Larson, owner of Monica's and Iowa City lawyer, helped found longtime summer leagues

Iowa City's Randy Larson, who practiced law, fiercely supported the Hawkeyes and founded the summer Prime Time and Game Time leagues, passed away Sunday.

Larson was 67 and passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.

He spent more than three decades at the helm of the Prime Time League, a summer basketball competition that brought together some of the state’s best high school and college players during the offseason.

The league ended in 2018 after 31 years as NCAA rule changes loosened summer restrictions on coach contact and practice for student-athletes.

University of Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery built a relationship with Larson over the years.

“Randy was a great friend of our program and to me from the day I arrived in Iowa City,” McCaffery said in a statement. “He was incredibly kind and supportive of our student-athletes, including devoting his heart and soul into the Prime Time League. He was an Iowa City legend and will be dearly missed.”

Larson received a basketball signed by the entire men’s basketball team in early 2019, honoring more than 30 years of operating the summer hoops league. Former Hawkeye Jordan Bohannon was one of several former summer league participants to recognize Larson's passing on Twitter on Sunday.

The women’s basketball counterpart, the Game Time League, ended in 2017 after 16 years. University of Iowa women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder got used to seeing Larson around the program.

“Randy was a tremendous supporter of women’s basketball,” Bluder said in a statement. “He included us in the summer league as soon as we arrived on campus. Randy was a fixture at our games and loved supporting our team.”

Larson graduated from Ames High

Larson was born in Ames but would travel to work for his uncle’s Maid-Rite in Newton during the summer. That was where Will Veber first met Larson in the early 1970s.

The two shared a love for basketball and played together at the YMCA, though Veber said Larson was a much better ball player than he was.  The local high school basketball coach started a summer basketball league of his own, which he and Larson played in from 1975 to 1977.

“We didn't have a lot of talent on the team,” Veber said. “But you know, Randy was kind of a de facto coach for us. And I gotta say, he was really good at what he did.”

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Veber remembers in the late 1970s and early 1980s after Larson finished his law school classes at the University of Iowa during the week, he operate a hot dog stand outside of Fieldhouse Bar in the PedMall from Thursday to Saturday.

Larson played AAU basketball for 23 years and even played professionally in France, according to his obituary. The multi-faceted Iowa City legend also worked as a color commentator alongside Jim Zable for the Palmer Radio Network in the 1980s and 90s.

Larson graduated from Ames High in 1973 and graduated with a BS degree from Iowa State University in 1978. He earned a law degree from the University of Iowa in 1983.

Larson surrounded himself with basketball

Outside of his summer league, Larson coached high school basketball as an assistant coach at Iowa City West before taking the reins at Highland High School in Riverside.

Larson most recently coached basketball at Iowa City’s Regina High School until 2014, when he finished with a 95-69 record according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Larson served as a mentor in athletics and in life and often leaned on his mantra that "a fist is so much stronger than a finger," emphasizing unselfish play and teamwork when he coached.

Larson also served on the Iowa City City Council from 1987 to 1993.

He dabbled in the restaurant business as well, owning Monica’s, an Italian restaurant in Coralville, and co-owned Iowa City's Airliner for eight years in the 1990s with former Hawkeye and NBA player Brad Lohaus. He also owned Bob's Your Uncle, a pizzeria, beginning in 2001. It shut down in the mid-2010s.

Veber and Larson drifted apart as their lives went on, though the two would always catch up whenever Veber, who has lived in the Quad Cities for more than 30 years and writes for Road Tips, his personal food blog, returned to Coralville and visited Monica’s.

Larson repaid his uncle Dan for giving him that summer job and his thorough work ethic at the Newton Maid-Rite by treating his entire family to Monica's whenever they wanted. His obituary says the family never left hungry or paid a bill when visiting Larson's legacy restaurant.

Larson also owned Bob’s Your Uncle pizza cafe for a time, honoring his friend Chuck Harmison, who played basketball at Iowa State in the 1970s and professionally in Australia.

“People knew the name Randy Larson and a lot of it had to do with the Prime Time League,” Veber said. “He put his heart and soul into those leagues.”

He loved to read, "devouring" books, and had his home library lined with books "from floor to ceiling," his obituary reads.

Larson practiced law for four decades, most recently at his own firm, the Larson & Evenson Law Firm in downtown Iowa City, beginning in 1993. He represented the family of Chris Street, the Iowa men’s basketball player killed in a tragic snowplow accident more than 30 years ago.

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Larson’s law partner, Amy L. Evenson, died in August of 2021. Larson announced on the firm’s website last year that he was dealing with his own health issues and would not be taking any new cases.

“Thanks to everybody who has trusted me to help them over the last 40 years,” Larson wrote on the website. “It was my honor.”

Larson's funeral mass is set for 10 a.m. Monday, July 24 at St. Mary of the Visitation Catholic Church in Iowa City.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on Twitter @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City icon and summer league founder Randy Larson has passed away at 67