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Past Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
Tom Kroeschell – Iowa State (Retired)
Below is an excerpt from the lengthy feature, Kroeschell’s 36-Year Tenure At Iowa State Filled With Memories, written in May 2021 by Iowa State’s Mike Green when Tom Kroeschell announced his retirement.
CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award
by Mike Green – Iowa State
Tom Kroeschell quietly began his career in Iowa State Athletics in 1985.
Max Urick was starting his third year as Iowa State’s Athletics Director. The Lied Recreation Center didn’t exist. The main administrative athletics structure was the Olsen Building, where on the west side stood a double-wide trailer, a place Kroeschell and the Iowa State sports information staff called home for six years.
A lot has changed in Kroeschell’s 36 years as a key member of the Iowa State Athletics program.
He’s witnessed amazing progress, historic victories and forged many friendships, documenting the feats of Cyclone student-athletes and teams along the way.
The knowledge and history Kroeschell possesses about everything Iowa State is immense.
Sadly, this wonderful chapter and fruitful relationship with ISU will come to a close when Kroeschell retires June 30.
“It really is a kaleidoscope of feelings,” Kroeschell said. “What I am going to miss most are the people because that is the whole reason I got into this. The greatest thing about my job were the people I worked with every day who were like family to me. It was a privilege to work with the coaches and be involved in their programs. Will I miss the competitions? Yes, but I will miss all the wonderful people more.”
How It Started
Kroeschell began his career in sports information as a student assistant at Drake.
“I was fortunate to be hired by Dave Williford at my alma mater,” Kroeschell said. “I was at Northwestern University before finding out there was an opening at Iowa State in the sports information office.”
A native of the suburbs of Chicago — Park Ridge, Ill., next to O’Hare International Airport — Kroeschell had Iowa State ties. Both his parents were Iowa State graduates and he spent many summers in Iowa with family and friends.
He also had an affinity for track and field, and the Cyclones were in the middle of an incredible run with Bill Bergan leading the program to conference titles and high national finishes.
It was a no-brainer to apply for the job.
“I was at Northwestern at the time and they were dropping its track and field program,” Kroeschell said. “I was at a track meet and ended up running into the Cyclone staff – Bill Bergan, Steve Lynn, Ron McEachran, Kevin Bourke – and just enjoyed talking with them. The position opened up and I came in here and interviewed. At Northwestern, I was making $13,000 a year and only got by because I was raiding my parents’ refrigerator. Iowa State offered $18,900 and I felt like a millionaire.”
Football, basketball, wrestling, track and field — you name it, Kroeschell helped cover it, bringing Cyclone fans closer to the action.
Kroeschell cherished the early days of his Cyclone tenure as an assistant sports information director from 1985-93. Maybe the office was a tad understaffed, but hard work was the recipe for success in a time before the internet and social media.
About that trailer? Kroeschell laughs now at all of the fun times he had in the “office.”
“I remember coming back home from a Big Eight Cross Country meet in Lawrence and it was late,” Kroeschell recalled. “I get to the trailer at 1:30 a.m., and I come in there and the place is just hopping with students. We shared it with the marketing staff and there were a lot of great memories. Coaches would come in all the time just to get away and chat. Students loved our big satellite dish and microwave while they worked.”
One of ISU’s longest-tenured employees, Kroeschell took over as director of the sports information office in 1993, a position he held until he transitioned to Cyclones.tv in 2013.
A story-teller at heart
With every title Kroeschell held in the athletics department, his incredible gift of storytelling shined through. For Kroeschell, it was all about highlighting the accomplishments of Cyclone student-athletes.
“One of the great things I had the chance to do was helping out Cyclones.tv and working under a pro like John Walters, who has done it every day for years,” Kroeschell said. “Producing documentaries was a pleasure, and what gives me the most satisfaction was telling the stories of people who are no longer here to tell them.”
One of the most difficult and tragic moments in Iowa State Athletics history occurred on Nov. 25, 1985. Kroeschell was awaiting the return of the women’s cross country team that only hours earlier exceeded all expectations by finishing runner-up at the 1985 NCAA Championships.
One of the three planes carrying the team members didn’t make it back, crashing in Des Moines and killing all seven individuals on board, including three runners – Sheryl Maahs, Julie Rose, Susan Baxter –both coaches – Ron Renko and Pay Moynihan – and pilot Burton Watkins and student trainer Stephanie Streit.
The crash devastated the Iowa State community and changed how Kroeschell would view the ups and downs of his long career. In 2019, Kroeschell, with Rod Bodholdt and Jeff Grummer of B&G Productions, produced an amazing documentary “Forever True” to honor their legacy.
“I was only here for a couple months when the tragedy happened,” Kroeschell said. “To have the documentary come out in 2019, it kind of bookends my career. Over time, I got to know the amazing teammates of those who perished. I felt it was my obligation to tell the story about the individuals who were lost. What they were like and who they were. That was really important to me.”
Kroeschell highlights
- After covering the 1986 NCAA Wrestling Championships, Kroeschell drove to Minneapolis to watch Johnny Orr’s Cyclone basketball team defeat Michigan, 72-69, and advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
- He was matside when Bill Kelly pinned Iowa’s Brad Penrith at 126 pounds to lock up the 1987 NCAA wrestling title for the Cyclones.
- He was at the finish line when John Nuttall cruised to an individual title that helped the Cyclones earn their first NCAA Men’s Cross Country Championship in 1989. Kroeschell was in Arkansas when ISU won it all again in 1994. He was media coordinator for the 1995 and 2000 NCAA Cross country meets hosted by Iowa State.
- Kroeschell was lead announcer for the Drake Relays from 1989-2006. He announced the Iowa prep track meet from 1981-2005. He was the track announcer for the 1996 and 1997 NCAA Track and Field Championships.
- One of his greatest personal thrills was serving as a press officer for the U.S. team in the 1991 IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
- He successfully promoted and escorted All-American Troy Davis, the first player in NCAA history to record back-to-back 2,000-yard rushing seasons, to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City … twice (1995 and 1996).
- Kroeschell had a major role in the creation of the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame before its first class in 1997.
- He was in Kansas City in 2000 when both the men’s and women’s basketball teams won Big 12 Conference tournament titles.
- As Cael Sanderson wrapped up a perfect undefeated wrestling career (159-0) in 2002, Kroeschell was the man promoting one of the greatest feats in collegiate sports.
- He was head coach Paul Rhoads’ sports information director the day the Cyclones shocked the world in 2011 with a 37-31 double-overtime upset of No. 2 Oklahoma State, the highest-ranking win in school history.
- Covered Thomas Pollard and Kelly Naumann at the 2016 IAAF World Junior Track & Field Championships in Poland.
- Wrote and co-produced Cyclones.tv documentaries on Jack Trice, The Dirty Thirty and 100 years of Iowa State wrestling.
- Served as Cyclones.tv and ESPN+ play-by-play announcer for Iowa State soccer and wrestling.
Read the full feature on Kroeschell’s retirement:
https://cyclonesidebar.wordpress.com/2021/05/03/kroeschells-36-year-tenure-at-iowa-state-filled-with-memories/
Gallery: (4-19-2022) Tom Kroeschell 2022 Lifetime Achievement