To the Editor:
I enjoyed the Nov. 28 feature on coach Jim Iverson, the Platte native and former Boston Celtic who guided the 1963 South Dakota State College Jackrabbits to a national basketball title. It brought back fond memories.
I once took Iverson’s basketball coaching class. Other than requiring us to keep a detailed notebook, he worked hard at teaching us to be basketball coaches as he put us through scrimmages to learn various offenses. There were also drills, and I can still remember trying to navigate through a row of folding chairs and changing from right hand to left as I dribbled.
During a heated scrimmage, Iverson once asked me if any coach had ever worked with me. When I answered “no” to his question, he replied that I had a nose for the ball and that I might have amounted to something. I took this as a great compliment. I had once been a 6-foot-5 eighth-grader who was cut from the team on the first day of tryouts as both an eighth and ninth grader.
In my opinion, Iverson would have been a great Division I coach.
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Roger Wiltz
Wagner
