Saginawbay
Well-Known Member
Great article enjoyed reading, and just makes me think of all the great family memories, I have been so fortunate to share with my father since attending my first game with him in 1981 at Kinnick, and still going, Dad does not make every game, but 1 home game a year, and we still attend the bowl game each year.
Proud to be a University of Iowa alum and Go Hawks!! Cannot wait for next week, to see this team continue this great season.
Mitch Sherman, ESPN Staff Writer
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The late James Arlyss Raecker, a dedicated family man and longtime Waterloo, Iowa, dentist, bought season tickets at Kinnick Stadium in 1958, a great year for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa lost only to Ohio State that fall and qualified to play in its second Rose Bowl, for which Jim Raecker and his newlywed wife, Thieleane, traveled to Pasadena, California. Thieleane was pregnant, and today, Steve Raecker, 56, claims that Rose Bowl win over Cal as his first appearance -- in utero -- watching the Hawkeyes.
This season, again unfolding as special for No. 12 Iowa, which is 7-0 for the fifth time ever, marks the 92nd year for the Raecker family with season tickets.
They sit in six seats of Row 79 atop Section 103 on the east side of Kinnick. It started with Jim’s father, Arlyss Raecker, who purchased a season pass in 1924 as an Iowa student. Arlyss wore a top hat and necktie to Iowa games during the Great Depression and rode the train with his wife, Esther, to Iowa City from their home in Waterloo.
Every Iowa home game for the Raeckers, from the multigenerational tailgate in the dental college parking lot to the trek up the stairs to Row 79, is a celebration of family.
“It’s not all about winning and losing,†Jim Raecker often said. “It’s about family. But winning makes it a lot better.â€
He sure would have enjoyed this season. Jim succumbed to cancer in November 2009, his spirits buoyed through that fall by the Hawkeyes' 10-win regular season. His sons, Steve, of Waterloo, and Scott, 54, of Urbandale, Iowa, carry on the tradition with their mother, wives, children and friends.
“Some families we know go on reunions for a week in the summer to the Wisconsin Dells,†Scott Raecker said. “Our family does this for seven Saturdays in the fall. It’s all about the family.
“We love it around football. The memories, they’re spectacular.â€
Jim and Thieleane Raecker were married in 1958, their first season with tickets at Kinnick Stadium. They attended the Hawkeyes' Rose Bowl victory over Cal that season. Courtesy of Scott RaeckerThe Raeckers remember this week as the 30-year anniversary of No. 1 Iowa’s 12-10 victory over No. 2 Michigan on Rob Houghtlin’s 29-yard field goal as time expired.
The Raeckers were, of course, again in the house last month as Marshall Koehnbeat Pitt in the final seconds with a 57-yard kick.
“It’s emotional,†said Scott, a former defensive back at Grinnell College who attended his first Iowa game in 1967 at age 6. “It’s a time to just enjoy life. There are so many tensions in the world. There’s so much stress. And these are 18- to 22-year-old young men who are out there, pouring their hearts out to do their best. As fans, sometimes we’ve lost sight of that.â€
Iowa endured a 22-season Rose Bowl drought after the 1959 game, returning to Pasadena following an 8-3 regular season in 1981, Scott’s sophomore year in college.
Scott’s son, Maxwell James Hawkeye Raecker, is now a 20-year-old Iowa sophomore, waiting for the first Iowa Rose Bowl of his lifetime.
You read that name right. It’s on Max’s birth certificate, and Scott said he would have used Hawkeye as his son’s first name, but his wife, Martha, possessed a “hard veto.†Scott’s brother, Steve, suggested it as a second middle name.
Yes, they do love Iowa.
Scott and Martha’s daughter, Emily, attended her first game at Kinnick in September 1993 at 5 months old.
Emily, 22, recently posed this question, according to Scott: “Isn’t it awesome when your football reality is better than your football dreams?â€
So far, that’s Iowa in 2015.
There exists another Raecker who lives outside the Hawkeye lovefest. Steve and Scott's younger sister, Jennie Raecker Murphy, was raised a Hawkeye but cheers for Iowa State with her husband and four children.
