The Iowa Hawkeyes: A Family Tradition

Go Hawks!

What a perfect way to begin my day.
Thank you.
 
Go Hawks.

Rec’d. Beautiful, and well said. For those who remember the Bob Commings, et al days, the first half dozen or so years of the Fry regime were just one unbelievable “We beat WHO? We shut out WHO? We’re #1 in the WHOLE country?” moment after another. Penn State fans think of 2000-2004 as “the dark ages” – try living through about 1961-1979 as an Iowa fan. The “old” people around this blog remember, and those memories make the current Hawkeye success that much sweeter in our minds.

You bring credit to the noble (dark, concrete block, fortress-like) halls of EPB. Today, Birkenstocks and wool socks are worn in Iowa City in your honor. Go Hawks.

In my house growing up it was my mother who instilled the belief in state pride and love of the Black and Gold. I was 9 during the 85 season, and 15 for the 1991 season. My mom threw a party with my family for the Washington Rose Bowl. Now years later I fell in love with a Husker, but have slowly turned the tide and she now goes once a year with me and our kids to Kinnick for a game. She let me name my son Hayden and we have since added two boxer puppies to the house, one named Kinnick and the other Melrose.

 In 2004 I realized one of my childhood dreams and became a season ticket holder. And so to honor my mom and the Black and Gold pride she instilled in me I take my mom to a game every year for her birthday. Just mother and son sitting in the nose bleeds of the south endzone. It is a simple gesture on my part, but neither of us would miss it. These are the very things that make being an Iowan great. Family, Friends, and good Hawkeye Football. Thank you for this read.

If Spencer is really into watching the Hawkeye Marching Band, I would really recommend going to the HMB’s pre-show in the Rec Building just across from the Cambus Offices and the Bubble. It starts at 1:15, but I would definitely come by 1:00 to get a good seat. It’s a lot of fun and I would want to see it at least once. Although, it gets pretty loud in there.

I’m a 2008 graduate from the University. Since I haven’t found anything I enjoy with that degree (pre-law and history), I’ve decided to go back for Math Education – and am now in the HMB since seeing them in the Rec Building (among other things).

Let me know if you want more details!

GO HAWKS

My own five-year-old son instinctively says “Go Hawks!” whenever he sees someone else wearing a tigerhawk logo. My ex-wife—who I inexplicably married knowing she straight up hates the Hawkeyes—has tried to get him to cheer against the Hawks.

Nothing doing. My kid is a born Hawkeye, just as I was. It’s a family tradition, passed down through the generations…and my dad couldn’t be happier to hear my son grin and shout “Go Hawks!”

I grew up in Colorado, the son of an Iowa alum. My Mom was at Iowa from 1967-1971. Two of my aunts and two of my uncles are also alums. Iowa rarely played on television in Colorado back then, so when ABC broadcasted Iowa games on Saturday afternoons, we were glued to the television. Any time we drove through the midwest to see family, we stopped in Iowa City. My uncle in Davenport sent us Iowa sweatshirts for Christmas every single year. When it came time to pick a college my Mom intentionally bowed out of the process so that I could make my decisions without pressure, but we all really knew what would happen.

The first game I saw at Kinnick wasn’t until I was a student in the fall of 1994. The year after I left Denver for Iowa City, my younger brother did as well. We both met our wives while at school. Just like hawkeyeinstl, we dress our kids in black and gold every Saturday morning. My two year-old daughter thinks that “Hawkeye” is a synonym for “football”.

As our kids grow up (his three, my two) we will try to stay neutral and allow our children to make the best possible college decision for themselves, just like my Mom did. And I imagine that, like my brother and I, our kids will end up as Hawkeyes, studying in the same dorms, drinking in the same bars and developing a lifelong love for a University, just like we did.

I am now balling like a baby. Go- Hawks!

Looking forward to my son’s first Hawk experience at Kinnick! Go Hawks!

Thanks for sharing.

Hawkeye football, and really all sports, can have a powerful impact on family. My parents grew up in Iowa, all of my aunts, cousins, grandparents, etc lived in Iowa, but we moved to Wisconsin. Despite the distance, our family had season tickets and made the trip from Wisconsin to IC for every single home game. My Dad too bought an early VCR to record the games in the 80’s, starting with the Rose Bowl. The hulking beta machine still sits in my parents basement, complete with a ‘remote’ attached to the VCR with a cord, so that the old games can be watched in the off season. Go Hawks!

