March 9, 1966.

Iowa City’s First Black Business Owners.
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March 9, 1966 – Kenneth Belle of H.D. Short’s & Sons relays some of his memories of growing up in Iowa City to The Press-Citizen – while an ad from that same time period invites customers to “an optimistic shoeshine”.

From owning a shoeshine box to accumulating a real estate portfolio, H.D. Short, his sons and grandson comprised three generations of Iowa City African-Americans whose legacy cannot be replicated. The building that now stands at 18 South Clinton was the family’s first acquisition and remains a vital part of the history of Iowa City’s downtown.

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Our Picture Of The Week.

March 1910 – The SUI Mascot – Burch the Bear – is dead!

Burch was an American black bear cub, imported from Wisconsin to serve as the mascot for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team in 1908. The team grew fond of Burch, taking him on the road with them, wrestling playfully with the bear and hoping he would bring them good luck as he prowled the sidelines of opponents’ fields across the Midwest.

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March 8, 2024.

The Caitlin Clark Effect.
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March 8, 2024 – As the 2023/24 Iowa women’s basketball season comes to a close, sports-writer Tim Webber of The Des Moines Register publishes his article: 6 interactive graphics showcasing Iowa Hawkeye Caitlin Clark’s record-breaking season.

While the University of Iowa has a rich history in collegiate athletics, no one has ever seen anything like what happened when Catlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeye Women’s Basketball Team played their 2023-2024 season. After finishing as the NCAA National Champion Runner-Up in 2023, not many expected this team to roar back to the Final Four in 2024, but with Caitlin Clark on our side, we were nearly unstoppable.

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