AMES, Iowa — Randy Peterson, a longtime Des Moines Register sports columnist, owes his limp to the state of Iowa’s passion for basketball.
Moments after Iowa State defeated Iowa, 83-82, here on Dec. 10, scoring the final 9 points in a nonconference game between the cross-state rivals, a Cyclones fan belatedly running onto the court to celebrate collided with Peterson as he walked to the postgame news conference. Peterson sustained two broken bones in his lower left leg and needed surgery to implant a metal rod.
Now back to work, Peterson, who has covered Iowa sports since the 1970s, said he could not remember another season like this one.