Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Former Hawkeye OL Matt Purdy joins the show to discuss Iowa's decision to cut four sports

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

We are joined by former Iowa Hawkeye offensive lineman Matt Purdy as he discusses all that has gone done the past year after Gary Barta's abrupt decision to cut four athletic programs from the University of Iowa.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to a Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host Andrew Wade, and I'm excited to be back for another episode today. And after you get done listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I'm excited to be back for another episode today. And after you get done listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast.

There is simply no better place to get all the news on the Big Ten Conference than with Big Ten Ben Stevens and the Locked On Big Ten podcast. Follow the Locked On Big Ten podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast app. And on today's show, we are joined by former Iowa offensive lineman and advocate for the four athletic programs that were cut from the Iowa Hawkeye Athletic, you know, basically program group, Matt Purdy. Matt Purdy is going to be joining us on the show today. Really excited for that.

We are going to be getting into some basketball talk on Wednesday's episode. Really excited for that. We are going to be getting into some basketball talk on Wednesday's episode. You probably already knew this, but Joey's camp was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs. Luka Garza drafted by the Detroit Pistons. And Tyler Cook was actually waived by the Detroit Pistons. We're going to be breaking all that down and what that means on Wednesday's episode. But again, today we are joined by Matt Purdy as he talks about his battle with the University of Iowa to get swimming and the other sports that were taken away and cut back into the Iowa Hawkeye athletic program. And then tomorrow's episode, we're going to continue wrapping up that conversation.

Had a great, I think, 45 to 50 minute conversation with Matt. We're going to break that into two parts. So part one is coming up right now. break that into two parts. So part one is coming up right now. All right, y'all. I am honored to be joined here by former Iowa football player, Matt Purdy. Matt, how are you doing today, man? I'm doing great. I'm enjoying a beautiful sunny day here down here in Tucson, Arizona, with my wife and my son as he's transferring down here to University of Arizona to swim. I love it. How was that decision-making process for him? Obviously, after the unfortunate news that Iowa was shutting down its swimming program,

how did he land on Arizona? You know what? When he was going through the process coming out of high school, he looked at kind of places all over the place. He looked from Hawaii all the way out to North Carolina. He looked from Hawaii all the way out to North Carolina. And, you know, as the process went through, he was fortunate enough to land it at Iowa. But he kept everything open.

And last August, when the things went down, he opened up his recruiting process again and had a number of options. He actually, a club teammate of his actually swam here at the University of Arizona and has always spoken very, very highly of it. That was actually his club team's coach's son. So he knew a little bit about the place. And when it came down to the final two, it came down between Michigan and Arizona. And his friend kind of pushed him over the edge,

talked about how great it was down here. He committed sight unseen. He had never visited the campus. But the reference that will promote his buddies really made him feel comfortable. And he's been down here for about six weeks now and absolutely adores his place. And he actually told me, he goes, I don't think i could ever find my way back to the midwest

which makes me a little sad but i can understand as i'm looking out my hotel window at beautiful blue skies and and some of the most beautiful mountains maybe you've ever seen so i get it i get his point yeah it's uh it is tough. I moved to Denver, actually. I'm from Iowa originally as well. Moved to Denver, and I was like, I don't think I could ever go back to Iowa after being in Denver. It's just not in the cards anymore for me. Well, I'm glad Ryan was able to land on his feet, get to Arizona.

I think that's going to be a really great situation for him. How has he handled this entire situation personally? Because, I mean, he had his freshman year. Then he has a COVID year. The swimming program is going away. How has he handled that personally? He's handled it professionally, I think is maybe the best way to describe it. You know, getting that call on August 21st as a parent from last summer was one of the most heart-wrenching things that I'd ever experienced as a dad.

Crying on the phone. And then the realization that, you know what, things are not going well and for him to to to have the ability to become an adult about it um unlike the university was and to sit down and look at his options and spend time finding a good spot for him and then knowing that you know what i'm going to be on campus i'm going to take a full boat of courses never going to have one class in a classroom. So you're stuck in your house with three other roommates. All you ever see is them. And to go about and had great academics.

He was above a three-point both semesters. And then he had a tough end. He swam great all season. They he had a tough end. You know, he swam great all season. You know, they only had a few meets. But, you know, he had, you know, top five swims in Iowa history with all the COVID, with all the COVID protocols, dealing with all that to get himself re-recruited. Then, you know, at Big Tens, he had a great Big Ten meet. Then, you know, at Big Tens, he had a great Big Ten meet.

