Top WTF Moments In Iowa State Athletic Department History

There have been many times in Iowa State's storied history that have caused coaches, players, and fans to shake their heads at decisions made by the ISU athletic department. After analyzing every controversial moment in Iowa State athletic department history, I've compiled some of the top "WTF" moments. Keep in mind, these aren't focused on programs, so coaches drinking Natty Lite will not be featured in this article.

Cy Gets Married

The "Cy" logo wasn't introduced as an official Iowa State logo until the 1960's. Want to know why he looks so pissed? In 1966, during the height of the hippie movement, it was announced that Cy was a married man. Good for him, right? Wrong. The marriage was to Ms. Susie Snapper Hawk.

Yes... Cy married a Hawk.

No one has seen much of her since the marriage was announced, and she hasn't been traced to any Cyclone news since the wedding. However, with no announcement of a divorce or an annulment, it can only be assumed Cy and Susie are still together.

Making matters worse, in 1989, a mini-Cy named Clone was introduced as Cy's offspring. This means one of two things:

Either Cy had a baby with a Hawk after 23 years of marriage, OR, he cheated on his wife and had a baby.

Clone has since disappeared after a few years of appearing at Iowa State athletic events, which leads to more questions... What happened to Clone? Was he so embarrassed by our athletic programs that he just gave up on us? Was Clone an illegitimate child and is just scared to be out in public after finding out? Does Clone have Hawk in his blood?

I believe I speak for all when I say it would be nice if Clone would come home once in awhile, just so we can catch up.

Letting That Gable Guy Coach at Iowa

From 1967-1970, Dan Gable compiled a 117-1 record wrestling at Iowa State under 6-time national champion coach Harold Nichols. After taking down any jabroni that challenged him and winning a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics, Gable decided to settle down and become a coach.

A normal person would expect Iowa State to do whatever it took to bring Gable in as an assistant and take over Nichols' duties when he retired. After all, Gable is one of the best ambassadors in Cyclone history.

But the athletic department had other plans, allowing Gable to slip away and coach at the University of Iowa. Gable was an assistant for four years before becoming the head coach for the Hawks in 1976 and leading them to 15 NCAA titles in 21 years of coaching. Oh, what could have been...

Just Say "No" To Iowa Offensive Coordinators

If you stick to that motto, odds are you'll have a successful life. But the odds were not in Iowa State's favor in 1987, when the school announced the hiring of Jim Walden, who achieved a .335 winning percentage during his time here.

So what could Iowa State have done to avoid this pitfall? Perhaps they should have tried listening, interviewing, and hiring a young, interested stallion by the name of Bill Snyder. Snyder was the offensive coordinator at Iowa at the time, where running a dive play on 3rd and 8 and a 5 yard stick route on 3rd and 6 was not his thing.

Snyder was snubbed, stuck with Iowa for two more years, and then went on to Kansas State. Today, he is a 7-time conference Coach of the Year and has taken a once-awful Wildcat program to 16 bowls in 22 years. Meanwhile, Iowa State football finds itself a perennial conference bottom-dweller.

Paul Rhoads showing Snyder where his name would've been placed had he coached at Iowa State

"CY-CL-ON-ES!"

Every year, Jamie Pollard tries to improve the Cyclone football environment. Typically, he is very good at this. But that was not the case in 2006.

The plan was simple. Jeff Johnson, the ISU Alumni Association President, would come out nine minutes before the game and lead the crowd in various cheers.

To take nothing away from Jeff, who's done great things for Iowa State, this was just plain awful.

In high school, everyone loved pep rallies. Why? Because they got you out of class during school hours. If pep rallies were held outside of school, no one would go.

This charade was like a high school pep rally held outside of school. Hosted by who? No, not your principal... Not your football coach... Not the hot chick that was always leading those school meetings and to this day you're still convinced was sleeping with the principal even though you know you two would've been perfect together.

No, it was hosted by the drama coach. Someone no one knows except for the weird kids that GASP, cry every 30 seconds and wear so much makeup that you can see puffs of crap falling off their faces every time they take a step.

On top of that, you're forced to attend if you want to participate in sports.

No one wanted to sit through those cheers in Jack Trice, but we were forced to if we wanted to watch Iowa State football.

Conspiracy Theory

After a brutal call went against Iowa State last football season in Stillwater, Pollard stood up for Cyclone Nation, saying he's tired of doing everything the right way (LOL IOWA) and getting bent over because of the officials. He then announced that Iowa State was the lone school to vote for something at the Big 12 meetings, and the tin foil hats were officially put on.

It all made sense. Now Iowa State fans knew why the calls always went against us and why Big 12 officials hate us.

The media showed the rant over and over. Jay Bilas started making fun of Iowa State and how we whine about everything on Twitter. Meanwhile, Cyclone fans argued that it's obvious officials have something against Iowa State... Pollard announced it when he said we voted against the Big 12 about...something.

Little did we know that we'd find out days later that something was us being the lone vote against adding an extra official on the field - a rule that likely had zero negative impact on Iowa State when it comes to having calls go against them. Conspiracy (mostly) debunked.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I believe a large part of that rant was to just stop Iowa State from getting bent over. And since then, we haven't had any terrible controversial calls. So, if you read this Jamie, I love you. If you leave for Minnesota, don't blame this article.