I was at the 85 IA-MI game, sports heaven. The other OMG Hawk moment from long ago was the Steve Waite bucket to defeat Georgetown and send Iowa to the Final Four in 1980. Now I might celebrate an NIT appearance.

Is it Saturday yet? Go Hawks!

Welcome back to Kinnick on Saturday.

Go Hawks!

As American Pickers would say, “this is just a great piece”. I’m glad you became an English major than an Engineer because this was written so well. Nice job. I also like how it brings out stories from people who don’t usually comment. That makes this blog fun to read.

This post is brilliant. I try so many times to explain to co-workers and friends that sports (Iowa Football) is about so much more than a game. I have been watching Hawkeye football games sitting next to my Dad since I was a baby, either at home with the whole family or sitting on the hallowed benches at Kinnick Stadium. The pilgrimage to Iowa City every home game for me is a family tradition, it is a weekend I can always look forward to spending with my Father. Some people go to church on Sunday morning as a family, we go to Kinnick Stadium with my father (we go to church too:) ) . It is so much more than a game. It is the atmosphere, the pride, the hope, the love, and camaraderie with the Hawkeye faithful.

I have to tell a quick funny story:
We always joke that I literally was a Hawkeye fan at birth. I am the youngest of 4 children in my family and the only boy. Needless to say my Dad was overjoyed by finally having a son! I was born during Iowa Basketballs ‘86-’87 season (ended in the Elite 8 to UNLV). It was a year of high hopes (I am told) for the Iowa Basketball team and my dad was glued to the TV every game. However, my mom went into labor the day of Iowa vs. Iowa State game. During labor my dad kept walking out to the lobby to check the Iowa score. All of my family, knowing my father was not surprised by his actions…my Mom even said she expected it. Someone in the lobby made a comment to my dad that I would be a fan of whatever team won the game….the Hawks won, my dad got his son and nothing could be better! He pulled a Hawkeye stocking cap out of his coat pocket and put it on my head, and I’ve been a Hawkeye every since.

it with us. We were at that Michigan game in 85 and it something I will never forget. Our whole family bleeds black and gold.

Excellent story and very well written. Thanks for sharing.

Most of the guys that I hang out with are from big cities (mainly Dallas and Chicago). I try to explain to them what Hawkeye sports means to the people of Iowa and they just don’t get it. They come from pro sports towns and don’t understand how you can be obsessed with a school.

I have gotten them to go out to a bar a couple of times to watch an Iowa game and there are always other Hawkeyes. They’re suprised everytime and I just tell them that it’s a Hawkeye Nation!

This was a great read and I might use some of it to try and explain what it means to be a Hawkeye.

Go Hawks!

Being displaced (Dallas) I was very lucky to meet my girlfriend last year at an Orange Bowl watch party. On our second date we ended up at my house and were flipping through the channels and there was nothing on. I pulled up my recorded shows on the DVR and there was a documentary on Dan Gable. When she wanted to watch that I knew she was the one.

This fall we were looking for a church, and as luck would have it, we found one with an Iowa grad as a pastor. The first Sunday we went, she said to me on our way in, “if we get a ‘Go Hawks’ just once we’ll know this is it.” As it turns out, the church was installing a new pastoral intern who was a Cyclone. After he was introduced, there were multiple “Go Hawks” yelled out from the congregation and repeated by the pastor. We looked at each other in amazement.

A couple weeks later we had lunch with the pastor and told him that story and commented that we thought it was divine intervention. With a straight face and in a very matter-of-fact tone he responded, “Well, yeah, everyone knows God is a Hawkeye.”

After reading this, I have no choice but to: go home, put on Iowa shirt, mix drink, and count down until tomorrow. My boss says thank you.

I run into locals in St. Louis with Hawkeye gear on, and I need only smile and say, “Go Hawks,” and you see people’s eyes light up with unexpected joy that another Iowan is walking quietly through this jungle, self-identifying with a time-honored and easily-recognized mantra.