And as things fired back up towards the spring, he discovered that he had a torn shoulder labrum after a bunch of therapy and stuff like that. So he ended up having surgery in May and then getting himself organized and then wanting to come down here. He wanted to come down to the University of Arizona and get himself acclimated with his teammates. So we moved him down here in the middle of June, moved in with the young man that I'd mentioned before and has been doing his rehab down here with the athletic training staff, doing everything he possibly can to get himself ready for that, probably November timeframe when he'll when he back be swimming fully again. So to watch him handle this whole situation has been so impressive with me

and for him to, to, to deal with all the adversity that he's that he's faced in the last year. I'm so proud of the young man that he is and for him to continue to, to put out, you know, know in the classroom in the pool you know around his teammates you know i think one of the greatest things for me was he was elected captain as a as a sophomore on the iowa swim team and and for me as as a former captain there myself uh to hear that that that really made me proud. And he was able to help lead Iowa. And he's already putting himself in a good spot here.

Seems very well connected with the people around here. And I'm excited to see what his future brings for him. He's got three years of eligibility down here. And it's unfortunate that I live in Chicago now in chicago now you know i don't have that ease of being able to get up on a saturday morning and to drive over to iowa city watch them swim have lunch with them spend some time with them and just be able to get back home and continue my normal day-to-day life so now it becomes more complicated to get here so you know i'll miss probably more than i ever wanted to in his swimming

career because they just, they have so many more meets and it's just tough to, to, to get out West, you know, so that, that disappoints me, but, you know, I'm excited to see what he does. And the great thing I've asked about this is, you know, with, with COVID was everybody's learned how to stream their swim meets and I'd be able to see at least some online and stuff I can't get to. All right, y'all, we're going to take a quick break. I do want to tell you about Built Bar, the best tasting protein bar on the market today. Built Bar is the protein bar that tastes just like a candy bar. They have so many phenomenal flavors. They got fruity, they got sweet, they got salty,

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Not that there's not a lot of positives we can take away from COVID, right? But one of the ways I feel like across the world, we've become even more connected or have the ability to connect more despite the fact that we might have significant mileage or geographical distances between people, which is phenomenal. But I can hear the pride you have for your son. And I think I can't imagine having to go through the situation he went through not just the swimming team being cut but also having to go through COVID as a college student um I think back to when I was in school and if that had happened I don't know how I would have handled that and then to be a um a high level athlete like he was I can only imagine the the difficult difficulties that was for him um you

mentioned getting the call and Matt and Ryan crying, um, and, and struggling through that process initially, was there any expectation that that was going to happen? Did you have any idea? Did he have any idea or you have any idea that was even coming at all, or that was even on the table? It was, it was the classic blindside. So these athletes received a, a, I believe it was a text in their group, their swimming group that said that on that morning of the 21st that they needed to report to Carver for a meeting at 11 o'clock. So this was about, the text came through about 90 minutes prior.

And it was them, the tennis team, and the gymnastics team were all brought into a room. And Gary Barta walked in, addressed them for under two minutes and walked out. And these kids had no idea. I mean, there was people who were still driving to campus. They hadn't even moved in yet. So, you know, this obviously took place on a Sunday and had no idea. You're getting kids who are driving from Wisconsin, for example, who are getting phone calls saying the team was cut. and I were getting ready to get in the car to drive to Iowa City because we were so worried

about his mental state. You know, we were so worried about, you know, unfortunately, the typical college man's response to adversity is to grab a beer and make it all go away. And so we were just panicked about that. And we'd actually packed the car that afternoon, and we're getting ready to go and he he he called us back and he's like you know what please don't come yet I want to spend time with my teammates we need to face this together and and define a path and so there was there was no warning there was it was just it was a blind side and it was unprofessional and you know what as a university my feeling as an educator myself is we're in the people business, you know, and we're in the kid business.

I know these are college kids, you know, college people. They're not necessarily kids. But the university lost sight of doing what's best for student athletes. And it was complete knee jerk. i don't think it was well researched i don't think that it had any indication that they were going to get the upswell of pushback that they got from those those teams that got cut and i i still don't think they i would imagine if you you threw my name out in front of university representatives, I'm not the name they want to hear anymore.

