No Room for UNI in Quad Cities Times Sports
[Update 10/28] The Quad City Times did do a better job on Sunday, though, there is still room for improvement. The Panthers managed to get a spot on page 2 that recapped the game and even had a picture of Corey Lewis. However, it was written by a writer from a news service, not by a QC Times Reporter. Worst yet, if you wanted any stats you had to gleam what you could from the article because there was no box score (sigh).
Yesterday was one of those days that left little time for me to get right for the weekend. It started at 6am with a trip to Clear Lake to meet with the Iowa DNR on a project followed by the 2 hour trip back only to hop in our minivan to take our family back to our hometown of Davenport for a weekend devoted to my sister-in-law’s wedding.
Normally Friday leaves a little time to check up on sports…yesterday I would have liked to read up on the next game of the World Series, check some of the stops by the presidential candidates and, of course, read up on the next UNI match-up. Yesterday none of that was possible so today I woke up in my grandma’s house…stumbled to the kitchen for the first cup of joe and grabbed the Quad City Times. Your prototypical “man”, I headed right for the sports page and began reading and all I see is coverage of two bad teams in Iowa and Iowa State as well as coverage for the local colleges. No problem, as a UNI alum I’ve sadly gotten use to being sent to page two (or worse) in most Iowa newspapers.
Page 2…Nothing.
Page 3…Nothing.
Page 4…Nothing. Damn It!
Page 5…Nothing. Same for 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
So I’m thinking OK, page 11…the last page of sports. They *have* to have to be at the back of the bus right? Nope. Are you kidding me? In fact the only time I could find UNI mentioned in that so-called “sports section” was with mention of Tavian Banks a University of Iowa player. I did see mention of “Panthers” but that was in reference to the NFL Carolina Panthers…not my beloved UNI.
I’m sure the sports folks at the Quad City Times lead by Don Doxsie could probably come up with a few excuses why but I doubt any can justify completely ignoring UNI. Let’s see…maybe today’s sports page is so full of important things that UNI was justifiable dropped? There’s the story entitled “Silent humdity at Coors” I could live without. There’s the itty-bitty space for a forgettable “FBI opens ticket investigation” bit. My favorite is the article called “UND needs approval to keep tribal nickname”. What? You can mention the University of North Dakota but *NOT* UNI?
Then there is the kicker…the extensive coverage of two Iowa colleges whose play is earning them spots in the respective cellars of their conferences in Iowa and Iowa State. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure the QC area has a big representation from those schools but many of the ISU and Iowa fans I know have already started talking about next year and, in fact, some have even take an interest in UNI’s first in the nation FCS ranking, their 40th in the nation overall ranking and this weekend they have a great game against another FCS ranked opponent in Youngstown State. Should UNI win, it would make their playoff hopes all but inevitable and it begins the march for as many as 3 home games in the playoffs.
You don’t have to even be a sports fan to appreciate that needs coverage. I’d love to get some sort of official explanation from that can explain this. No, not the likely politically correct excuse about them not feeling the QC Times readers are that interested. Giving UNI the cold shoulder like this make you think there must be some office politics involved? Maybe UNI didn’t give the QC Times reporters the access to their coaches and AD? Maybe there is some sort of bad history between the managers of the said organizations? I have nothing that can explain it so I wouldn’t doubt it to be something along these lines. What can it be? Oh, and nobody better try using the excuse “..but we cover them on our website”. That’s not good enough.
Let me try, miserably I might add, to give some of the information about Today’s UNI game that you won’t get from the QC Times:
- You *might* get the game in Davenport on the radio at KXEL 1540AM which is based out of Cedar Rapids. Yes, I need to get on the TV and Radio outlets, too.
- Today’s game features the top-ranked UNI Panthers against 20th ranked Youngstown State Penguins
- Today’s game is the second sellout of the season and the 9th overall.
- UNI leads the series 15-6
- UNI is 7-0 and a win today gives them their third 8-0 start in team history (1992, 1960)
- Junior Corey Lewis only needs 3 yards to break 2,000 career yards
In light of having no explanation I can only conclude by stating the obvious. Not covering UNI at all in any Iowa Newspaper at this point in the season is nothing short of unprofessional, it lacks class and shouldn’t be tolerated by any of the QC Times readers. Don Doxsie and managing editors of the QC Times should be emailed and called and UNI fans, sports fans and anybody that wants good reporting should demand coverage of UNI. To help here’s some contact information:
- Julie Bechtel (email | 563.383.2224)
- Steve Thomas, Editor (email | 563.383.2334)
- Don Doxsie, Sport Editor (email | 563.383.2280)
- Write a letter to the editor
And for reference here is how other noteable state newspapers covered today’s UNI game: