The Chris Street documentary will air on Big Ten Network [VIEW TRAILER]

Thirty years later, it still hurts.

Next week, three hours of programming on Big Ten Network will be devoted to Iowa. God how I wish there were only two.

Chris Street was a junior when on January 19, 1993, he and his girlfriend left an Iowa basketball team meal at the Highlander Inn off Highway 1 in Iowa City. While turning left, Street’s vehicle collided with a snow plow. Reports at the time indicated that he was killed instantly. His girlfriend survived. The state of Iowa went into shock and then into deep mourning.

I worked then from 7 to midnight at the station. I remember the first call about the accident and I didn’t want to believe what I was being told. And then, after having received the confirmation, having to make the announcement on the air of what had happened. I still don’t know how I got out of it because I’m struggling to type all of this all these years later.

Chris Street was born in Leon, Iowa, and moved to Indianola in high school. He signed on to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes and coach Tom Davis when he was a junior in high school. And he played.

Street averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds as a freshman at Iowa. In his second season, his numbers increased to 10.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Through the first 15 games of 1992-93, Street was scoring at a rate of 14.5 points per game while shooting 9.5 rebounds per game. In his last college game, he extended his consecutive free throw streak to 34, an Iowa record he now shares with Jordan Bohannon.

It wasn’t just the stats and the fact that he was a thriving superstar that endeared us to Chris Street. It was his seemingly endless energy on the pitch. And his smile.

On Wednesday evening, January 18 at 10 p.m., the Big Ten Network will premiere the documentary “The B1G Story: Chris Street.” It will follow Iowa’s home game that night against Northwestern (8 p.m.), the same school the Hawkeyes were scheduled to play on Jan. 20, 1993. It was one of two Iowa games postponed until later. late in the season as the team and the state dealt with Street’s death.

North West got the news of Street’s death when their bus arrived at the Highlander Inn, where the team was to stay, on the night of January 19, 1993. Instead, the team took another bus and returned to Evanston, Illinois later in the night. The game would be invented almost two months later.

Just watching the trailer for the Chris Street documentary will make you cry, but watching the series is a must for me. Thirty years later, we still miss Chris Street, and we always will.

A look inside Iowa City’s new hotel across from Kinnick Stadium