associated Press and Look Magazine first All-American teams that year, and Gary was MVP of the college all-star basketball game. In baseball, he was a three-year starter at shortstop for the Cyclones and led the ’57 team into the NCAA College World Series for the first time in school history.

After Iowa State, Thompson played five years as a star guard for the Phillips 66ers in AAU basketball, and later coached that legendary team for four years. Basketball with the 66ers took him around the world.

Then, for 34 years, he was a nationally-known commentator on TV coverage of college basketball in an era when TV helped public interest in the college game just mushroom. For 19 years, he and nationally-known play-by-play broadcaster Jay Randolph were the team that did Big Eight Conference men’s basketball on a TV network that blanketed the Midwest. Randolph has written the Foreword to the new book.

Thompson continued on the Big Eight package after Randolph left the broadcast team, and he also worked with many of the nation’s top sportscasters on telecasts of major intersectional games and NCAA tournaments. His TV career wound up with Thompson doing color commentary on the telecasts of the team he knew and loved best – the Iowa State Cyclones.

Over the years, he has also been a key advisor to Iowa State presidents, athletics directors, coaches and athletes. He also had intense, public and painful disputes with former Iowa State athletics directors Lou McCullough and Max Urick, and those are reported in-depth in the book.

Here are the details on where you can buy the Gary Thompson book directly, or by ordering it You can order books by U.S. Mail, paying with checks or cash, and there are also some locations in central Iowa where you can buy it directly. CLICK HERE FOR PURCHASING INFO.

Meanwhile, he was building a major business success with his Gary Thompson Oil Co., which began as the distributor for Phillips 66 products in the Ames area and has now evolved into a small chain of “Swift Stop” convenience stores.

And besides all of the above, Gary and his wife Janet – they met roller-skating in high school and married after Gary’s sophomore year at Iowa State 53 years ago – have one of the most fun love stories I’ve ever run into. Janet saved the letters that Gary wrote her during high school and early college, several are in the book and they are a priceless reflection of a budding young relationship in the 1950s.

His has indeed been quite a life. “I’m the luckiest guy around,” he says.

As an old, reformed sportswriter, I’ve felt fortunate, too, to be able to report and write the Gary Thompson story. I’ve watched his story build my whole career, and I recognized from the start of my work on it, this may very well be the best story situation about an individual sports figure in Iowa history.

I spent four long years on the book, interviewing more than 300 people, including some of the best-known sports personalities of our time. When I totaled up at the end, I wrote more than 146,000 words on what became much more than just a sports story.

Doing Thompson’s story let me take a deep look at what life was like in the 1950s, which was a great time for small towns and small schools in Iowa.

And it was just as interesting to dip into his life as a college student at Iowa State in the mid to late ’50s. That was an innocent time, and yet one of great change, too, in society as well as in the game of basketball. Big Eight Conference teams became racially integrated when Thompson was playing. And he lived the change from set shots to jump shots – he was a deadeye with both.

The launch event in Roland on Saturday was the first time “GARY THOMPSON: All-American” books was available for direct purchase. We went on to sell and sign them before and after that Saturday afternoon’s Iowa State men’s basketball game against Oregon State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

You can check the sidebar here to find other opportunities to buy the book directly, and how to order it by mail.

And Thompson and I hope to see you along the way.


You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.