And I think about their posts that, you know, just last week, you know, they're posting about how, how I was the birthplace of the butterfly. And I'm not sure what they expected to come out of that. and I'm not sure what they expected to come out of that. You know, it's, yes, you're trying to draw attention to a university where, yes, it's got great swimming tradition, one of the greatest pools in the country, a pool that was supposed to host the NCAA this past year, which Iowa gave up, you know, without any warning, too. They just didn't want to face, you know, the swimming world

because they were cowardly cut the program. So how do you, how do you post something like that and not expect negative feedback? And then, you know, and I, I didn't, I was going to make another tweet about it. They ended up pulling it down because, you know, rowdy gains liked my post a couple Olympians, you know, comment on it.

So clearly they're still out of touch with what they've done. They have no compassion for the legacy that they destroyed. You know, the women's program had the temporary injunction on it, but it's still in court. There's been no official ruling. So, you know, the women sued for Title IX. The judge, you know, put a temporary injunction on it, and her statement said it was likely that the university would lose.

So why are they still fighting it in court? And all of our research and the group I was a part on, if a university goes to court and loses the Title IX, they're in line to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding if they were to lose a Title IX lawsuit. So I'm not sure how many universities are actually fighting Title IX lawsuits facing the fact that they could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding if they were to lose a Title IX lawsuit. The current women's program right now they have 12 girls listed on the roster eight swimmers four divers and we've heard that at least two or three of those girls that are listed on the roster are probably not going to swim so now you're going to have a women's program who will 100% sure be last in the Big Ten, just by sure numbers. And they won't have the ability to compete in every relay and to fill events because they don't have the bodies to do so.

So, you know, the university, you know, got what they want. They eliminated those programs. They were forced to bring back the women's program. And now they're going to have a program that is, you know, for the next five to probably eight years is going to be a program that can't, can't compete at the big 10 level. You know, so what does your recruiting base look like? Are you able to, you know, who's going to, are they going to be able to bring in, you know, the prime, you know, female athlete to that team, you know? So that's, so that's,

it all just adds to them posting about, you know, the athlete to that team, you know, so that's, so that's, it all just adds to them posting about, you know, the birthplace and, you know, touting coming back a few weeks ago, touting, you know, the academic success of the swim program, you know, one of the best, you know, highest GPA programs on the campus, but none of those people are on that campus anymore. So it just goes to the, the, the level of, of level of of uh disconnect that that the athletic director has with the athletic program all right y'all one more break before we get to our third and final segment of part one of our conversation with matt purdy i hope you are enjoying it as much as i did uh such an awesome guy to talk to and um really advocated so strongly for the the

programs that were cut uh it's unfortunate that they were and clearly advocated so strongly for the programs that were cut. It's unfortunate that they were, and clearly it doesn't seem like the University of Iowa was a good steward in that entire relationship, which I thought was a little bit ridiculous of Gary Barta. But it's nice to hear that side of the story and see kind of what he had to go through to even get some notice of what they're trying to do to save those sports programs. I do want to tell you about BetOnline.ag, though, the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your sports action.

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and use the promo code LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus when you make your first deposit. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for your 50% welcome bonus when you make your first deposit. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. BetOnline.ag, your online sportsbook experts. I couldn't agree any more. I mean, it just seems like they make one huge mistake and then just keep finding ways to either put salt in the wound or make bigger mistakes on top of that and what i thought was so interesting about this is the fact that they you know they were set the iowa program as an athletic program as a whole was set to lose a

significant amount of money without sports especially without football um but football came back and then when you look at what happened from a swimming perspective, the operating budget from what I read is roughly between $500,000 and $600,000 for each of the programs. Football came back after Barta said the only reason why he's cutting these sports is because of football not being there. Football comes back, the budget isn't that much, and yet he continues to throw out random – it appears to be random numbers of what needs to happen to keep these programs

while simultaneously giving the death sentence essentially to the women's swimming team because of how they've handled this which is um incredibly unfortunate my my question to you is uh prior to this happening what was your opinion of gary barda because i think there's a lot think there's a lot of, there's a lot of, what's the one I'm looking for? Varied opinions around Hawkeye nation, even prior to this. I just want to get your sense of what is your perception of Gary, or what was your perception of Gary Barta prior to this ridiculous behavior? My perception of Gary Barta, honestly, was so based upon the,

obviously what you hear on the national media and then, you know, reading things, you know, called the Gary Barta Chronicles. So you start reading through some of the stuff he's done, you know, the lawsuits and the different things that have taken place there during his tenure. And you start to question, you know, is this the right guy heading one of the most successful athletic programs? And everybody will tell how, you know, how successful they wish here. But what role has he had? He hasn't. I mean, he had no role in Kirk Ferentz's success. He had no role in Tom Brand's success.

