Mike Hlas
@mikehlas
Former sports columnist, Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette. But that's done. Now I'm at
The bears in Brooks Falls, Alaska want protein today. And calories. And a nice piece of fish.
Well, another year is passing and I have yet to be asked to be a commencement speaker. Which is a huge mistake, because I have the insights to reach today's hippies that few of today's Truman Capotes and Joan Didions can match.
I'm at the Met Gala. I got new Skechers for the event. The response has been muted, to say the least.
Hlas Out of Bounds: Hawkeye Auto, Hawkeye Roofing, Hawkeye Vapor, Hawkeye Junk Removal -- practically everything Herky the Hawk needs has a Hawkeye in the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids Corridor to sell it to him. mikehlas.substack.com/p/you-cant-s...
I'm waiting for World Cup prices to drop, drop, drop, and they will. Once that happens, I'll be buying 40 tickets and chartering a bus to one of the games. Who wants to come along?
This isn't real. If it were, I'd have been in the Oscars' "In Memoriam" tribute this year.
Hlas Out of Bounds: It's Masters Week, and I'm feeling sentimental. I haven't been amid multiple billionaires since the last time I was at Augusta National. mikehlas.substack.com/p/i-covered-...
It's raining in Cedar Rapids with thunder and lightning. We'll have the traffic report at the other end of this commericial break.
Here was the start of my Gazette column from the previous time Iowa last earned a spot in the NCAA men's Sweet 16, 1999 in Denver:
Updated: Add Nebraska to the list of about 100 men's basketball teams that have been to an NCAA Sweet 16 since Iowa's last time at one. That can change tonight. The operative word is "can." mikehlas.substack.com/publish/post...
I'm still sore I wasn't included in the "In Memoriam" segment of Sunday's Oscars.
Hlas Out of Bounds: Hawkeyes. Cyclones. Two morning men's basketball games Wednesday. Now that's March madness. mikehlas.substack.com/p/conference...
Hlas column for HawkFanatic.com: Even though it was a loss, the memories of the last home game of the season for Iowa men's basketball should be good ones. The Hawkeyes' 71-68 defeat to Big Ten-champ Michigan was fierce and fun. hawkfanatic.com/2026/03/06/h...
My column for hawkfanatic.com on Lisa Bluder's second Big Ten women's basketball tournament as a broadcaster after 24 as Iowa's coach, and how she has worked to turn "we" into "they" when discussing the Hawkeyes. hawkfanatic.com/2026/03/03/h...
Corniglia. There are no Winter Olympics in this part of Italy, but something rarer than a U.S. gold medal in men's ice hockey has just occurred. Namely, a parking space has opened up.