Iowa Ace Builds Murals With 720 Cubes

by • Featured

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

IOWA CITY, Iowa. — Jack Dreyer is the ace of the University of Iowa pitching staff and does something rare for college athletes.

For the past 15 months, this gifted southpaw has been designing and constructing six foot tall murals out of cubes that are nearly identical to Rubik’s Cubes.

It is a huge artistic challenge since there are only six colors (white, red, blue, orange, green and yellow), and each cube is 2 1/4 inches on each side.

When Dreyer is done, each mural features 720 cubes and takes up to 10 hours to complete.

Dreyer, who saw his season cut short last year when a shoulder injury sidelined him after two starts, posted a 1-0 record, 2.45 ERA and fanned 11 batters as he took a medical redshirt.

He is healthy now for the Hawkeyes as he enters the season as the Friday night starter.

Virtually everyone is familiar with the Rubik’s Cube, a 3-D square combination puzzle which has nine squares on each of the six sides.

Invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik, over 350 million cubes have been sold across the world. It is the top selling toy in the world and has caused hours and hours of frustration in the quest to solve it.

A beginner may take days and even weeks to get each side the same color unless he uses a cheat sheet.

The world record for solving this puzzle is 3.47 seconds by Yusheng Duo.

To read more of this article, purchase the Feb. 21, 2020 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. Jack Dreyer explains how he designs and constructs these 6-foot tall works of art which utilize 720 cubes.