I was 2, maybe 3. I vividly remember waking from a nap and going to the console/buffet stereo and the Hawkeye football game was playing.
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Parents divorced when I was 4 and both had season tickets. Earliest I can remember is 1971. First road game in 73.
My wife says that I go into a depression after the bowl game. Usually come out of it in June when the preseason magazines come out.
Have saved all my ticket stubs. Stack is now 3 inches tall.
Dad took me to the 1981 Iowa/Michigan State game. For Iowa to go to the Rose bowl they had to beat Michigan State and Ohio State had to beat Michigan. Both happened. I remember everyone around me saying Ohio state won. when the PA announcer announced the Ohio State Michigan score and the crowd went wild. Everyone was passing out roses to each other after the game. At the time I didn't quite understand the significance of this win. Because I was only 10.
Almost missed this game because my mom initially said I couldn't go because it was so cold.
This is still my favorite all time experience at Kinnick Stadium. What a great game, and what a great crowd supporting the Hawkeyes that day.First game in Kinnick was Iowa vs Michigan in 03... i was reborn that day. I had moved to iC earlier in 03 and knew little of the Hawks and the IC tailgating scene...Hawkeye football became my first love that fall.
My dad had season tickets from the time he graduated from Iowa in 1958. I started going to all of the home games in 1968 when I was 7-years old. Favorite player has always been Levi Mitchell.
My love affair with Iowa football started when I attended my first game in 1946 It has been a love affair that has lasted until this day. It grew stronger during my seven years attending the University of Iowa watching players like Alex Kara and Calvin Jones play. Since graduating although my profession has taken me to many parts of this country I have continued following the Hawks through good years and a few down years. Hopefully I will be around a few more years as I feel that great years are coming.
Sultan of suede. Your story makes me think about how when I was young and my dad would stop randomly and play catch with someone who was just looking to throw a football. I also remember my dad wearing this old Iowa hat that he had my mom sew a her my on top of so it sat a good foot above his head. As a 8 or 9 year old I was extremely embarrassed by the hat but by the time I got into college I was wearing it to games.
Earlier in this thread I mentioned that my first game in the student section was as a Freshman in 1981 against Nebraska.First game in Kinnick was Iowa vs Michigan in 03... i was reborn that day. I had moved to iC earlier in 03 and knew little of the Hawks and the IC tailgating scene...Hawkeye football became my first love that fall.
My first recollection of Iowa football was 1952 when Iowa "unpacked Ohio States Rose Bowl luggage" in Evy's first year at Iowa. My first recollection of Iowa Basketball was as a young boy falling to sleep listening to Iowa Basketball, players such as Murray Weir and Dick Ives. Experience at games were as a Boy Scout ushering, then working in the Cedar Rapids Post Office Auxiliary concession stand and watching much of the game from the grass in the south end zone think it was the south) and then as a student.My introduction came when I was very young. My folks used to throw an annual "Herkey's No Turkey" party for one of the season's biggest games. They'd print fliers, have cups made, pass out koozies, dress head-to-toe in Iowa gear, decorate the house, prepare a buffet of food..the whole shebang. Few things are more fun as a kid than having a house full of partying adults. Of course, they were all downstairs while the kids were upstairs with the babysitter. I'd still sneak down for some quick hellos a couple times a night though. I vividly remember sitting on my dad's shoulders cheering on the 1984 Hawkeyes before being sent back upstairs. The next morning, the driveway would be full of cars until about noon as one of the party rules was cabbing home. Iowa football seemed mythical to me then. Kinnick Stadium, Hayden Fry, the players and the uniforms felt larger than life. I still feel that way when it's game time and the first glimpse of Iowa's players comes across the TV. Or when they emerge from the tunnel. I still feel like a kid watching the Hawks.
Mine is...dare I say...a pretty good story.
My first Iowa football game was the day they dedicated and renamed Iowa Stadium, "Kinnick Stadium". I remember seeing Nile Kinnick Sr saluting the crowd from the field. My friend's Dad and Uncle (A U of I employee) were huge Hawk fans...and they took us to the game. At the time, I didn't understand how big that day was.
Fast forward a number of years, Fall of 1977...the resumption of the IOWA-ISU football series. I was a Sr in High School. My bud (a Freshman at IOWA) was a student manager for the football team (smelly jock duty), he got me 2 tickets for the IOWA-ISU game.
I took my high school girlfriend who was more of a clone fan. Our seats were in the front row of the North end zone. Feet...on the turf. No shit. IOWA upset the clones... the students rushed the field and tore the goalposts down...they fell right in front of me. I looked around and took in what was happening...and there was no turning back. I was a Hawkeye. Broke up with the girl a few weeks later.
Despite full ride scholarships from a few other schools (Augustana, UNI, Western Illinois, Drake) for music...I choose IOWA and a partial scholarship. Didn't stick with a music major long but i did join the drum line of the Hawkeye Marching Band. A couple of years later...Thanks to a guy named Hayden Fry, I was marching down Colorado boulevard in Pasadena in the most prestigious parade in the world...and a few hours later...across the 50 yard line of the Rose Bowl.
Not a bad run. (I'll leave the plane ride with Lute Olson, Final Four and dinner with Jim Zabel for another post).
I'm a Hawkeye for life.
1975 season opener hosting the Illini. Dad got tickets through work.
Bob Cummings' team lost to Illinois that warm September day but I was impressed with the Iowa cheerleaders.
At one point a bearded 70s-type hippie several rows behind us yelled "Go Illini" and got a few popcorn boxes tossed at him, but it was all in good fun.
I've said it before, if not for Hayden Fry Iowa football from then to present would be like Indiana football.
I'm interested in this plane ride with Lute story.
I once sat right next to Alford on a plane from Cedar Rapids to Denver. He'd just been hired at New Mexico and was on his way there. I was flying back to LA. I was 25, been up all night drinking and reeked of booze... it wasn't a pleasant flight for either one of us.
1981, when Iowa beat Nebraska 10-7 in Kinnick. It was the first game of the year, and Nebby was ranked in the top 10.
I caught the last quarter of it in a small town bar. I was riding in the car with my Dad listening to AM 600 (Frosty Mitchell?)for most of the game and he was so fired up that Iowa might win, we had to stop somewhere and see it on TV.
The bar went absolutely crazy when the Hawks won. I was 14 then and was totally hooked for life.
I was almost 6 when the Hawks beat Joe Kapp and California. My much older brother and his wife were at the game so my Mom and I were glued to the TV looking for my big brother Ron. My first game in person was Nebraska in Lincoln in 1981 or 82, and my first game in Iowa City was Ohio State in 1983----Chuck Long against Mike Tomczak. I was hooked on the Hawks 3 days before my 6th birthday!Barely 9 years old upstairs playing when I heard my father and guests downstairs whooping it up loudly. I called down to ask what it was about and was told that Iowa was beating California. That was the 1959 Rose Bowl.