Mac McCausland

MCCAUSLAND

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 2/9/2022 at 12:51:42

Mac McCausland, a focal point in the growth of popularity in Iowa men’s basketball in the 1980s, died over the weekend.

He died at his Las Vegas home of natural causes on Saturday.

McCausland, 76, was a color commentator for Hawkeye games on Raycom and ESPN Regional telecasts in the 1980s into the 2000s. The games were on a statewide network, and were appointment viewing in Iowa.

“I would get calls all the time in the spring and summer from people asking when Iowa's going to be on TV that winter,” McCausland said in 2020 after former Hawkeyes coach Lute Olson died. “Churches, fundraisers — they did not want to schedule something against it.

“People would find a TV in a high school while a play was going on in the gymnasium. A father had a daughter who was in a lead role. He found a TV in the principal's office. He and the principal watched the Iowa game together instead of the play.”

McCausland was a longtime columnist for the Voice of the Hawkeyes publication. In recent years, he had been a weekly guest during basketball season on the Todd Brommelkamp Show with Alex Kuhn on KGYM-AM in Cedar Rapids. He also was a panelist on a weekly in-season basketball show on Mediacom cable with his son, Kent McCausland, a prominent player at Iowa from 1995 to 1999.

Though he didn’t earn a varsity letter, Mac McCausland was a member of the Iowa men’s basketball team in the late 1960s and was an assistant coach of the freshman team.

He was a dyed-in-the-wool Hawkeye, but loved basketball in general. He was the analyst on telecasts of other games after the Big Ten Network was launched and Iowa no longer had its own television deal, and worked several games on BTN Plus and ESPNU. He also coached AAU basketball teams.

“The Iowa basketball family is saddened to hear of the passing of Mac McCausland,” Iowa men’s basketball head coach Fran McCaffery said Monday.

“He had a deep passion for Hawkeye basketball and his family.”

McCausland was honored as the National I-Club Hawk of the Year in 1980. In 2002, he was recognized as an Iowa Letterwinners Club Honorary Letterwinner. He was a longtime president of the Black Hawk County I-Club.

McCausland spent much of his life in Waterloo, and was in the insurance business there for a half-century. He also had a daughter, Amy.