Back in the nineties, Iowa had a crazy logo on their shooting shirts. It was the word "Iowa" written in small letters. Where the "o" was supposed to be, there was a basketball instead. At the end of "iowa" stood an exclamation mark for no particular reason.
Also in the nineties, Iowa had a fearless shooting guard, who, like a nineties Jimmer Fredette, would shoot three pointers from way behind the line. His name was Chris Kingsbury.
There are not many pictures of either Chris Kingsbury or that timeless iowa! logo, but there is one photo out there that combines both. I don't want to run afoul of this fine nation's copyright laws, so just look up "chris kingsbury iowa" on google images. It will be well worth your time.
After you take a look at that snapshot of a simpler time in the Big Ten, where teams felt freer to experiment in "edgy" logo design, hit the jump for some more about Chris Kingsbury.
Chris Kingsbury facts:
- Kingsbury played in 89 games for Iowa. He attempted 645 three-pointers, for an amazing average of 7.25 attempts per game.
- In his sophomore year, Kingsbury shot 297 threes in 33 games. He connected on 39% of them, which beat out his three-point accuracy numbers from his freshman (32%) and junior (31%) years.
- Kingsbury and fellow Hawkeye Jess Settles were early entrants in the 1996 NBA draft. Neither was drafted. Settles went back to Iowa and then sat out the next year with back problems. Kingsbury was drafted 62nd in the CBA draft, eight spots ahead of Indiana big man Todd Lindeman.
- Kingsbury and Settles were mentioned in a Sports Illustrated article in 1996 about underclassmen leaving school early for the NBA draft. Check it out; it's the one with Marge Schott on the cover.
- Jimmer Fredette shot a bunch of threes this year (313), and everyone was talking about how awesome it was to watch him (everyone was right; it was fun). Chris Kingsbury shot 297 in one season at Iowa, and he played in four less games than Fredette. They shot nearly the exact same percentage from deep.
- In the olden days when I was growing up, the three point line was at the top of the key, 19 feet 9 inches from the center of the basket. So when Kingsbury shot from 30 feet away, he was further behind the line than these "young guns" of today.
- Kingsbury was a McDonald's All-American in high school, and won the three-point contest at the All-American game.
- According to a website called Hawkeye Sports News, Kingsbury works as an executive at small bank in Nebraska (as of March 2008, at least).
- There is a crazy facebook group about him that is filled with the standard exaggerated stories usually reserved for luminaries such as Chuck Norris or Bill Brasky.