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IOWA CITY When Hayden Fry defeated Michigan State 41-0 in November 1980 to end his second season as head football coach of the University of Iowa, a question that had been bothering Hawkeye supporter Lou Crist made him pick up the phone.
From a recliner in the living room of the Oaknoll apartment he shares with his wife, Jan, 64, Crist, 87, told The Gazette, “I thought I would call the marching band director and see if, by chance, he needed a public address announcer.”
As it happened, they did.
Having played baritone in the band during the 1950s before earning a UI degree in speech and dramatic art in 1960, Crist, 42 at the time, was unusually equipped for the position.
Regarding his aspirations for that degree, Crist stated, “I’m not an actor.” I therefore realized that it would include speaking or making an announcement.
After graduating, Crist worked at KGLO in Mason City from 1965 to 1967, WHO in Des Moines from 1961 to the 1970s, and WOI-TV in Ames until the lure of his alma mater became too much.
According to Crist, we intended to return to Iowa City. And when I chose the Iowa Regional Medical Program, that chance came up.
As a liaison for the federally-funded program out of the UI Carver College of Medicine, Crist was willing to make the career shift, and even after grant funding stopped up, he was able to secure a permanent position there.
Even though he was diagnosed with bone cancer immediately after he called band director Morgan Jones in 1980 regarding the announcing role, he was unable to deny his love of broadcasting and his cheerful voice.
Recalling the phone call from forty-five years ago, Crist remarked, “I thought, well, I need to call Morgan and tell him what’s happened and see what his thoughts are and say, If he thinks that it would be well to have somebody else take over the announcing, I certainly would understand that.”
Jones said, “Why?” Was your voice damaged?
Naturally, Crist’s response was, “Well, I don’t think so.”
Losing a leg
A malignant growth was found above Crist’s knee after he began experiencing pain in his left leg in early 1981, which prompted him to see a doctor. He claimed that at the moment, amputation was the best course of action, therefore on March 12, Crist had surgery.
“I was really worried about losing a leg,” he said.
Even though Crist was thrilled about the prospect of making an announcement for the band, he claimed that he felt compelled to give Jones an update on his life or risk losing the volunteer chance.
According to Crist, I felt that his response was crucial to my mental health and how I proceeded.
As much as the band provided Crist with over the years—such as early diversion and purpose, a front-row seat to his beloved team in the next decades, a link to his college band days, and too many significant relationships to list—Crist also gave back a great deal.
According to Eric Bush, director of the Hawkeye Marching Band, “Lou is an absolute icon, and our alumni and current band members cherish him.”
After decades of losing records and only two bowl invites in more than 80 seasons, joining the Hawkeyes at the beginning of the illustrious Hayden Fry era and going to the Rose Bowl with them in his first season as head coach may have also brought some good fortune.
Crist made a joke about the run the Hawkeyes went on after he started making a bowl in 35 of 44 seasons, including the first eight after what had escalated to a 22-year bowl drought before Crist’s arrival. “Boy, you’ve been the answer to this,” someone I worked for said.
However, Crist is close to retiring after more than 40 years, over 30 bowl games, and visits to 34 locations across 15 states.
Regarding the Hawkeyes’ August 30 home opener against the University of Albany, he stated, “I’ll play the first game.” After that, I’m done. I’m finished.
“Earlier this year, the Hawkeye Marching Band put out a call for applications to find his successor, and they received almost 40 very talented applicants,” Bush said. After that, a committee selected six finalists, who will each make an announcement for the band during one of the six home games left in Kinnick Stadium this season, which will serve as a kind of tryout.
After the season is over, we will choose the new Golden Voice of the Hawkeye Marching Band, Bush stated.
Ready for the boom
The band’s announcing duties during home games span the entire day, including the Rec Building show, pregame announcements, halftime show, and morning practice. The golden voice takes part in public showcases, the band banquet, Band Extravaganza, and Friday dress rehearsals and postseason games.
For games and special performances, they have to develop their own scripts. Strong vocal presence and the capacity to narrate live with authority, passion, and clarity are also mentioned as requirements for the perfect applicant.
Gentlemen and ladies, Before the 285-member band would take the field in Kinnick Stadium on fall Saturdays in Iowa City, led by drummers dressed in black and gold, Crist would say. Now is the time to prepare for the boom!
Crist found it simpler to remain in the press box with his prosthetic, even though few people knew because he typically wore long pants, even though some band announcers sit down near the field with the band. As the band’s on-call nurse for years, Jan Crist did, however, sit with the performers.
She once had to take care of a new diabetic who was just learning how to take care of himself while she was in New York. Another instance, a hematoma formed at the incision following a cheerleader’s hernia surgery.
Jan mentioned that there were occasions when a student needed to visit the emergency room or whatever, and I would accompany them there.
His first Iowa-Iowa State game in Ames is one of Crist’s most treasured recollections from the decades he spent introducing the band.
They were bringing in all sorts of signs, some of which you wouldn’t want to promote, like Beat Iowa, and the goal was to humiliate the Hawkeyes. Children were arriving from Iowa State early to find their seats.
When No. 1 ranked Iowa played No. 2 ranked Michigan in 1985, the Hawkeyes won with a field goal in the final seconds. Additionally, the Iowa and Ohio State bands came together for a special performance in 2022 that paid homage to Elton John.
How special is that? “Crist said.” How often would two bands from different universities play halftime together?
Call it a day
After collapsing in his wet garage in September 2008 while using crutches, Crist missed exactly one game in his whole career.
He answered, “I’ll go out and get it out of the car,” as I had purchased a birthday present for Jan and she was taking a shower. I had some issues and did miss one because I was on crutches when they went out this way, and I fell and hit my residual leg.
Even as he prepares to retire, Crist stated that he isn’t sick of the fervor, the throngs of Hawkeye supporters, or the rush to defend Iowa.
“In Iowa City, we always look forward to football,” he remarked. I didn’t start experiencing more problems getting around until the past few years. I also thought I was becoming less acute.
In order to assist Crist in getting a golf cart to go from the Rec building run-through to Kinnick Stadium, band members, personnel, and even director Bush himself would pitch in.
“This is Eric Bush pulling (Lou’s) suitcase,” Jan said as we were getting everything off the bus and making our way to our hotel rooms at the bowl game the previous year. The band’s director. And I said, We don’t have to have the director of bands do this for us. But he says, I don’t have anything else to do . Talk about help. We had help.
Crist was impressed too, asking, Just how many directors of marching bands of major universities do you think are helping the announcer with his luggage?
Following the bowl game in Nashville last season, the band stopped in St. Louis to get something to eat and Bush came upon Crist trying to get into his car from his scooter.
And he came right along, and he sort of comes right up against me on the left side and I said, I think I can make it OK. Thank you, Crist said. And he said, Well, I’ll be damned if you’re gonna go down on my watch .
Crist said he felt the same way and already had plans to call it a day.
I said all along that I appreciated what the band was doing, but I did not want it to become a case where people would have to worry about me more than all the other things that go into running a 285-person marching band, he said.
It was important to Crist to leave on his own terms but the band isn t letting him slip out the door without a proper goodbye. For his final game announcing in August, the band is planning to honor The Legacy of Lou Crist by playing Blues in the Night just like he performed with the band in 1959.
His name will forever be embedded into the history of the Hawkeye Marching Band, Bush said.
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
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