By: Donovan W. Mann – [email protected]
Ames, IA – A former cyclone and Humboldt native will be joining the Iowa State Football broadcast team starting this fall.
On Friday, April 30, the Cyclone Radio Network announced that former ISU defender Ryan Harklau will be joining their team as their sideline reporter. As a player, Harklau was with the Cyclones from 1996-2000 and when Coach Matt Campbell joined the program, Harklau became a player mentor.
The continued relationship with the program and Coach Campbell was one of the factors that led to Harklau landing his new role. He says that this was not something that he applied for but they reached out to him about his interest. “I think that they wanted to have an old player around the program.”
Harklau believes that his mentorship with the program was a big factor in why the program asked him to join them in this additional role. “I think just keeping that relationship with Coach Campbell through the past five years is really led to where we got with it.”
Harklau first got involved with mentoring players at ISU because of the current head coach’s approach to his position. “One of the number one things that Coach Campbell said is ‘I want to develop kids into men and I want to develop kids beyond football.’” This led to the coach gathering a group of former cyclone football players.
Harklau says Coach Campbell “painted his vision” for where he wanted the ISU program to go. A couple of players were assigned to a mentor to help their development. This had “nothing to do with football” but rather school and career.
Harklau says his favorite memory as a cyclone is coming out of the tunnel at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona for his final game because it was the accumulation of the work he and his teammates had done. “That has been the greatest memory to me is, like, learning how to compete at a high level every single day.”
He says there is not one “single memory” of the work done but “that memory of running out of that tunnel and being my last game at Iowa State, it all culminated into, you know, what it did for me as a person and that platform that was given to us at Iowa State to have success.” Harklau says he is “forever thankful” for ISU for the lessons learned and for giving him a platform to be successful.
As a cyclone, Harklau was a two-time team captain who helped lead the program to their first bowl victory in that Insight.com Bowl back in 2000. Off the field he currently serves as a Regional Vice President at Farm Bureau Financial Services.
Harklau’s radio experience includes seven seasons with KHBT 97.7 the Bolt as the color commentator for football games at Humboldt High School, where he played his prep years. He says this experience eliminated “nerves” when it comes to the idea of being on the radio.
Harklau says he is excited for this new opportunity to give back to the program that gave so much to him.