You know, so, you know, I don't, I never had a high opinion of him just because there hasn't been a whole lot of positive connected to him. Someone says, well, he's a great fundraiser. The University of Iowa Athletics fundraises for himself. I mean, I could walk in, you could walk in, not knowing anybody and say, hey, you know what, here's my connection. Let's get together and support this program. I mean, University of Iowa is the state of Iowa. I mean, I grew up in Iowa. And which way I haven't done, if I were to put on an Iowa shirt here in Tucson, Arizona, I guarantee I could walk down the street and someone in this state would yell, go Hawks.

100%. I could walk down the street and someone in this state would yell, go Hawks. A hundred percent. And it happens everywhere you go. And I haven't worn an Iowa shirt since January. Last time I was in Iowa city for swimming, the only swim meet the men's program had. So it was in middle of January. That was the last time I put on any Iowa apparel. And I'm, I'm, I'm embarrassed and ashamed, you know,

right now to have the tiger Hawk on my back. I mean, I have a tattoo and, and in my opinion, until things are changed within the athletic department, I have no need to support it. You know, I, I can't, I can't, you know, I'm waiting for, you know, for the Center for Advancement to call me and ask me for a donation because it's going to happen. It'll happen this fall when I start getting the phone calls, you know, and say, please donate. And, you know, whoever, I'm going to answer that call.

And it's going to be, all right, you know, let me talk to you. I know it's going to be a college student who's calling me. I'm not going to get into any negativity with that poor college student. But I'm going to work my way up the stage and say, you know what? This goes back to your level of disconnect. You don't know that me as an alumni and my son had been, you know, so negatively affected by the leadership on that campus. And it goes to the former president, too. I mean, he could have

easily fixed this and say, we're not going to do this. You know, this is a prediction. You know what? When Barta came out and said these decisions were 100%, go back and look at his press conference, 100% based on COVID and the cancellation of football well you cut and then what seven or eight days later the football's back yep you know that just tells me it was it was a poor not well out thought decision that you know damaged the lives of 100 plus student athletes on that campus who most of them were paying

at least 50 percent of their own way i mean my son was on a scholarship there and i was still paying uh twenty thousand dollars a year i think to the campus you know so if you take it and you put it all out together, it was just a bad decision and a reflection of this poor leadership. And it's just so frustrating to me as an alumni. And, you know, I struggle, I struggle being a Hawkeye right now. And that bothers me. And I don't like saying that. And my mom, you know, a devout, you know, Iowa, you know, person, she's like, are you sure you want to say that? I'm like, yeah. And my mom, for example, has reached out to Board of Regents. And I know for a fact, I think she's, she asked permission. She goes, do you think I can call the president now? Go ahead. Call the president of the university.

Have a conversation. You so it's it's affected more than just these hundred hundred kids it's affected all these families and that just rolls out you know to more and more people and you know i was fortunate enough to where you know as a part of this the save hawkeye hawkeye sports campaign where we raised and offered $6 million to the university to save these programs. And we were told, no, not enough. Well, you look at it now and $6 million would have been great considering what the university I think ended up with under $50 million in the hole. They're going to be selling alcohol.

That money is going to be made up in a second yep they're in a great spot it's yeah i mean they'll be just fine you know so there was 100 no reason to eliminate these sports you know you look at it and i mean the tennis program the head coach's salary was endowed i believe they had 2.5 scholarships endowed you know what are you cutting that program for i mean i think you only offer five scholarships you know so and most of the kids were paying close to full boat you know so it's just it's just such a poor reflection on leadership skills and, and their unwillingness to talk. I mean, the one communication I had and Bart will sit there and tell you that he met with us. No, the best communication I ever had is I reached out to,

to, to president Bruce Harold and asked for a meeting. I even offered to drive to Iowa city. I said, I'll drop everything I'm doing to meet you at a coffee shop to discuss this. And his response back to me equated the value of the student athlete to that of an interest payment on a loan. And of course, for a president of the university to tell me as a parent, me as an alumni, that my kid's value is that of an interest payment on a loan that they hadn't even taken out yet was was beyond insulting and and and to hear Gary Barta talk about how

he met with us yeah he said we met with we had a few meetings with some of his people but we we asked to meet with him specifically, our group, Safe Hawkeye Sports, and he never did. Never took us seriously, and I think one of our biggest regrets as a group was, is we tried to play nice with the university. We tried to fix the problem. We engaged over 700 alumni that they'd never engaged before offered six million dollars we tried to to not sling mud and you look at like stanford who started slinging mud they were their sports were brought back yep you know so in hindsight we we kind of think we should have been a little more nasty about it and but in the you know, my son will land on his feet.

