Kottman (III)

There are two other Kottman blog posts (I and II) I’ve done about my favorite history professor.  This is the third in the trilogy.  It also has nothing to do with history.

When I came back to Iowa State for grad school in 1991, Dr. Kottman was still teaching in the History Department, though by that point I was in the English Department learning to be a writer.  I still stopped by to say ‘hey’ when I could, even did some independent study for him putting together an annotated bibliography on some pre-WW2 US domestic issues.  The thing was that during this time I learned that Kottman was a big basketball fan, so we’d talk about the Cyclones, etc.

One time I mentioned that once in a while, I’d go play over at State Gym or Beyer with my roommate Brian and maybe a couple other people.  Surprised the heck out of me when Dr. Kottman said to give him a few days notice, give him a time, and he’d come play with us.  Okayyyyy….we were going to take a bit more serious than I thought a 58-60 year old professor would take it (Kottman was not in great physical shape–but he was tall).  No matter.  Saturday, 9am.

We go to Beyer and Kottman gets there shortly after.  Pickup basketball worked the same then as it does now: winner stays, plays the next team waiting.  We played to 15–baskets were one, three-point shots counted 2.  That’s normal nowadays, too, but back then not so much.

So we take the court.  Brian (a far better player than me), two guys who joined us, me–all I can do really is play average defense, set picks, and pass, and the old, overweight professor.  Now, you’re playing pickup ball…we’re playing a team of four pretty good guys and one sucky player.  Who do you put Mr. Suck on??  The old guy!!  Normal strategy.

Of course…what I didn’t realize, what Kottman hadn’t told me…way back yonder in 1955 or so, he’d been the runner-up for Mr. Basketball in the state of Iowa.  He couldn’t move fast on defense, but he was big and tall, so he could occupy the post and…he had a hellacious set-shot he could bomb from the top of the arc.  Five trips down the court and he didn’t hit the rim once–nothing but net.  Only then did the other team adjust and put a real defender on the old guy (at which point Mr. Suck and me got matched up).  We wound up winning the game.  We lost the next one because the other team had watched Kottman drop bombs.  We won the next–because they’d just arrived, didn’t realize Kottman could play.  Then…Kottman ran out of gas and that was that.

To me it wasn’t about winning or losing though.  That was a great morning simply because a professor took the time to come play ball with a former student and some guys he didn’t know.  If there’s a pity to it all–I wish Kottman let other people see that side of him more often.

When I taught high school, I played basketball a couple times on retreat with students.  I wonder if they remember that.  No matter–that Saturday morning remains one of my favorite grad school memories.