With the 2009 season complete, BHGP looks back at the ten most sublimely absurd moments of the past decade for this sublimely absurd team, counting them down over the next two weeks the indefinite future.
The list so far:
10. Parking Gate-Gate
9. A Fair to Remember
8. "Two Words: Iowa Hawkeye Pride"
7. Shawn Prater Gets Roofied
6. Beutjer Becomes Someone Else's Future
5. Calloway and the Moped
4. The Rise and Fall of CBI
3. Brian Kinchen Gets Kinda Gay
2. Riley Reiff Loses His Shirt
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, former home field of the Minnesota Gophers, became Iowa's home away from home in the 2000's. Not only did Iowa win three games at Minnesota this decade, but it made a habit of pouring salt in the Gopher wounds by bringing 25,000 fans who generally acted like it was an Incubus concert. In 2004, a last-second field goal attempt by Rhys Lloyd flailed wildly left, giving Iowa a two-point win and sending the upper deck into hysterics. In the last game ever played at that decrepit old bubble, Iowa hung 55 on the Gophers and defiled their bathrooms for good measure.
But it all began in 2002, as the most surreal season in the history of the program came to a close in Minneapolis. Iowa spanked Minnesota 45-21 to finish Big Ten play undefeated for the first time in program history, close out an 11-1 campaign, and send the Hawkeyes to a BCS game for the first time ever. The Iowa fans in attendance -- and, by midway through the fourth quarter, Iowa fans were all who remained in attendance -- threw roses on the field. Then they threw themselves on the field. Then they lifted their collective leg and staked claim to the Metrodome in one of the all-time great moments in ownage, tearing down Minnesota's goalposts and attempting to carry them out of the stadium. To this day, it remains the ultimate trump card in any discussion of the Iowa-Minnesota rivalry, and it is unquestionably the most surreal moment of the last decade. Ladies and gentlemen, The Goalposts: