Ray Nacke Day

Hey everyone,

Yesterday Briar Cliff University did something that they should've done a long time ago. The school officially dedicated the floor of the Newman Flanagan Center in honor of former head coach Ray Nacke.

By now most of you already have heard a lot about Coach Nacke's career, especially if you read the article in Saturday's Sioux City Journal [great job by BCU alum Michael (Mikey) Brauer] so I'll just state the basics.

When Coach Nacke got to BCU (BCC at the time), the school had only been coeducational for 5 years (1966) and the athletic programs were also that old. The basketball team had to practice in what is now the Briar Cliff theater, and those of you who have seen the theater (including the area behind the stage) know just how small that gym was. The team played their home games down at the Sioux City Auditorium (now the Long Lines Rec Center at the Tyson Events Center), not the worst facility in the world, but many people wished that BCU could play in an on-campus facility.

Coach Nacke took a mediocre program and eventually built it to a program that had 22 winning seasons, numerous District and National Tournament appearances, and of course his crowning achievement, the ability (and in his words luck) of being able to start the Panama Pipeline which brought great student-athletes to Briar Cliff.

Probably the best thing about the Nacke Era is that it has been used by coaches that have followed as a standard for what the expectations are for each BCU team that has followed. When Todd Barry took over the BCU program in 2004, Briar Cliff had fallen on hard times in men's basketball. One of the first calls Coach Barry made after taking the job was to the man he had coached against many times during his reign at Northwestern, and his good friend, Ray Nacke. Coach Barry used the Nacke Era to show the players that he brought in as an example of what Briar Cliff had accomplished and also set the tone for all the teams that played for him were to follow. This included hanging various pictures and newspaper/magazine articles (including one Sports Illustrated article which can be found here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124160/index.htm), and putting the names of many of Nacke's best players' (Galvez, Malcolm, Butler, and of course Rolando Frazer) names in the lockers of the current players, with each new varsity player having his name added to that locker.

The honoring of the Nacke Era continues with the "somewhat" new coaching staff. As soon as he was hired last March, Coach Nelson used the Nacke Era in just about every interview that he gave in those first few days. If that wasn't evidence enough of what Coach Nacke means to the current BCU team and fans, you just had to be at the Flanagan Center yesterday, as the whole Charger team formed a tunnel with the former Charger players as Coach Nacke and his family walked onto the floor for the dedication, and as members of the Briar Cliff student body wore throwback uniforms (many of which were actually worn during the Nacke Era) and chanting his name at the end of the game.

Many times in this country, people tend to look at the present and the future and leave the past for dead. We tear down old buildings to make room for new ones. But one thing is for certain, as long as they play basketball at Briar Cliff and as long as the Newman Flanagan Center is the home of Briar Cliff basketball, the name of Ray Nacke will live on in the hearts and the minds of all the members of the Briar Cliff family.

I'm DK and that's the 411.