I took my son to Kinnick for the first time yesterday, so I was in the bone-chilling cold in in the stands rather than in the warm and toasty press box.
This is what the two of us experienced in Hawkeyeland. You know what happened on the field, but this is what went on off of it.
First of all, I would say that, outside of Nebraska, Iowa has the nicest fan base in the Big Ten. That may be surprising based on their presence on the Football Board over the years and the stories we've heard from former NU players. But they were friendly and very gracious to us. We got several "welcome to Iowa City" greetings and high-fives before the game, and we got a lot of congratulations after it. Every time we went to take a selfie, people came up and offered to take the picture for us. Even eating in downtown Iowa City after the game, we got "congratulations" and "nice games" from drunk students.
Iowa City is a great college town. The tailgating scene is spread out in parking lots all over the place. We were lucky enough to get invited to PURPLECAT88's pre-game "garagegate." He and his family (one daughter went to NU, one is at Iowa) rented out a garage of a house a few blocks from Kinnick. There were, I believe, three tailgates renting space there. I know it sounds odd, but it was great. Each tailgate got a table for food and drinks in the garage, and they had access to a restroom in the house (in sort of a mud room). Most importantly, they had one of those outdoor gas heaters and a big-screen TV in the garage, so we just watched Ohio State and Michigan State in relative warmth.
What makes Kinnick special is that the stands are about five yards from the sidelines, so fans are right on top of the field. We were 77 rows up in the NU section, at about the 10-yard line, and the sightlines were great. I was in the stadium once before, in the '90s. They now have a much nicer scoreboard (of course), they built up the press box and luxury boxes (of course), and they redid seating in one end zone. It's not quite done, so the giant video board on that end was not operational and I was told there are porta-potties there because the bathrooms aren't completed.
Temps were in the 20s and it was pretty frigid, but at least there wasn't much of wind. We were dressed warmly enough. One big negative was that there was ice on the metal bleachers. Luckily, we had an outdoor blanket that we could lay down on it. If not, your ass would melt the ice, and then, as the temperature dropped, your wet ass was in big trouble. We saw people after the game who had to peel their blankets off the benches, too -- the ice had melted and refrozen and stuck to the blankets. Lots of blankets were ripped to shreds.
One of the highlights during the game was when they honored a local veteran during one of the many timeouts. He was a big, burly dude with a white, Duck Dynasty kind of beard. They were detailing his service over the PA and he kept jabbing his finger very hard into his chest, over and over, with this maniacal look on his face. Eventually, the crowd caught on: He was pointing to the I-O-W-A letters on his sweatshirt. So they started shouting "I! O! W! A!", the cheer they do in each corner of the field during the game. It was pretty cool.
There were a lot of NU fans there, and we got pretty loud when warranted during the game. It was great to see the team come over to our corner and sing the fight song after the game, a capella, without music accompaniment. Players then ran all over the field like little kids. Jordan Thompson ran out to midfield and just laid out on his back and wriggled around on the Hawkeye logo.
As we were leaving, our big throng of NU fans started a "Go U! NU!" cheer, and it echoed through the tunnels of Kinnick.
All in all, it was a hell of a day. We arrived hoping to see a W. We left having watched the Cats win the Big Ten West.
This is what the two of us experienced in Hawkeyeland. You know what happened on the field, but this is what went on off of it.
First of all, I would say that, outside of Nebraska, Iowa has the nicest fan base in the Big Ten. That may be surprising based on their presence on the Football Board over the years and the stories we've heard from former NU players. But they were friendly and very gracious to us. We got several "welcome to Iowa City" greetings and high-fives before the game, and we got a lot of congratulations after it. Every time we went to take a selfie, people came up and offered to take the picture for us. Even eating in downtown Iowa City after the game, we got "congratulations" and "nice games" from drunk students.
Iowa City is a great college town. The tailgating scene is spread out in parking lots all over the place. We were lucky enough to get invited to PURPLECAT88's pre-game "garagegate." He and his family (one daughter went to NU, one is at Iowa) rented out a garage of a house a few blocks from Kinnick. There were, I believe, three tailgates renting space there. I know it sounds odd, but it was great. Each tailgate got a table for food and drinks in the garage, and they had access to a restroom in the house (in sort of a mud room). Most importantly, they had one of those outdoor gas heaters and a big-screen TV in the garage, so we just watched Ohio State and Michigan State in relative warmth.
What makes Kinnick special is that the stands are about five yards from the sidelines, so fans are right on top of the field. We were 77 rows up in the NU section, at about the 10-yard line, and the sightlines were great. I was in the stadium once before, in the '90s. They now have a much nicer scoreboard (of course), they built up the press box and luxury boxes (of course), and they redid seating in one end zone. It's not quite done, so the giant video board on that end was not operational and I was told there are porta-potties there because the bathrooms aren't completed.
Temps were in the 20s and it was pretty frigid, but at least there wasn't much of wind. We were dressed warmly enough. One big negative was that there was ice on the metal bleachers. Luckily, we had an outdoor blanket that we could lay down on it. If not, your ass would melt the ice, and then, as the temperature dropped, your wet ass was in big trouble. We saw people after the game who had to peel their blankets off the benches, too -- the ice had melted and refrozen and stuck to the blankets. Lots of blankets were ripped to shreds.
One of the highlights during the game was when they honored a local veteran during one of the many timeouts. He was a big, burly dude with a white, Duck Dynasty kind of beard. They were detailing his service over the PA and he kept jabbing his finger very hard into his chest, over and over, with this maniacal look on his face. Eventually, the crowd caught on: He was pointing to the I-O-W-A letters on his sweatshirt. So they started shouting "I! O! W! A!", the cheer they do in each corner of the field during the game. It was pretty cool.
There were a lot of NU fans there, and we got pretty loud when warranted during the game. It was great to see the team come over to our corner and sing the fight song after the game, a capella, without music accompaniment. Players then ran all over the field like little kids. Jordan Thompson ran out to midfield and just laid out on his back and wriggled around on the Hawkeye logo.
As we were leaving, our big throng of NU fans started a "Go U! NU!" cheer, and it echoed through the tunnels of Kinnick.
All in all, it was a hell of a day. We arrived hoping to see a W. We left having watched the Cats win the Big Ten West.
