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Like many of you, I became the Hawkeye fan that I am today by simply growing up in the great state of Iowa. However, I wasn’t born here and I certainly wasn’t raised to be a Hawkeye.
You see, I was born in San Diego, California, to a mother and a father who very lightly supported only one team — the USC Trojans. However, that family fandom was short lived, as my mother and my father decided to pack up and head east to live in one of the most miserable places I’ve ever been to in my life — Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, my father’s side of the family made a serious effort to make us a Sooners household — gross — even going as far as to take us to a football and basketball game; makes me sick even thinking about it. Luckily, once again, my stay in the miserable state of Oklahoma was short lived, as I would pack up at the age of five and head north to the cornfields of Iowa. Okay, maybe not quite “the cornfields,” as I grew up in the decently-sized city of Cedar Rapids, but you get the point.
It was then that I had reached an age where I began to develop interests and one of my biggest interests was sports, especially football. That’s when I became introduced to the University of Iowa and all the sporting tradition that came along with it.
At that point, I still wasn’t the die-hard fan that I am today and admittedly it took me some years to truly come around . However, I’ll never forget the game — or should I say moment — that ended up hooking me forever — the 2005 Capital One Bowl; Drew Tate to Warren Holloway, what a connection.
That’s where my true fandom began.
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