THE GREATNESS OF JACK MUSTAPHA JR.

     I, the Kornerman, though knowing it was enroute, immediately refused acceptance. But there it was......

     Jack Henry Mustapha, 76, passed away Wednesday morning, about 3 a.m., February 21, 2024, at Veterans Hospital in Des Moines.  

     I don't know about you, but I felt his death closed out an important part, an exciting part of my life's long history.

     Caitlin Clark's Iowa basketball history continues to grow while Jack's baseball history has concluded. The achievements of both, however, are destined to always remain timeless.

     Perhaps, other than family members, no one has followed Jack's baseball career as closely and as long as I have.

     He and I were neighbors in the 17th and Crawford area, I, as a young adult, and he as a youngster, eight years old in the 1950's.  Who couldn't recognize this young lad and his dad playing catch with a baseball, day after day after day, regardless of the weather, in Mustapha's backyard. Iowa's winter weather? Didn't matter. On those days, he was bundled up in a heavy jacket, hood and a winter glove on his LEFT hand. Back and forth, back and forth.

     This daily routine with his dad, Jack Mustapha Sr., continued for several years, until junior got too big and strong for senior. Jack senior, the Boone Fire Chief, was an exceptional athlete himself at BHS and Northern Illinois University and taught his son the various pitching intricacies, aim high/low, inside/outside, on the corners and how to add speed. Everything EXCEPT the art of throwing a curveball. That lesson wasn't even considered until a 14th birthday arrived.

      Little League started in Boone at just the right time. "When we were 12 years old, I couldn't hit him, nobody could," Bob Atherton, BHS-65, recently stated. Musty led the Boone boys to a state Little League championship.

     The Boone Babe Ruth League was  next and certain to be more of a challenge. Well, not really. In 1962, he led his Boone All-Stars to a State championship in Hampton, a Regional (7 state winners) championship in Wellington, Kansas and a berth in the Babe Ruth World Series in Bridgeton, New Jersey. Only eight Ruth teams from around the world were World Series contenders. The travel weary 13-15 year old boys lost a pair of games, including a rainy first rounder.

     Even reaching Iowa's biggest stage, the Iowa High School Baseball program, nothing changed. He just kept getting better and better and continued to dominate his opponents. Jack was 10-0 in his 1963 sophomore campaign with 131 strikeouts in 82 innings on a team that finished 17-8. In 1964, his junior season, Mustapha was 12-2 with 174 strikeouts in 97 innings and a 1.44 earned run average on a squad that finished 20-5.

    The pinnacle was reached in 1965 after a less than glorious beginning. Somehow, Mustapha contacted a serious illness that kept him from starting that much anticipated campaign. The Toreadors lost five games early when Musty was unable to "answer the call." The Boone team lost only six games all season.

     Superlatives reigned as Mustapha regained his health and full potential was reached. The aftermath of that illness was simply miraculous, teamwise, and, of course, with Mustapha, healthy again, leading the way.

     Read the following two paragraphs at least twice.....to get the full flavor of some of the mound greatness of Jack Mustapha.

     In the 1965 team's last 12 games of the season, he allowed just seven hits, two UNEARNED runs with 118 strikeouts in some 60 innings of work. 

     During that final stretch, the state tournament stretch, all team wins of course, he pitched six games. Five of the six were no-hitters and all six were shutouts. Three of the five no-hitters came IN SUCCESSION in the final three games of the state tournament, sub-state victories over North Tama and Shenandoah and a 2-0 victory over Burlington in the state title game at Williamsburg. Those feats remain unreachable and may never be challenged.

     Hall of Fame coach Bill Sapp guided that state championship team to a 21-6 finish.

     By the way, for his total high school career, Mustapha finished with an overall 31-2 record. In some 243 innings, he earned 430 strikeouts. In addition, his seven no-hitters in that '65 season still stands as an Iowa high school one season record. He also leads in state career no-hitters with 15.

      For years, the Slater Nite Hawks were the state semi-pro baseball champions. This combination of great collegians and former pros joined forces to represent Iowa in the national semi-pro tournament in Wichita, Kansas. 

      Just days after pitching the Toreadors to a state high school championship, Mustapha responded to an invitation to play a game against the Nite Hawks. He beat them too.

      Unfortunately, the conclusion of this astonishing story is sad and leaves lots of questions, lots of "could he" take that fast ball and vanishing curve to even further, more challenging success?

      The pros had followed his fantastic high school career and the St. Louis Cardinals signed him to a contract. However, just as major league greats Bob Feller, Ted Williams and others had lost time in the major leagues due to World War II, Musty was called to service during the Viet Nam crisis. Unlike Feller and Williams and others, Jack, however, never got that second chance.

      In his service time, several serious injuries in, among other things, a helicopter crash, prevailed, injuries that curtailed any chance of a future professional career.

      Perhaps unknown by many, the major league Cardinals main interest in Mustapha was his hitting potential. Throughout his high school career, he had hit for a .377 average. In fact, it was Musty and Steve Crandell who drove in the runs in that 2-0 state championship victory over Burlington.

      Oh those were the days. Who knew those laborious games of catch at a very early age would eventually lead to such amazing feats? 

      Jack Mustapha senior, a former Toreador, and Clint Kelley, a former Ames Little Cyclone Hall of Fame selectee, had battled in sports competition numerous times during their high school careers. Years later, they often recalled memories of those battles in Kelley's Superette grocery, on 17th street, an arm's length from Musty's home grounds. Of course, Jack Junior's progression as a baseball pitcher drew lots of conversation as well. Jack's mom, Pauline, clerked now and then in Kelley's store.

      Somehow I get the feeling......way up high, Jack and Jack are now meeting again and you know what the main topic of conversation will be.......intertwined, of course, with a few tosses.....back and forth, back and forth.