On special occasions, they visit Row 79.
“We still love her,†Scott said.
For the Raeckers, it all about love -- of both family and Iowa football.
Proud to be a University of Iowa alum and Go Hawks!! Cannot wait for next week, to see this team continue this great season.
Mitch Sherman, ESPN Staff Writer
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The late James Arlyss Raecker, a dedicated family man and longtime Waterloo, Iowa, dentist, bought season tickets at Kinnick Stadium in 1958, a great year for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa lost only to Ohio State that fall and qualified to play in its second Rose Bowl, for which Jim Raecker and his newlywed wife, Thieleane, traveled to Pasadena, California. Thieleane was pregnant, and today, Steve Raecker, 56, claims that Rose Bowl win over Cal as his first appearance -- in utero -- watching the Hawkeyes.
This season, again unfolding as special for No. 12 Iowa, which is 7-0 for the fifth time ever, marks the 92nd year for the Raecker family with season tickets.
They sit in six seats of Row 79 atop Section 103 on the east side of Kinnick. It started with Jim’s father, Arlyss Raecker, who purchased a season pass in 1924 as an Iowa student. Arlyss wore a top hat and necktie to Iowa games during the Great Depression and rode the train with his wife, Esther, to Iowa City from their home in Waterloo.
Every Iowa home game for the Raeckers, from the multigenerational tailgate in the dental college parking lot to the trek up the stairs to Row 79, is a celebration of family.
“It’s not all about winning and losing,†Jim Raecker often said. “It’s about family. But winning makes it a lot better.â€
He sure would have enjoyed this season. Jim succumbed to cancer in November 2009, his spirits buoyed through that fall by the Hawkeyes' 10-win regular season. His sons, Steve, of Waterloo, and Scott, 54, of Urbandale, Iowa, carry on the tradition with their mother, wives, children and friends.
“Some families we know go on reunions for a week in the summer to the Wisconsin Dells,†Scott Raecker said. “Our family does this for seven Saturdays in the fall. It’s all about the family.
“We love it around football. The memories, they’re spectacular.â€
Jim and Thieleane Raecker were married in 1958, their first season with tickets at Kinnick Stadium. They attended the Hawkeyes' Rose Bowl victory over Cal that season. Courtesy of Scott RaeckerThe Raeckers remember this week as the 30-year anniversary of No. 1 Iowa’s 12-10 victory over No. 2 Michigan on Rob Houghtlin’s 29-yard field goal as time expired.
The Raeckers were, of course, again in the house last month as Marshall Koehnbeat Pitt in the final seconds with a 57-yard kick.
“It’s emotional,†said Scott, a former defensive back at Grinnell College who attended his first Iowa game in 1967 at age 6. “It’s a time to just enjoy life. There are so many tensions in the world. There’s so much stress. And these are 18- to 22-year-old young men who are out there, pouring their hearts out to do their best. As fans, sometimes we’ve lost sight of that.â€
Iowa endured a 22-season Rose Bowl drought after the 1959 game, returning to Pasadena following an 8-3 regular season in 1981, Scott’s sophomore year in college.
Scott’s son, Maxwell James Hawkeye Raecker, is now a 20-year-old Iowa sophomore, waiting for the first Iowa Rose Bowl of his lifetime.
You read that name right. It’s on Max’s birth certificate, and Scott said he would have used Hawkeye as his son’s first name, but his wife, Martha, possessed a “hard veto.†Scott’s brother, Steve, suggested it as a second middle name.
Yes, they do love Iowa.
Scott and Martha’s daughter, Emily, attended her first game at Kinnick in September 1993 at 5 months old.
Emily, 22, recently posed this question, according to Scott: “Isn’t it awesome when your football reality is better than your football dreams?â€
So far, that’s Iowa in 2015.
There exists another Raecker who lives outside the Hawkeye lovefest. Steve and Scott's younger sister, Jennie Raecker Murphy, was raised a Hawkeye but cheers for Iowa State with her husband and four children.
On special occasions, they visit Row 79.
“We still love her,†Scott said.
For the Raeckers, it all about love -- of both family and Iowa football.
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