61 Days to B1G Basketball: Former Iowa Hawkeye Roy Marble Passes Away At 48

Unfortunately this past Friday former Iowa Hawkeye great Roy Marble passed away at the age of 48 after losing his battle with cancer.

The Michigan native played for Iowa in the late 80s, scoring 2116 points and helping lead his team to the NCAA Tournament in all four seasons on campus, including an Elite 8 in the 1987. To this day Marble is still the leading scorer in Iowa history, as well as the only Hawkeye to score over 2000 points. The guards prolific career also included 668 rebounds, 288 assists and 173 steals, while he shot almost 58% from the field throughout his collegiate career before being drafted by the Atlanta Hawks.

Marble's diagnosis with cancer came just over a year ago in the summer of 2014 when he was diagnosed with terminal stage four cancer. Even with the dreadful prognosis, Marble was determined to fight it for as long as he could and continued to travel between Iowa and Michigan. If Marble's name sounds relatively familiar it likely has to do with his son, Roy "Devyn" Marble, who recently was a key player for the Hawkeyes before moving on to the NBA. Roy and Devyn became the first father and son in the conference to each score at least 1000 points, while Marble's other children also had athletic success as one of his daughter enrolled at Wisconsin on a basketball scholarship, while one of his other sons played junior college basketball and another is currently playing football and basketball at the high school level.

The Hawkeyes recently celebrated Marble's career this past March when they awarded him a framed jersey from the school's athletic director:

The university also posted a tribute video to Roy Marble after the news of his passing went public:

A Tribute Video to Roy Marble http://t.co/EyoS82ilVl

— The Iowa Hawkeyes (@TheIowaHawkeyes) September 11, 2015