Garry Greenlee is yet another key player who worked tirelessly in order to make Iowa State intramurals into the successful program that it is today.
Greenlee was hired at Iowa State University on July 1, 1979. During Greenlee’s first 20-30 years working for Recreation Services, team sports were extremely popular, while working out individually and attending fitness classes were not nearly as favored.
As the Associate Director of Facilities, he works closely with intramurals and provides the facility space needed for Intramurals.
During Greenlee’s almost 42 years spent at Iowa State, the Intramural program has stayed consistent in many ways including our steady offering of around 40-50 sports and the chance to win an intramural championship t-shirt.
According to Greenlee, Iowa State has offered over 100 different sports in the past 40 years. Recreation Services is always adding the new, popular, and up-and-coming sports to the core sports that are always offered. Sports such as Throwton, Winger, bike polo, bike race, chili cook-off, Turkey Trot, treads football, sand soccer, and sand football were all sports that Greenlee recalls from the early days. Some of the newer sports that the intramural program has added to their repertoire include: Battleship H2O, March Madness, Spikeball, mini golf, several new Esports.
New Renovations
Greenlee believes the new renovations to the SE Complex will take Iowa State’s outdoor Intramural Sports to the next level.
The SE Complex, completed in 2021, will offer multiple fields so that Intramural programs can be played into the night and will not be restricted by daylight. New sand volleyball courts, softball fields, football fields, and ultimate Frisbee fields are some of the sports that will be enhanced because of the state-of-the-art facility.
“Intramurals are important because they provide a release, a healthy alternative, the ability to continue to participate in sports that people fell in love with at a young age, and a chance for people to play new sports they have never played before.”
Greenlee discussed working alongside Linda Marticke, the Intramural Coordinator that helped mold intramurals, Rec Services, and Iowa State into what it is today.
Greenlee believes that “Marticke is always looking for ways to serve her students and offer them the best experience possible. Marticke has been the steady rock of what Intramurals and Recreation Services is.” Greenlee has worked alongside Marticke, joining only two years after she began her career at Iowa State.
100th anniversary of Intramurals
As part of 100th anniversary of Intramurals at Iowa State, Greenlee would love to see a revival of some of the best intramural championship t-shirts to be released for the 100 year anniversary.
“Intramurals does a wonderful job,” said Greenlee “It has to keep with the times while still offering the classics.” As Intramurals move forward, he’d like to see that it continues to provide a variety of skill levels so that even people at a low-skill level can still go out and enjoy the competition.
Favorite Intramurals
Greenlee’s favorite Intramurals are those that people are rarely familiar with before arriving at Iowa State – first is curling and in a close second: broomball. He believes that because many don’t know how to play, it turns the sports into truly social, fun, and enjoyable experiences.
As the years have flown by for Greenlee, no single memory stands out, he enjoys that some of his students from long ago have become some of his lifelong friends. He’s happy when he sees his friends’ children grow up, come to Iowa State, and want to work for Recreation Services.
Through the 42 years Greenlee’s been at Iowa State, one of his fondest memories is that one of his students at the time, Eric Cooper, umpired baseball. Greenlee began umpiring so that he could show Cooper the ropes. Once, they were umpiring an American Legion game and Cooper had incorrectly called the runner safe. Greenlee counseled Cooper that if he made a mistake, he had the right to change his own call. Greenlee also told Cooper that there were going to be some ejections after the call was changed and to get ready for some angry players. The coach of the team was later ejected. Greenlee is proud that Cooper later went on to become a Major League Baseball umpire.