University of Iowa Athletics Men's Gymnastics General / August 21, 2020 Open letter to the University of Iowa and Hawkeye Athletics community

— There was neither bitterness nor surprise when JD Reive received the word that his Iowa men’s gymnastics team was deemed expendable.

The sport he had coached at Iowa from 1981 to 2010 was being dropped after this academic year.
— There was neither bitterness nor surprise when JD Reive received the word that his Iowa men’s gymnastics team was deemed expendable. Reive was lured from Stanford to take over. Subscribe today at Des Moines Register.com/Deal to make sure you never miss a moment. Before the Aug. 21 announcement from the Iowa Athletics Department that four sports were to be discontinued, former Iowa men’s gymnastics head coach Tom Dunn’s phone rang. Dunn said there was always some attendance at the meets, though sometimes not as much as he wanted.

Cal gymnastics has actually outlasted Iowa now.

Since his retirement from coaching, Dunn has stayed in Iowa City, though his family now also has a condominium in Sister Bay, Wisconsin. Terms Of Service, 90 Hawkeyes Named B1G Distinguished Scholars, ISAAC - Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie Director of Athletics Chair, Open letter to the University of Iowa and Hawkeye Athletics community. “We knew that we were fading away,” Reive said of a sport that will now muster only 14 Division I programs after this academic year.

[Former Athletic Director] Bob Bowlsby also was supportive of you know his wrestling background he kind of understood where gymnastics was because a lot of the wrestling programs had been dropped over the years.”.

That was an exciting moment for his gymnasts, Reive said. He said that Barta, his final athletic director, was also supportive.
Carver-Hawkeye hosted the NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championship in 1997 and 2000, and Dunn said they couldn’t fill the arena with fans, which was disappointing.

Isaac Goffin is the Assistant Sports Editor at The Daily Iowan. “Perhaps for the first time in that season, we had no breaks. Those were special times for Andrew, who began in gymnastics at age 2. A lot of the good coaches retired, eventually, and women’s sports got bigger and bigger and the season was pushed out of the winter season and into the spring, and then the private club programs started to develop.”. ND. Taffe said it was the first time he’d ever touched the championship trophy. “I think it’s crushed the spirits a little bit of a lot of alumni who enjoy coming back and having reunions.”. He even spoke to his boss about the future of Hawkeye men’s gymnastics before stepping away from the program.

Botto’s parents, Greg and Lisa, flew in for all his home meets. “But then the Illinois high school program kind of took a little dive.

It wasn’t until 2009 that the gymnastics champions were honored by the university.

“But it won’t be the same.”. He arrived at Iowa knowing that the gymnasts were still practicing in the back half of the north gym in the old Fieldhouse, where they had been since the 1950s. The blurb said there were five men on the team, but didn’t name them.

He judged gymnastics competitions after his retirement as well, including some Big Ten and NCAA championships.

“We’re smart enough to know what was occurring very quickly at that point,” Iowa men’s gymnastics head coach JD Reive said. 4. © 2020 www.hawkcentral.com. Dunn said he doesn’t know how he feels now about the decision, so he doesn’t know how he’ll feel when the program is officially eliminated from the department. He retired from that role last year.

“And I stuck my dismount.”.

However, he said that Iowa has been good to him when he started coaching at the university and said it’s really hard to be down on the school. Isaac Goffin, Assistant Sports Editor September 16, 2020. “We’ve had some pretty gung-ho fans and some good support, but it was always hard,” he said.

Follow him on Twitter at @MarkEmmert. “He wouldn’t give me 100 percent commitment, but he didn’t think there was any reason it would be dropping.

Under Dunn, Iowa won Big Ten championships in 1986 and 1998. Last year, the gymnasts returned to Iowa for a 50th-anniversary celebration of their title, taking to the turf of Kinnick Stadium during a football game while the crowd cheered.

But gymnastics was still tucked away from Hawkeye fans, who rarely showed up for meets.

The Hawkeyes finished second nine other times. Still, Botto said he is grateful for his time at Iowa, although he was sad to hear it is dropping his sport.