Upload a Photo Upload a Video Add a News article Write a Blog Add a Comment
Blog Feed News Feed Video Feed All Feeds

Folders

 

 

Brightest Day, Darkest Night - Iowa State University Athletics Official Web Site

Published by
DyeStatCOLLEGE.com   Nov 26th 2015, 5:31pm
Comments

Brightest Day, Darkest Night

Published by Tom Kroeschell/Iowa State SID on November 25th, 2015

Tom Kroeschell of Cyclones.tv worked for 27 years in Iowa State's Athletics Communications Office. He remembers the 1985 ISU Cross Country team plane crash. Below are his memories and a preview of memorial service which will be held Nov. 25 in Des Moines. More info on that event is available here.

 

 ----------------------

I have always been hesitant to write or recount my experience around the Iowa State cross country tragedy in which seven members of the Iowa State community perished in the crash of a plane in Des Moines returning from the NCAA Championships on Nov. 25, 1985. I had only been at Iowa State as assistant sports information director three months when the tragedy occurred. With the exception of Iowa State head coach Ron Renko, I did not personally know the Cyclones who boarded that ill-fated plane after an unexpected second place Iowa State finish at the NCAA Division I Women’s Cross Country Championships in Milwaukee, Wis. Renko, assistant coach Pat Moynihan, student-athletes Sue Baxter, Julie Rose and Sheryl Maahs, student-athletic trainer Stephanie Streit and pilot Burt Watkins were killed.

I have always known that those who lost family members and teammates knew a grief deeper than mine. Thus, I have mostly kept my memories of that brightest day that turned into the darkest night to myself.

I share my memories for a reason. All four remaining members of the team, Bonnie Sons-Celichowski, Jill Slettedahl-Winter, Charlene Letzring-Elyea and Tami Colby-Prescott will be present at the Thanksgiving and Celebration ceremony that will start at 4 p.m. on Nov. 25 at the crash site at Country Club Blvd. and Shriver Ave. in Des Moines.

Let me be counted as one who feels indebted to Tim Lane and the Dam to Dam Committee, RDG Planning & Design, Temple B’nai Jeshurun and the Waterbury Neighborhood Association for all their work and planning to preserve the memory of the entire 1985 Iowa State women’s cross country team through the upcoming Thanksgiving and Celebration and the planning of a permanent memorial at or near the crash site. We will not just honor and remember those who are gone but also those who carry on.

 



Read the full article at: www.cyclones.com

More news

History for NCAA D1 Cross Country Championships
YearResultsVideosNewsPhotosBlogs
2023 1 75 8 377  
2022 1 20 8 176  
2021 1 49 20 221  
Show 18 more
 
+PLUS highlights
+PLUS coverage
Live Events
Get +PLUS!