Florida Banking December 2021 | January 2022

STRAIGHT TALK FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK

MY TIME IN IOWA, PART III: LIFE AT UNIVERSITY

BY ALEJANDRO “ALEX” SANCHEZ, FBA PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

A s I struggled through Professor Vestal’s Civil Procedure class, I started becoming accustomed to the heavy workload during my first year of law school. I quickly learned one thing, there was no time to watch college football games and it was study, study and even more studying that first year. It was an Indian summer in late October and early November and the weather at Iowa was simply amazing. Iowa City is your typical college town and a wonderful place to be. Iowans are very welcoming and

and running the bleacher stairs at the Field House. They were intense in their workouts, and just seemed aggressive and obsessive in their desire to run faster, quicker and better each time. I turned to a guy next to me and asked, who are those people? He replied, “Alex, those are the wrestlers from Dan Gable’s wrestling team.” I asked a question considered treasonous in Iowa: Who is Dan Gable? And I heard loud and clear who Dan Gable was. He was the head wrestling coach at the University

I always felt at home in Iowa. Most of my law classes were huge with many students. But one of my classes was a smaller writing class with Professor Richard Matasar; who later would be named Law Dean at the University of Florida. I learned so much from Professor Matasar; he probably was my favorite. I considered myself a good writer until I met him. When I received my first graded law paper I wrote for his class, I thought he had broken a red ink pen and just poured it all over

of Iowa. Gable's teams compiled a dual meet record of 355–21–5. He coached 152 all-Americans, 45 national champions, 106 Big Ten champions and 12 Olympians, including eight medalists. His teams won 21 Big Ten conference championships, and 15 NCAA Division I titles. “Mr. Gable is an Iowa legend. Got it,” I said. Every night I grinded out reading over 250 pages of homework. I always took Friday night off to watch a movie and not do any

“AFTER ALMOST FIVE YEARS IN THE MILITARY, AND EARNING MY UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE BY ATTENDING NIGHT SCHOOL WHILE ON ACTIVE DUTY, I REALIZED HOW BLESSED AND FORTUNATE I WAS TO BE A FULL-TIME STUDENT WITHOUT ANY OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES.”

my paper. There were so many red comments from Professor Matasar that I thought that paper needed medical attention for loss of blood. But that is how you learn to get better; you must take suggestions and criticisms, and take it I did. That first year I played basketball in the law school league with my classmate from Professor Matasar’s class. In preparation for the games, I went to the Iowa Field House to shoot around to get my basketball skills back and dust off the rust. While there, I noticed a bunch of young men running wind sprints

work, but it was back to work on Saturday morning. Sunday was no day of rest; after Mass at St. Patrick Catholic Church at noon, it was lunch time and back to class reading. An interesting thing happened to me concerning St. Patrick’s Church years later when I returned to Iowa City. Relying on my memory, I wanted to visit the church again. Besides attending Sunday Mass there while in school, I used to visit the church before each of my final exams. Trust me, law school exams were four hours long — either writing, multiple choice or

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