Thank goodness for John Walters.

Cyclone fans throughout the state were forced to sit through a number of technical difficulties while watching Iowa State’s first road game of the year at Toledo.

Clone Zone, a www.cyclones.com service that offered members a live feed of the game, experienced problems in the stream through much of the game. Several minutes of the game were completely blacked out, forcing some viewers to rely on their radio for part of the game.

“It would have been awesome if there weren’t any problems,” said Mike Adams, general manager of Welch Avenue Station. “But you get through it.”

Adams said about 100 fans were at the bar, which broadcast the game on a television through Clone Zone. Many listened to Cyclones play-by-play broadcaster Walters during the difficulties.

“They could tell it was issues out of our control,” Adams said.

Tom Kroeschell, associate athletic director of communications, said he was unsure what was causing the problems. Kroeschell and many Cyclone officials did not arrive back in Ames until 5 a.m. Sunday.

Athletic director Jamie Pollard offered apologizes to fans in a press release. Saturday’s game was allowed to be webcast by the Big 12 Conference and was the first ISU game to have a live webcast.

“We want customer service to be a hallmark of our program,” Pollard said in the release. “Our staff will be working with Clone Zone members next week to make amends for the problems with the webcast.”