Nashville Closes Season and Book On Barnstormers

Scott Reed
Tuesday August 8, 2000

As Nashville Kat FB/LB Rupert Grant was introduced during the pre-game introductions he pointed to the field and said, “This is OUR house!” With the introduction of Iowa Barnstormer WR/DB Geoff Turner, the home fans welcomed him back from an early season broken collar bone with chats of “Welcome Home!” Either way you looked at it, one of these teams was going to apply a hefty down payment of sweat to go on to the semi-finals of the Arena Football League.

Just before the game started, Barnstormer Co-Owner Jim Foster emceed a special tribute commemorating 50 years of sports broadcasting to Jim Zabel, the “Voice of the Iowa Barnstormers” on WHO AM radio. Mr. Zabel’s famous line is “I love it! I love it! I love it!” Jim Foster took some liberties with that phrase and said to him, “We love you! We love you! We Love you!”

The ever-present roar of the “Greatest Fans in Arena Football” accompanied the last opening kick-off of the season. But the fans were quieted on the following possession as Barnstormer DB Kevin Kaesviharn was picked by eventual Ironman Cory Fleming to allow Tyronne Jones to scamper for the first touchdown. As quickly as Nashville scored, it became apparent that they were not the same team that was handed a 56 – 31 blowout last June. Head Coach John Gregory of the Iowa Barnstormers said, “We could not stop them. We haven’t stopped them all night. I think we did everything we could.”

Emphasize the word everything! After swapping five touchdowns a piece, someone had to break the monotony. Enter Nashville. After tying the score at 35 all, an onside kick was attempted and failed. The Iowa fans stood stunned but very happy. Did Nashville blink too soon? Iowa scored on that possession and the ol’ moe looked to swing in their favor.

After trading a touchdown between them, Coach Gregory decided it was time to make something happen. An attempted onside kick of their own failed to travel the required ten yards, and Nashville recovered and punched it in to tie the score at 49.

Iowa and Nashville traded touchdowns once again to make it 56-all in the middle of the 4th quarter. On Iowa’s next possession, a questionable 4th and goal call from the Kat’s 5-yard line was intercepted. When asked why the field goal was not attempted Coach Gregory reiterated that, “We just could not stop them. They were scoring a touchdown every possession.”

Nashville then successfully completed the NFL’s version of the backward lateral – forward pass play between QB Andy Kelly to WR Fleming to FB Anthony Hicks. It worked to perfection! Score: 56 – 63 in favor of Nashville.

This pass intended for Mike Horacek was broken up and eventually intercepted Image courtesy of T. Scott Cooper.

Then the turnovers crept out of the closet. An interception by Nashville looked to lock up the game only to be reversed later by an Iowa fumble recovery to set up some late-quarter heroics by the Barnstormers. But the manila folder was not to be kind to the Barnstormers this evening. A bobbled near-reception by Mike Horacek resulted in an interception at the goal line, and MVP QB Andy Kelly executed a painful sneak to end the game.

Was this the last Barnstormer game that the Des Moines area will ever see? The verdict is still out. Coach Gregory is planning to wrap up the administrative duties starting tomorrow but plans on returning next year. Rumors around “The Barn” varied from “Don’t let the barn door hit you on the way out” to “Please don’t go.”

Jim Foster was quoted in the News and Noise Inside the Barn as saying, “Three things need to happen for the team to stay in Des Moines. We need a bigger arena, NFL involvement, and corporate sponsorship.”

My crystal ball tells me this...

the average attendance for an Iowa game was 10,230 this season. The capacity is 11,411. Would 1,200 paid seats for 7 games at an average price of $12 a ticket make that much of a difference? No. Not unless each of those 1,200 drank 100 glasses of $4 a glass beer. Which, by the way, is not that far fetched according to Kurt Warner’s comments in his latest book.

the NFL has until March 2002 to exercise their option to purchase 49.9% of the league. Will Foster and the other owners want to hang on for two more $1 million losses? No.

if you were a prospective, corporate sponsor in the city of Des Moines and all you heard was ‘We are leaving if you don’t do A, B and C’, would you want to invest the money knowing they could fold or move the following year? Strike Three!

 

Scott Reed was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2002.

The opinions expressed in the article above are only those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts, opinions, or official stance of ArenaFan Online or its staff, or the Arena Football League, or any AFL or af2 teams.

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