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Berry Tramel: Bedlam basketball foes Henry Iba & Bruce Drake were pioneer coaches who helped make March mad

Henry Iba and Bruce Drake were bitter rivals.

Think Mike Krzyzewksi and Roy Williams. John Calipari and Rick Pitino. Bobby Knight and Gene Keady.

Hall of Fame coaches at premier programs, sharing a state.

“Mr. Iba would rather beat OU than go fishing," Gene Johnson, Iba’s OSU center in the mid-1960s, wrote in an autobiography, Living My Dreams. And Iba liked to fish.

Drake and Iba coached against each other for 17 memorable basketball seasons, Iba at Oklahoma A&M and Drake at Oklahoma, 1938-55. Iba was the Cowboy coach for four years before Drake became his counterpart, and Iba stayed on the job 15 more years after Drake stepped down.