If you’re sporting Hawkeye gear in LA and some dude on a bike bellows out a “GO HAWKS!” its because you’ve just made my day.

in law school (in Oklahoma), very intellectual (law profs can be that way, but this guy in particular was), Yale guy, and at a social gathering he told me his wife was from Marshalltown, went to Iowa. He asked me, does everybody who went there get so sentimental and emotional about (the University of) Iowa? I answered, “Not everybody, of course, but generally, yes.” “Well, what is it about the place?” I thought for a moment and responded “I wish I could put it in words for you, but, frankly, I don’t think I can. The school, the city generates a feeling that stays with you, even after you are far removed from it.” I know he wanted a better answer, but I had been in a couple of his classes so he respected me, and finally made some statement of ongoing fascination about it.

The post above is a really nice statement of the football side of things, and in general, why we’re all here.

I flunked out of engineering and got my B.A. from Iowa. English, baby. Me and the medieval fortress known as the EPB are tight.

Hmm, and I always considered Chem-Bot to be the true medieval fortress on the Iowa campus. Or maybe that was just where the goddamn dungeons were.

I liked the ‘silent understanding communicated fully by a nod of the head’ bit. I’ve found this goes for fans of (some) other teams as well. I had one of these in the customs line in Cancun. Met some dude with a tigerhawk on his hoody while I was rockin my Nittany Lions. It’s a cool look, one of respect.

I remember my dad borrowing a vcr to tape Iowa games, and when we finally moved on up to purchasing one of our own, it was to tape games to send to his youngest brother who had moved to Scottsbluff, NE.

The Family Tradition thing brings so many things to mind.
1. “Why do you drink?” Because of the Hawks. “Why do (did) you smoke?” Because of the Hawks. Yes, that is a Hank, Jr. reference (you’re welcome).
2. I tell people that in my family Hawk fandom is not as much a choice as a genetically ingrained trait, right along with high blood pressure, baldness, and glaucoma.
3. Not only do I remember my first game (‘90 vs. Purdue, we clinched the Rose Bowl), I remember my two younger brothers’ and younger sister’s first games (1991 vs. Hawaii for one, 2000 in KC vs. K-State for the other two).

Along the lines of raising Iowans in Missouri: My best friend is a Nebraska fan that also loves the Hawkeyes and spent the end of his childhood in Iowa. He has been in the Army for the last 12 years and now is stationed in Florida. He has two very young sons, 2 and 2 months. He told me a couple weeks ago that his sons are going to grow up calling themselves Iowans. Very cool.

and have my entire life. Born and raised in the 303, but I have an immense connection to Iowa. With three generations of Hawkeyes in my family, it is impossible for me to be a fan of any other program. Not that I would even want to be. When I tell people I am an Iowa fan, they ask me when I moved out to Colorado and I have to explain to them that I haven’t ever had residency in Iowa, but was born a Hawkeye. I’ve been to an Iowa game a year at least and my mom diligently dressed me in Iowa Hawkeyes cheerleading outfits when I was younger, for Halloween and for games. And that was before they mass-produced those and sold them in Iowa Book. But, being a girl, I didn’t truly appreciate college football for a long time… but I remember “The Catch” (which happened while my mom was making mashed potatoes, that we later had to clean off of every surface in the kitchen), and I was there when we conquered the goal posts in Minnesota. I suffered through the 2006 season with everyone else. And I cheered along with every other Iowa fan in Landshark Stadium this January. While my interest in college football is still relatively young, my love of the Black and Old Gold stems from birth.
On Iowa and GO HAWKS!

I love these. About once a year sometime choses to share their story and it gets a little dusty in here. (But I get a little lump in my throat when I see youtube videos of the Swarm coming onto the field) 2009 was a hell of year for a lot of reasons. I brought my newborn son home for the first time on Labor Day weekend. My dad and I watched the UNI game with my son in my arms. Fortunately, my little bundle of joy was safely napping in his pack-n-play during the epic finale. Dad and I spent the next couple of hours talking about how awful the rest of the season would be. The wife, son and I headed back to Virginia the day afterward, and that would be the last time I would see my Dad. He passed prior to the ’Zona game. 2009 was a special year, and my Dad had the best seats in the house!

and now we’re turning my 3 year old nephew into a Hawk fan. He recognizes a tigerhawk anywhere we go and yells “Go Hawks” whenever he sees one. Once my 7 month old niece gets to be old enough, I’m going to start teaching her to love the Hawks as well. Great story and 100% accurate on the sentiment

Pretty much summed up my experience as a Hawk fan growing up in Cedar Rapids. I now live in Montana and I’ve heard “Go Hawks” on many occasions in some pretty remote places…always makes me smile!