E. Wayne Cooley: 1922-2013

DES MOINES -- E. Wayne Cooley made girls' high school athletics relevant, even celebrated, in Iowa. He did so long before Title IX made it mandatory.The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union executive secretary for 48 years, Cooley died Saturday in Des Moines. He was 90."It's a very sad day for all of us," current IGHSAU executive director Mike Dick said. "He was part of our family. He would think outside the box before 'outside the box' was created as a phrase. His vision was extraordinary."Cooley's death comes shortly before the state track and field meet. Track was his true love of the sports the Girls Union offered.But the state basketball tournament -- the pageantry, the tradition -- that was his claim to fame.Called by contemporaries as "the P.T. Barnum of hoops", Cooley turned the six-day March tournament into one of Iowa's most beloved annual events during its six-player heyday.The tournament has been televised since 1951 and was seen in as many as nine states by 1968. It became famous for its entertainment shows at halftime and between games.The popularity and attendance of the girls basketball tournament was featured in two different photo essays by

Sports Illustrated in 1969 and 1988. The tournament also was the subject of features stories by

USA Today,

Chicago Tribune,

Newsday,

ESPN and

National Public Radio.Cooley took office at the Girls Union in 1954."When I came here, the Iowa girl was always second-page news in the sports section," he said as he prepared to retire in 2002, at age 80."I was offended by that.  My mission was to give the Iowa girl all she deserves, getting her on even footing with the boys."He was considered the father, then maybe the grandfather, to female athletes throughout the state."All female athletes -- past, present and future -- should be indebted to this man," Dick said.Upon his retirement, Cooley called Jan Jensen, now the assistant women's basketball coach at the University of Iowa, his favorite of all the "Iowa Girls."Jensen, a former all-stater at Elk Horn-Kimballton High School and an All-American at Drake University, said Saturday, "This has really affected me. I'm just sad."The word 'icon' can be thrown around a lot, but (Cooley) truly was iconic. He had a vision. He really had a heart and a passion to make the experience special for us."Cedar Rapids Xavier principal Tom Keating served on a volleyball advisory board for years when he coached at Dubuque Wahlert, and spent time with Cooley in that arena."We had a lot of converations, and he certainly was a great visionary," Keating said. "He wanted to be ahead of the curve. I remember once we were having lunch together, it was the late 1980s, and he was talking about how he was intrigued by this new concept called rally scoring. That's how far ahead of the curve he was."Cooley's toughest dilemma came in 1993, when he ended six-player basketball, an Iowa institution.He dreaded it."I fought it for seven years, because I knew we were giving up our identity," he recalled. "We had something that nobody else had. We were going to become just like everybody else."Edward Wayne Cooley was born in Mercer, Mo., on Sept. 16, 1922. He was united in marriage to Gertrude “Gerry” Konkol in 1944 and had two children, Craig and Denise. After Gerry's death in 1982, he married Wendy Wykoff in 1987.Cooley was raised in Coon Rapids and earned a collegiate degree from Buena Vista University.And many small towns, similar in size to Coon Rapids, gained identities because of their girls sports. Communities like Garrison and Garnavillo. Mediapolis, Maynard and Manilla. Woodbine and Ventura. And of course, Union-Whitten and Everly, which played the epic state basketball final in 1968.Cooley was active in many other endeavors, both in athletics and in the community. He was a long standing member of the Drake Relays Executive Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of the Women's College Basketball Hall of Fame, a Director for three banking institutions, the Buena Vista College Board of Trustees and his family church. He has also served as a vice chairman for the Iowa Games and was Chairman of the Iowa Heart Association.He is survived by wife Wendy; son Craig (Elizabeth) of Prescott, Ariz.; daughter Denise (Roger) Brode of Chicago; sister Rosalee Johnson of Waterloo; and two grandchildren.Preceeding him in death are his parents, and first wife Gerry.Memorial services are 11 a.m. Tuesday at

Grace United Methodist Church, Des Moines.Dick said there will be a memorial of some sort during the state track meet."We'll do something," he said. "It will be a matter of when, what and how."