On Oct. 12, 2002, the Cyclone football team beat Texas Tech 31-17 on a picture-perfect homecoming night at Jack Trice Stadium.

Quarterback Seneca Wallace had the play of the year on a wild and dizzying 12-yard touchdown run that put Iowa State ahead for good. The play was replayed on television throughout the rest of the football season.

The win, Iowa State’s first in five tries against the Red Raiders, moved the Cyclones to 6—1 on the season. The Associated Press voted Iowa State No. 9 in all of college football the following Monday, setting up an all-top 10 showdown the next week in Norman, Okla. against the second-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

Then the floor fell out from beneath the Cyclones. And not just in football.

Very little has gone well in any sport for the Cyclones since that Saturday night. No team should ever have to play five top 15 teams — all on the road — in seven games, and that stretch went predictably for Iowa State, as the season ended with a 1—6 stretch.

Three years ago, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams began Big 12 Tournament play at noon on the second day of competition as the No. 1 seed in their respective tournaments.

This year, both teams finished in the bottom half of the conference and played at noon on the first day of games, in the 8—9 game.

After a second-place finish nationally in wrestling in 2002, the 2003 ISU team closed the season in a tie for 19th place.

And Iowa State was far from dominant in any varsity sport, really. The Cyclones won zero Big 12 championships this year.

That doesn’t sound so bad. Missouri and Kansas State didn’t win any, either.

Hold that thought: Iowa State’s highest finish in any sport was fourth, in gymnastics.

The gymnastics season doesn’t seem too bad, either. There’s plenty of reason for optimism, with freshman all-arounder Erin Dethloff earning second-team All-America honors.

But even in this successful season, there’s bad news: Iowa beat Iowa State for the first time in 20 tries.

That statistic illustrates another maddening aspect of the year. Even when Iowa State beat in-state rival Iowa, the Hawkeyes always seemed to come out ahead in another way.

Of Iowa State’s four head-to-head wins over Iowa this year, two — in football and softball — were great victories tempered by the fact that the Hawkeyes went on to record-breaking seasons in both sports, while the Cyclones did not.

And the other two wins — in gymnastics and men’s basketball — were contested again late in the season, with Iowa avenging the earlier loss both times.

Talk about basketball didn’t end with the season, of course. That would have been too simple.

Although he brought it all on himself, and was lucky to escape with a cash settlement, Larry Eustachy’s fall as Cyclone men’s basketball coach was particularly unfortunate. He had shown tremendous ability as a Big 12 head coach in his five seasons. And as he said many times, he wanted to be at Iowa State.

Of course, my whining about wins and losses is pretty petty when it’s placed against the unexpected deaths in the athletic family in recent months.

Pete Taylor’s death in March was traumatic for a lot of people, but for many like myself who grew up listening to Pete on the radio, the initial reaction seemed to be disbelief, as though summer had simply come early, and the reason we weren’t hearing Pete’s voice was because the Cyclones weren’t playing again until football season. That’s not the reason, though.

All-time great running backs Ennis Haywood and Dexter Green died on the same day. That coincidence is too bizarre to figure out.

It’s been a tough year to be a Cyclone fan.

But now what? Is there reason to be optimistic? Always, but I get the sense that even when things are going well next fall, Cyclone fans will still be waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop.

I categorically refuse to adopt a defeatist attitude.

Most Cyclone teams last season were fairly young, and return a lot of talent for 2003 and 2004. That’s a good start for positive thinking.

While we won’t forget Pete, Ennis, or Dexter, there’s nothing about the rest of our troubles that a few more wins over Iowa won’t fix. Don’t you think?