Farewell, Roy Marble

Former University of Iowa basketball star Roy Marble died Friday at 48.

For a story on Marble's life, I recommend this one from Scott Dochterman of The Gazette.

I knew Roy since 1986. I traveled with him and his Hawkeye teammates to Asia when they had a two-week tour there the summer before Tom Davis' first season as Iowa's head coach.

A few months later, the Hawkeyes began their most-memorable season of the last three decades. They won 30 games and were briefly ranked No. 1 in the nation. There hasn't been an Iowa team that was as entertaining or successful ever since.

A few players on that club had much-longer NBA careers than Marble, but as a sophomore he was the Hawkeyes' best player.

He became, and will long remain, Iowa's all-time career scoring leader with 2,116 points. Later in life, he gave Hawkeye fans a real treat via his son, Roy Devyn Marble, who chose to play basketball at the same school as his father and had a wonderful career himself in helping largely with the renaissance of Iowa hoops.

Statements from Fran McCaffery and Tom Davis on Roy Marbles passing.

He and I had many a basketball conversation together. Ninety-five percent of those consisted of Roy talking. That was fine by me, because I always loved hearing his stories about his basketball past.

One of those conversations was in a New York City establishment called Hurley's the April 2013 night Iowa lost to Baylor in the NIT finals.

Just a couple hours after that defeat, Roy was already excitedly looking ahead to Devyn's senior season.

Last November, after having begun cancer treatments, Roy guested on my podcast. I listened to it this afternoon to hear his voice and remember how reflective he got in the final year of his life.

I'm linking it here so you can hear it if you choose. It isn't morbid, at least not in my opinion. What struck me upon rehearing it was the positive, yet realistic attitude Roy carried while coping.

'I love everybody,' he said during that interview.

To say it's been a hard week in Hawkeyeland is an understatement. Condolences to all of Roy Marble's family and friends, and to all of Tyler Sash's. The frailty of life and all of us who live it can be a difficult thing to wrap our minds around.