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Roy Marble

Roy Marble attended Beecher High School and lived in Flint, Michigan. He committed to play for George Raveling at Iowa.

As a sophomore and a junior, Marble led the Hawkeyes to the Sweet Sixteen both years. In 1987, Marble’s Hawkeyes were ranked No. 1 nationally for multiple weeks and advanced to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. Iowa was 6-4 in NCAA tournament games with Marble, who averaged 17.7 points and scored more than 20 points four times. He was named honorable mention All-American after his senior season. He shared team Most Valuable Player honors in 1987-88 and 1988-89.

Along with career points, Marble holds school records for field goals (787) and field-goal attempts (1,459) and ranks second in free throws and points in a season. He led Iowa in scoring in three of his four seasons. He was one of 20 players named to Iowa's All-Century team in 2002, and was one of five players named to the 1980's All-Decade team. In 2014, he was inducted into The Greater Flint Afro-American Hall of Fame.

Marble left the college as Iowa's all-time leading scorer with 2,116 points (the only Hawkeye to score over 2000 points), and was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round (23rd overall) of the 1989 NBA Draft, but played sparingly in his rookie season. He was suspended by the NBA for the season in February of his rookie year for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. He also had a brief stint with the Denver Nuggets during the 1993–94 season, appearing in 5 games.

His son Devyn Marble followed in his footsteps and attended Iowa, also having a successful career. They became the first father-son tandem in Big Ten history to each register at least 1,000 points.

In 2012, Marble collaborated on a book called "Two Decades and Counting: The Streak, The Wins, The Hawkeyes: Thru the Eyes of Roy Marble" which coincided with the 25th anniversary of Iowa’s 1987 squad. Marble documented his journey as a high school basketball legend at Flint Beecher High School to Iowa City.

He died after a yearlong fight with cancer in 2015.

Born 12/13/1966 and died on 9/11/2015 at the age of 48.

All Conference: 2nd Team (1987, 1988), 3rd Team (1989) All American: Honorable Mention (1989) Drafted Round 1 by Atlanta Hawks in 1989

BOOKS and MOVIES

Two Decades and Counting: The Streak, The Wins, The Hawkeyes: Thru the Eyes of Roy Marble (1/27/2012)
The expectations were high, and the results were record breaking. Before the 1986--87 season began, the pre-season AP poll had the Iowa Hawkeyes ranked tenth. Iowa fans suspected it might be low as they had Roy Marble, whom Sports Illustrated had compared to another number 23, Michael Jordan. The streak began at the Great Alaska Shootout and continued until they had won more consecutive games than any team in Iowa men’s basketball history. This is the story of that season, the players, the coaches, and what it was like to cheer that very special team.