Iowa Basketball Voice Gary Dolphin Suspended For Accidentally-Aired Remarks

Dolphin (Photo: Twitter @GaryDolphin)

A hot mic has landed UNIVERSITY OF IOWA radio play-by-play voice GARY DOLPHIN in hot water and earned him a two-game suspension for remarks about a HAWKEYE player that were accidentally aired.

DOLPHIN and analyst BOBBY HANSEN were chatting during the halftime commercial break in the IOWA-PITT game TUESDAY night about recruiting after watching PITT's freshman guards play, noting that PITT coach JEFF CAPEL's background at DUKE helped attract the talent; DOLPHIN then criticized IOWA's own recruit, guard MAISHE DAILEY, who he said would "dribble into a double-team with his head down.  God."  The comments were made off-air, but a technical error at IOWA network producer LEARFIELD's operations center broadcast the remarks to some listeners. 

The result was a two-game suspension for DOLPHIN, who apologized on the air during the second half but will miss the HAWKEYES' games FRIDAY against WISCONSIN and MONDAY at MICHIGAN STATE.

“GARY knows we are extremely disappointed in the comment he made about MAISHE DAILEY and the impact his remark had on our players and staff,” said IOWA Athletics Dir. GARY BARTA. “The two game suspension is a result of those comments, as well as some ongoing tensions that have built up over the past couple of years. This time away from the microphone will allow a chance to work through some of these issues.  I truly appreciate the time and energy GARY puts into promoting HAWKEYE Athletics."

“We unfortunately encountered a technical error at our network broadcast operations center that allowed off-air comments to be aired during a portion of the first-half commercial break,” said LEARFIELD VP/Broadcast Operations TOM BOMAN. “We thoroughly reviewed the situation here at our Broadcast Ops center to ensure this doesn’t happen again, and we’ve also been communicating closely with GARY BARTA and his administration, the entire broadcast team and our local HAWKEYE SPORTS PROPERTIES staff.”

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