Ben McCollum’s mother, a retired judge, has been quite an example for him to follow

IOWA CITY — Ben McCollum is 0-1 as a coach in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. At the time, his mother hoped he would get more chances to win there.

McCollum’s Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team played at Iowa in an exhibition game in November 2011. It was his third season as the Bearcats’ coach. They would go on to a 22-7 record and the first of 13 straight winning seasons that included four NCAA Division II national-championships.

But that day in Carver, Northwest succumbed to Fran McCaffery’s second Iowa team, 79-59. The loss doesn’t count in childhood Hawkeye fan McCollum’s 426-95 career record.

Mary Timko, McCollum’s mother, said “He came out and I could just see he was looking around like ‘This is so cool.’ And I thought to myself ‘I hope someday he can walk out as (Iowa’s) head coach.’

“And all of a sudden, it happened. Pretty cool.

“I have a lot of friends here that have already offered to have me stay with them. That’ll be fun.”

Timko’s own life story was shaped in part by the UI and Iowa City, making her son’s hire here all the more special to her.

She got her undergraduate, master’s and law degrees at Iowa, and was Johnson County’s assistant county attorney from 1982 to 1988. It’s where Ben and her other son, Joe, were born.

Then, she was appointed an Associate Juvenile Judge in the Third Judicial District, in northwest Iowa. She moved her family to Storm Lake as a single mother. Ben was in second-grade.

“I prosecuted juvenile cases,” Timko said. “I then I ended up with the domestic assaults, some sexual assaults, mostly, those kinds of crimes.

“I was the first female judge in that area,” Timko said Tuesday after McCollum’s introductory press conference at Iowa. “I had 12 counties, so I had to drive around. So it was difficult for six months or so, but then we settled in.”

She had never been to Storm Lake, but she and her two sons made it their home. She remarried, and was wed to Roger Timko for 32 years before his death a year ago. They had a daughter, Mary Rose.

Roger had a long career in law enforcement, with the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, and then the Division of Criminal Investigation before returning to the DNE. He made 1,100 felony arrests.

In retirement, he worked as an advocate for victims of felony crimes. He also taught at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy for over 25 years.

He was a big sports fan, and taking his family on vacations usually involved seeing ballgames somewhere. He took great pride in McCollum’s coaching career.

“My heart can’t tell the difference between a stepson and a biological son,” he often said.

“My gosh, he’d just be teary-eyed and so excited for Ben,” Mary said.

Her own resume is long and impressive. She was a member of the Child Advocacy Committee, the Parents and Children Together Committee. She was the founder and judge of the Buena Vista County Family Drug Court.

She served on the Drug Endangered Children Committee, the Native American Advisory Committee for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Siouxland, the Faith Hope and Charity Board of Directors, the Storm Lake Softball Association Board, the “I Will Not Worry” Foundation.

She also was an adjunct law professor at Storm Lake’s Buena Vista University.

Timko retired as a judge in 2021, after 33 years on the bench.

Her oldest son went to North Iowa Community College to play basketball for two years, then walked on at Northwest Missouri State. Now he’s coaching on the campus where his mother learned law. Basketball may seem frivolous in comparison to his mother’s career, but that’s now Timko sees it.

“If you listen to him talk, it’s more about a way of life,” she said. “It’s teaching kids to be become the best person they are, teaching them to be leaders, teaching them to be better citizens. If you're coaching males, it’s better fathers, brothers, sons, husbands. It's more than basketball.”

Timko is ready to make plenty of 480-mile round trips between Storm Lake and Iowa City, to see her three grandchildren on a regular basis and to attend Hawkeye basketball games.

“It’s surreal,” she said about her son’s new job. “I don't even know if it's real yet. Honestly, it was the craziest thing to think about.”

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