George Wine, 81, who served as sports information director at the University of Iowa from 1968-93 and was CoSIDA President in 1980-81, passed away on July 5. See the
previous CoSIDA article on his passing.
Below is the
July 15th column written by Pat Harty of the Iowa City Press-Citizen following Wine's funeral.
Wine was elected into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1985. He served as CoSIDA President from 1980-81 (
photo, right, taken during his term). Upon his retirement, he received the CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
online:
Remembering a true professional, by Pat Harty, Iowa City Press-Citizen
One of the first things visitors saw Saturday morning when entering Trinity Episcopal C
hurch was a large flower arrangement that was placed on a table near the front door.
Next to the flowers was a little card that read: “With heartfelt condolences. George Raveling.”
Raveling couldn’t attend Saturday’s memorial service for former University of Iowa sports information director George Wine, who died of a heart attack July 5 at 81.
But Raveling, who coached the Iowa men’s basketball team for three seasons from 1983-86, was there in spirit, as were many other people that Wine influenced during his life.
“It says an awful lot about George Raveling, but more importantly, it says an awful lot about George Wine that George Raveling, away from Iowa for as long as he’s been, would take time to send a huge bouquet like that,” long-time Iowa trainer John Streif said. “It says a lot about George (Raveling) and the heart that he has and what people like George Wine and the support staff (at Iowa) were like here.
“George Raveling will never have Iowa go out of his bones. He really loved this place, and he felt close to this place and felt comfortable. But people like George Wine made him feel comfortable.”
Proof of Wine’s influence and his popularity could be seen by the amount of people, which included UI Athletics Director Gary Barta and former Iowa defensive coordinator Bill Brashier, who stuffed into the pews to pay their respects Saturday. There wasn’t a place left to sit by the start of the memorial service.
Former Drake sports information director Paul Morrison, who will turn 95 in a week, traveled from Des Moines to pay his respects. Morrison’s friendship with Wine dated back more than a half century, beginning when Wine was the sports information director at Northern Iowa from 1956-63 when the school was called the Iowa State Teachers College.
Wine held the job at Iowa until 1993 and then began a phased retirement as SID emeritus and continued in that role until 1996.
“I’ve been in this business a long time and he was in this business for a long time and I also had the pleasure of knowing him,” Morrison said. “He was a great guy, very much a professional. They lost a great professional in losing George.
“There are a lot of good rivalries (among sports information directors). But there are wonderful friendships among them, too. It’s a real great profession to be in.”
Wine spent his career chronicling the accomplishments of others and telling stories, either through his writing or through his wit.
His son, Steve Wine, spoke about his father during Saturday’s service, which lasted slightly more than an hour. The crowd laughed during much of Steve’s speech as he highlighted some of his favorites moments growing up with father, who always loved to tell a good joke.
Current Iowa sports information director Steve Roe also read a letter written by former UI Athletics Director Bump Elliott. In the letter, Elliott described Wine as a true professional and a true friend.
The daughter of Phil Haddy, who succeeded Wine as the Iowa sports information director in 1993, also read a letter in which Haddy called Wine the biggest influence on his life next to his parents. Haddy, who was vacationing in Alaska, also praised Wine for treating people with equal respect.
Former Iowa linebacker Leven Weiss couldn’t attend the memorial service, but his presence was felt with a letter that Weiss wrote in honor of Wine, which Weiss called “Remembering George.” The letter was on a table at the reception along with several photos of Wine at different stages in his life.
Veteran radio broadcaster Bob Brooks attended Saturday’s service and afterward spoke about his friendship with Wine.
“We had known each for so long that I could write his releases,” Brooks said. “He treated, as Phil Haddy said, everybody the same. He was a great guy to be around.
“We had a lot of lunches together and told a lot of stories. It was always a brighter day with George there.”
Everybody who spoke at Saturday’s memorial service described Wine as a people person.
“He was a great man, he had a great life with two unbelievable wives,” Streif said.
Marc Hansen was only 27 years old when he started working as a sports columnist for the
Des Moines Register in the early 1980s. He didn’t have the same credentials as many of his colleagues, but Hansen always had Wine’s respect.
“I was following a lot of guys that had a lot more experience than I did and were almost legends in the business and he from day one treated me with all the respect that he gave those guys,” Hansen said after attending Saturday’s service. “He appreciated the job. He was a writer himself, so he could appreciate what you were going through.
“And the other thing was as a columnist you have to sometimes write things that they’re not going to like and he understood that. And, although, sometimes he would say I disagree with that for whatever reason, he still always remained professional and also a friend.”
Wine stayed busy during retirement by writing columns for
hawkeyesports.com and by co-authoring former Iowa football coach Hayden Fry’s autobiography, “A High Porch Picnic.” Wine also wrote a book about Hawkeye sports history, “Black and Gold Memories: The Hawkeyes of the 20th Century.”
Wine, a native of North English, persevered through the lean years of Iowa football in the 1970s before being rewarded with Iowa’s resurgence under Fry in the early 1980s.
Iowa played in three Rose Bowls and in 10 bowl games overall with Wine running the sports information department.
A working relationship between Fry and Wine eventually developed into a close and trusting friendship.
“George had a very instrumental part with the success of Iowa during the growth of Hayden Fry,” said Streif, who joined the Iowa training staff in 1972. “George was a big part of that for Hayden because Hayden would listen to George.”