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Once a Hawkeye, Always a Hawkeye
THE
FIRST
PAGE…
By GARY BARTA
S
aying good bye is always hard. Saying good bye to exceptional people is even more
difficult.
at is the challenge that was put before the staff of the UI Athletics Department and
his other friends and fans across the UI campus when Larry Wieczorek, our long-
time director of track and field, shared his decision to retire aer 30 fantastic years on
the UI staff and begin the next phase of his life with his wife, Jackie.
Larry is one of those exceptional people. He excelled as a student-athlete at the UI,
earning All-America honors while setting numerous Big Ten Conference records
during the 1960s. He excelled as a high school coach. He was superior as an assistant
coach for our track program and took our men's cross country program to a new
level when he took charge of that sport. Larry did the same when given the reins of
the men's track and field program and, lastly, again during the last three years when
he served as the director of track and field, a position that gave him responsibility for
our men's and women's teams in track and field, and cross country.
In athletics, we oen measure our successes with numbers. Championships won…
the number of All-Big Ten selections….the number of All-Americans….personal
bests…
In my opinion, what separated Larry from the crowd are the relationships he built
with his student-athletes. Talk to any of them and, to a person, they'll tell you how
special Larry was on every level: coach, mentor, friend, and, later, peer.
Larry was living evidence that embracing a culture that said winning, graduating,
and doing it right was a realistic and achievable goal. Larry's teams and individu-
als successfully competed at the highest level. Student-athletes in our track and field
and cross country programs also successfully competed at the highest level in the
classroom and represented the UI and their programs in the manner that they knew
would meet Larry's high expectations.
"Wiz" leaves our track and field and cross country programs with a terrific culture
of across-the-board success because of the tremendously strong foundation he built.
e Iowa Hawkeyes, the University of Iowa, and the greater Iowa City community
will miss Larry Wieczorek. Fortunately for all of us, he also believes strongly that
"Once a Hawkeye, Always a Hawkeye" which, we trust, means that we'll see plenty of
Larry and Jackie in the years to come.
