Grady Gallagher | Blogger

Well hello again good friends. Hopefully “dead week” at BV is treating you well. Enjoy it.

Of all the special people I’ve met at BV, there are five special guys that deserve an article all to themselves. I’ve mentioned all of them numerous times, but I wanted to focus more on who they really are. You might know them as ‘Grady and the Boyz’, but I call them my suitemates. As we’ve been residents of McCorkle the past two years (M5 and M12), I think I’d be supported when I say we’ve left our mark at BV. (See pictures of M5’s lounge door last year for proof.) Keep in mind, we’ve be together for 4 years (yes, Drake I’m counting your 2 visits freshman year), but only lived in the same space for two.

So, if you don’t think you know them well enough already, let me introduce you to Grady and the Boyz.

Cole Darrow- I’ll be completely honest with you, Cole would be mad at me if he wasn’t the first guy mentioned. So, I guess he’s going to get his wish. Cole was the first person I’ve ever met from Glenwood, IA. I remember our first conversation on the Forum Lawn about high school basketball statistics and our boy, Big Game James Wright. Things I picked up from him initially were his energy, his confidence, and his voice that was far to high for a 19 year-old male, but I loved it. Another conversation I’ll never forget between us was privately working out a contract negotiation where he could pick up Drake on his rookie deal as a roommate and drop T Kast (whose contract had a 3-year guarantee) straight to me, as I was holding the number one spot on the waivers. (That may have been the coolest sentence I’ve EVER written. #FantasyFootballLife.) We are the Lawn Golf champs. We are Team Dougie. And we are Team Cupid Shuffle. My favorite story about Cole was when he TORCHED the Morningside squad in summer basketball two summers ago. He had to have close to 50 points and I think he scored 17 straight points in the first half. The best part about it was that the BV “team” composed of Cole, Greg, Paul, one random kid, Mike Kaufmann, and me sent M’Side’s team (that had all 16 varsity members) packing after one game in the end of the year, single elimination tournament. We had no business winning that game, but as Cole knows, we don’t lose to Morningside. (:()) Cole elected to do a 5th year at BV as he went with the old “I’ll switch majors before my senior year” trick. It’s a bold strategy Cotton, we’ll see if it pays off for him. And no paragraph about CD would be complete without mentioning his charm with the ladies…….. Instead, I’ll tell you what I’ve learned from Cole over the past four years: The only thing worse than death is Iowa Hawkeye Football.

Alex Savage- Savy has been complaining all week how I haven’t mentioned him in one of these yet. I told him careful what you wish for. Have you ever seen a real-life person look more similar to a Disney animated character? I haven’t. I walked away from my first meeting with Sav thinking, “This is the type of guy that spends hours watching Star Wars and eating Funyuns.” (Slightly disappointed I couldn’t work Funyuns into one of my articles before now.) Four years later, two conference basketball championships, one wedding crashed, and 20 sit-ups later, and here we are. When I think of Sav, really the best thing I can think of to describe our relationship is as brothers. As Sav is slightly larger, more outspoken, and grows facial hair faster than I, he’s the older brother. I’m the more quiet, pesky, smaller, and keen little bro. When we go at each other in competition, there’s always a little extra satisfaction for the winner. Maybe it’s just that we’re both competitive, but I know we both pushed each other to give a little more, as brothers do. Two things that I haven’t figured out about Sav to this point: 1. Why does he like fishing and soccer? And 2. What’s he going to do after college? I’m much more interested in the second question than the first. The slimeball probably already knows and I’ll have to see it tweeted by Adam Schefner to find out. Will he work for his dad? Be a mailman? Take over for David Letterman? I guess only time will tell. What I’ve learned from Sav over the past four years (and believe me, I learned it the hard way), it’s that no matter how wrong you are in an argument, if you just keep arguing and saying the same thing over and over again very loudly, you still have a shot to win the argument.

Drake Ruth- Drizzzzzzzzzzzzay. Talk about the free agent pick up of the century. Drake was a top three player on our slow-pitch squad this spring after going undrafted. (Sam fumbled, Grady scooped and scored. #ScoopNScore.) I was jealous of Drake when he visited Las Vegas this past spring break while March Madness was going on. I’ve heard that’s the best time to visit Vegas and Drake came back with a story unmatched by any other. I don’t want to make it sound like Drake has a problem, but he was down to his last $200. It was the night of the Notre Dame game against Kentucky. The odds were 28 to 1 for ND and he was feeling lucky, so he went all in. As the game went down to the final seconds and Drake sweated off eight pounds, he, again, came up short. (Now comes my favorite part) With no money and no way back to Iowa, Drake had to paint a house for a young couple to buy his plane ticket home. If that isn’t the most stupid and made up story you’ve ever heard, you should reevaluate who you hang out with, or why you’re reading this blog. What’s the moral of that story? Drake will surely make a fantastic fireman after graduation. Mr. Ruth joined ‘Grady and the Boyz’ a year late, but he’s put in his time. I remember our leaving our first conversation thinking, “Why can’t girls have conversations like that?” You won’t find a nicer guy that’s so easy to make conversation with. I’m a little upset our schedules seemed so different with his effort to score “goals” instead of “buckets.” Although, Drake’s no ordinary futbol player. You think Messi could catch bombs from Tom Grady, go 5-5 from the plate when showing up a minute before game time, AND pass Personal Finance with Henry Hardt? Naw, that’s Landon Donovan level. What have I learned from Drake in our time together? “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

Kyle Weeden- Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go shawty, it’s ya birthday. We gon party like it ya birthday. We gonna sip Pibb Xtra like it’s ya birthday. Alright, alright, it’s actually not his birthday. If you’ve met Kyle Weeden, you know one thing, there’s only ONE Kyle Robert Weeden. (Other middle names: Cole Sebastian Darrow, Alexander Eugene Savage, and Drake RaiseThe Ruth.) So many stories to share about this cat, I’m not even sure I could pick just one. I think the first time I met Weeden, I was calling in the Air Force to remove him from the roof of White Hall on a Sunday morning. There’s no doubt in my mind that Weeden was the “glue guy” in our sweet. So, you mean he could D somebody up, G? Not exactly. Well, actually, not even close. The “glue” I’m referring too in this situation is Gorilla glue because it can hold anything together, and that’s what Weeden did. It seemed like he got along so well with everyone, and I appreciated that about him. Also, I’m not sure if anyone in the history of the universe had turned it around like he did. I remember his freshman year he made a schedule of his day-to-day activities. The funny thing about it was, he had plotted time for workouts, sleep, naps, and eating, but there was no time slot for class (The essential piece of going to college)…… Apparently he thought he was Willy Calley-Stein or something. Fast forward to now and the guy can’t keep his nose out of the books (really challenges his driving skills). Weeden has taught me that, no matter how low, down and out you might be (close to Josh Hamilton level), there’s always a way out. Another thing I’ve learned is that, if you’re on the tennis team without the people you live with, you can make up some great stories about how well you played in Dubuque on the long ride home. The people you live with aren’t there and, there’s rarely video streams of the meets, so you can literally tell them anything.

Well, hope you’re happy Sav. It really has been a treat living with these guys and we’re taking sunglasses donations because our futures are so bright. (Old writers trick: Save the best joke for last!)

Thanks for reading. Hopefully you learned something new about ‘Grady and the Boyz’. Our new single, “The Weeden Sleeps Tonight” comes out this summer. Check it out! Also, catch the roommate edition as “The Final BlogDown” continues TONIGHT!!!!