How did you become an Iowa fan?

GodGodGodBathia

Well-Known Member
Was it because you went to school there? Or was it because your family growing up were Iowa fans? Or maybe it was just a choice you made on your own.
 
I was born in Washington County, and the best times my dad and I had when I was a kid were in the old Field House, and then Carver, watching Dan Gable's Hawkeyes destroy everyone in their path.

We got really lucky in the winter of 81-82 and went to see my uncle in LA. Got to see Andre Tippet, Ronnie Harmon, James Erb and the crew play in the '82 Rose Bowl.

By the time I went away for school, I had been a season ticket holder in wrestling for about 10 years.

And I miss Iowa City...badly. Had to relocate for my job, but I am still a Hawkeye.
 
with me it's a generational thing.
Grew up going to games and watching the Hawks get the snot kicked out of them,had some good times throwing snowballs at Woody Hayes and the buckeyes,as a kid.Then Hayden came along and we started winning and ticket prices went up and next thing you know the Hawks are playing football at Kinnick..Its much funner watching a game as appose to the way things use to be.The 70's were pretty rough..
 
It started for me when I got accepted into Iowa. I started watching the games on TV because I wanted to be in the marching band. After that first home football game, I was hooked.
 
First off, I'm pretty much strictly a football fan. I was born and raised in Burlington. My dad was a casual Iowa fan. I remember all the hype over the '02 season and I watched that bowl game, but it was The Catch, from Drew Tate to Warren Holloway in the Capital One Bowl (don't know why I explained that, I know you all know The Catch) that really hooked me as a die hard fan. From that moment on I really began to follow the football program as a whole, not just watching the games.
 
Started for me in the 80's watching Iowa Basketball as a kid. Around our neighborhood our families would take turns hosting "game watches" at each others house. I have to say I grew up more of an Iowa basketball fan because they were on TV all the time. With football, you might get to see three games live and the others you would listen to Zabel or Frosty Mitchell and then watch a replay of the game on Saturday Night. My dad would get tickets for one game a year and when he took me it was the highlight of my year! Now I have season tickets and get that same feeling every time I am there. Went to school at Iowa in the early 90's, couldn't imagine myself going anywhere else!
 
Growing up in a huge wrestling community it was Dan Gable and Iowa wrestling that got me to be a Hawkeye fan. Plus both my parents were Hawk fans as well even though both attended UNI.
 
My parents were both from Iowa, but my family used to live in Denton, TX (where I was born) and my Dad was on some board of The Green Machine, which was the I-Club (but a much smaller scale) for North Texas State University. Hayden was the coach and he and my Dad got to be friends. My family moved to Salt Lake City, then back to Iowa. Hayden was already the Iowa coach when we arrived and it made sense to become fans and reconnect with him.
 
I was born a Hawkeye! My Dad's a pretty big Hawk fan, (both his parents were Iowa grads), so I quite naturally became a Hawkeye.
 
For me it was a combination of things. It started as a family tradition. I remember my grandpa telling me about taking a train from north central Iowa to see the ironmen play in 1939. When he passed last year we found a ticket stub and perfectly preserved program from the 1939 Iowa v. Minnesota game that we have since had framed. My obsession was clinched at Iowa basketball games. I have a brother with special needs and we went to the University Hospitals to see his neurologist. These were never easy trips so we tried to schedule them at the same time as Iowa basketball games. The one game a year we spent at Carver was always a thrill growing up for me in the 90's. Iowa basketball and football games were always an event in our house as everything else stopped and we would spend time together to watch the games. We share a couple of football season tickets now so the Hawks continue to provide great memories of going to games with my dad and now my wife who has become hooked as well. Iowa games to me are all about spending times with friends and family and forgetting about everything else for a few hours. GO HAWKS!
 
I was born into it. My mom got her masters from Iowa in the 70's and my parents have had season football tickets for 35 or so years. When I decided to go to Iowa for college my friends laughed at me because they could have told me that when we were 10. I didn't miss a home game the last 4 years as a student.
 
My oldest sister started school at Iowa in 1976... started watching basketball then, shortly after that Hayden came... and I was hooked!

:)
 
I was lucky. 6 years old 1985 Iowa vs Michigan. Need I say more. I remember my dad picked me up and put me on his shoulders to watch the final field goal. We were at the very top of the stadium. One of my oldest memories I can remember. Been hooked ever since.
 
I am from the sioux city area, and when I was in 6th grade, I remember watching the local sports prodcast on tv and seeing sioux city heelan playing in the in championship game against Iowa City High and Tim Dwight. All the sports announcer kept saying was that Tim Dwight went for two or three nearly untouched touchdowns. Then they mentioned he was going to Iowa. Ever since then I was a Tim Dwight fan and went to my first hawkeye game when Tim was a Freshmen and they played Northwestern and won big! So Tim Dwight is what led me to become a hawkeye fan! Thanks Tim
 
I grew up just outside of Iowa City, and remember listening to Hawkeye games on the radio.

I've lived in Iowa the majority of my 50+ years on this rock. I've rooted on the Hawkeyes since I was 5. I had a friend growing up, who's dad had season tickets to all the Hawkeye sporting events. I remember going to a basketball game at the Fieldhouse, when Kevin Kunnert played for the Hawks. After the b'ball game, they had a wrestling meet. Football has always been my favorite sport, and after enduring the 19 losing years under Commings, Lauterbur... the last 30 years of glory under Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz has been great. I love football Saturdays at Kinnick, and can't wait for next season to begin. Ironically, I saw former Hawkeye BB player Jess Settles tonight at a restaurant in Cedar Rapids. Made me long for the days when Hawkeye BB was good, along with FB and Wrestling. GO HAWKEYES!
 
Born in 1971. Just when I was getting into sports, Iowa went to the Final Four (1980) and the Rose Bowl (1981). I was hooked. I shudder to think what could have happened if ISU went to the Final Four and the Orange Bowl during those years.
 
I used to listen to Hawkeye football games on the on WHO or WMT on the radio in our '52 Ford truck when I was ten, waiting for Dad to bring in a load of corn to put in the corn crib. I also listened to basketball games on my transistor radio. Loved Don Nelson!

I also remember listening to the regional final in '70 on our console radio/record player (anybody else remember those monstrosities?) when Miller's 6-pack lost on the last second put-back by Penbrook Borroughs III. I almost cried. What a team that was.

Great memories.
 
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