He's going to come off with an amazing degree. And you know what, unfortunately, you know, I have a, I have a rich history on that campus. I have a rich history with one of the greatest men you'll ever meet in Hayden Fry. And, you know, I, I, I think to myself, what would Hayden Frye have done at this time that this would have happened when he was alive and you know what level of communication he would have had with me I I just imagine you know it would have been you know quite a fatherly conversation he would have with me and you know what he would have made a phone call. And I didn't ask that of Kirk.

I mean, I'm very close with Kirk. You know, by no means did I want to cause anybody, a guy like Kirk Behrens, to reach out and fight for my son. That's not his role. But, you know, Kirk and I had some great conversations. He was very supportive. And I really appreciated that. But just I think about that. The legacy that my that I had there and my son could have had it has been so, so, so poorly tarnished that, you know, I'm not sure if I ever find my way back on that campus.

You know, I'm not sure if I ever find my way back on that campus. You know, when I moved my son out of there a while back, I just, my wife and I were there a few weeks ago. We loaded up the last moving truck out. And I had the opportunity to, they hosted the big Hawkeye Legacy event. And I was in town that weekend. And I couldn't bring myself to go to it. And we talked about, I told my wife, we brought clothes to attend it. And I looked at her after we were done moving.

I'm like, let's just go home. Let's go back to Chicago. And we did. I just couldn't bring myself to walk over there and to explain the situation to my teammates. And to know that, you know what that Gary Barta might be in attendance and I'm not sure how I would have handled that situation. And it probably would have been negative. So that was one of the reasons why I didn't go. I'm not sure how I'll find my way back.

Maybe with a new administration, maybe the new president will find a way to reach out and connect and reestablish that. But you know what? My son is going to graduate from the University of Arizona. And I think the day when he showed me his Iowa Letterman's jacket,

I was pretty proud of him. I'm going, gosh, he and I both have these jackets. And here's another classic example of Iowa's disconnect. So they offered the, you know, the kids of their, you know, you get your letterman's gift and they offer the kids of the sports to choose what they wanted. You know, you typically get a blanket and then your final one is the is the eye ring well my son chose the eye ring back in March and when he moved down here I'm like hey did you ever hear anything about your eye ring he goes no so I actually reached out to a connection

and found out the person I had to talk to and the the the athletic department hadn't ordered the eye rings for the kids of the cut sports until June. My son was sized back in March. So basically they had completely washed their hands of them and pushed them off. And now my son down here at the University of Arizona is facing the fact that he might lose a year to a year and a half of credits. They're not going to transfer properly.

You know, so we're still looking into that more. But it sounds like, you know, right now he can't even get into his major because those credits aren't going to transfer over. You know, he took an anatomy class and he doesn't think it's going to transfer. He took a stats class. It's not going to transfer. He took a stats class. It's not going to transfer. You know, so, you know, the university talked about how they're going to support these kids. But at the same time, the university is not going to give me, not going to pay me back for a year and a half worth of his career down here. You know, so that's just, it just adds to my frustration, you know, as a parent and as a as a an alumni it just it just keeps it just keeps mounting and building and then you know i will put out a tweet about uh the the the swimming

program and being the birthplace of uh the butterfly it just they have no connect with this alumni base and they just problem after problem after problem, in my opinion. All right, y'all, and that does do it for the show today. Just a reminder that we will have Matt Purdy back on the episode tomorrow. We're going to continue our discussion about swimming. He also talks a little bit about Hayden Fry and his Iowa football career. Again, just really enjoyed that conversation with him. I hope you did as well.

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wherever you get your podcast app. And again, that will do it for our show today. Make sure you subscribe wherever you downloaded this episode out. That way you get part two of Matt Purdy's interview downloaded directly to your smart device in the morning. And again, check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Have a fantastic Monday, Hawkeye Nation. And as always, let's go Hawks.