Political Football

Let’s have a High Porch Picnic!

Checking in on Hayden

(What if the Hokey Pokey IS really what it’s all about?)

I grew up an Iowa Hawkeye Football fan and will die an Iowa Hawkeye Football fan.

My parents used to take some of us kids (all girls) to knot-hole games in the 60’s; they had season tickets and attended every game even during a three year stretch from 1965-67 where Iowa won 4 games. I remember going to one game a year when I was as young as 12 and the stadium was almost full each game. Or we would be at Grandma’s where she made home made pizza while we listened to the game on her black radio with a gold dial on the kitchen counter.

Picking winners of the weekly Football games for the local Quarterback Club became a fun evening during football season for my Dad and me. I think it was 1984 when the Local Quarterback Club was raising money and I bought 5 raffle tickets to try to win season tickets (seem to recall they were second prize - first prize was a side of beef). I won!

I never went to the QB club meetings but my Dad and Uncle were approached by more than one guy to buy the tickets from Dad, knowing a gal had won them. My Dad and Uncle just laughed… VIP parking passes to each game came with the tickets; I was in heaven.

But, Hayden Fry made Iowa Football fun again. With his southern drawl and “exotics” (trick plays) and his “scratch where it itches” philosophy he brought Iowa football back to national prominence and national respect.

Since the Rose Bowl wins in the late 50’s, Iowa suffered through 17 straight losing seasons - including the first two years with Hayden. After those two years, Hayden’s record at Iowa was 134-76-6 (3 ties in one season!).

Hayden took Iowa to three Big Ten titles, three Rose Bowl appearances, and 14 bowl games in twenty years – all with a great graduation rate and a lot of class. And Kirk Ferentz is continuing that success.

I decided Kirk Ferentz could be Coach for Life at Iowa when he made sure during an 80 million dollar renovation of Kinnick that the visitor’s locker room remained PINK including the extension of pink to the porcelain facilities! If you don’t know those stories you don’t know much about Hayden - and you need to go back to the top of this page and read some of the links provided.

You can do an internet search for “Pink Locker rooms” and read the articles, but it was funny, and the locker rooms are more pink than ever thanks to the 2005 renovation and Kirk Ferentz. We’ve been very luck to have two great coaches at Iowa since 1979.

God Bless Hayden Fry

and the Iowa Hawkeyes

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