Chris Street Documentary to Air on Big Ten Network [WATCH TRAILER]
Thirty years later, it still hurts so much.
Big Ten Network will be dedicating three hours to Iowa Wednesday night, January 28. The first one will be for Chris Street.
Street was a junior when on January 19, 1993, he and his girlfriend left an Iowa basketball team meal at the Highlander Inn off Highway 1 in Iowa City. While making a left turn, Street's vehicle collided with a snowplow. Reports at the time said he was killed instantly. His girlfriend survived. The state of Iowa went into shock and then deep mourning.
I was working the 7 to midnight shift at the station then. I remember the first call that came in about the accident, and not wanting to believe what I was being told. And then, after receiving confirmation, having to make the on-air announcement about what had happened. I still don't know how I got through it as I'm having trouble just typing this all these years later.
Chris Street was born in Leon, Iowa, and moved to Indianola in high school. He committed to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes and coach Tom Davis when he was a junior in high school. And play he did.
Street averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds as a freshman at Iowa. In his second season, his numbers jumped to 10.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. During the first 15 games of 1992-93, Street was scoring at a pace of 14.5 points per game, while pulling down 9.5 rebounds per contest. In his final collegiate game, he extended his consecutive made free throw streak to 34, an Iowa record he now shares with Jordan Bohannon.
It wasn't just the statistics and that he was a blossoming superstar that made us love Chris Street. It was his seemingly never-ending energy on the court. And his smile.
Wednesday night, January 18, at approximately 8 p.m., the Big Ten Network will premiere the documentary 'The B1G Story: Chris Street.' It will air in place of the Iowa-Northwestern game, which has been postponed to a later date due to COVID protocols within the Northwestern program. After the documentary, the Big Ten Network will air the Iowa-Michigan game from January 31, 1993. It was Iowa's first home game after Chris Street's passing.
Northwestern received the news of Street's passing when their bus arrived at the Highlander Inn, where the team was to stay, on the night of January 19, 1993. Instead, the team got on another bus and returned to Evanston, Illinois later in the night. The game would be made up nearly two months later.
Just watching the trailer for the Chris Street documentary will make you cry but watching the show is a must for me. Thirty years later we still miss Chris Street, and we always will.