You love the Hawkeyes..but what's your story?

HawkeyeMcNutt

HawkeyeMcNutt

Well-Known Member
I thought it'd be kind of an interesting topic to find out what everyone's story is.

Why are you a Hawkeye fan?

For me, I was born in Iowa City, and then moved north to Minnesota. My dad grew up on a farm in Iowa, and he was born into a Hawkeye Family, which transcended upon me and my siblings. I have since become almost addicted to Iowa football, and truly love the Hawks with every ounce of my body.

How about you? What's your story?
 
I was born into a family of tavernhawks and watched every basketball game and most football games on TV since the early 80's, then went to UI for grad school. Go Hawks!
 
Born in Iowa. Tork Hook and Chris Street are/were friends of the family, first Iowa football game when I was 7. Forever hooked (no pun intended).
 
Bloodlines here as well. Third generation Hawk fan and, Lord willing, my kids will be the fourth. :)

Kinda funny, but I actually talk Hawkeye sports with my grandmother more than any other member of the family. She loves to tell me about the late 70s/early 80s basketball teams. At the end of the Raveling era I was just getting old enough to start getting into sports.
 
I remember listening to the Hawks on the radio with my Dad back in the 50's. I was raised listening to Jim Zabel and the Hawks. Back in those days Iowa didn't get much TV time, so everyone just sat with the radio.
 
1987 Iowa grad. Diehard since 1980/81. Eternally loyal.
 
Grew up in USC family in So Cal. Went to Berkeley. Saw Iowa in the NCAA regionals at LA Sports arena. Also saw the AW team lose at CAL. That's about the extent of my knowledge of the team until I came to grad school at Iowa in 2000.

Went to first Iowa football game in KF early down years. 4 Tics, 4 sodas, 4 dogs, for 40 bucks. As a GSA, taught Hawks in rhetoric. They were by far my best students. Went to games sparingly in 2000, 2001, got season tics in 2002. Never experienced anything like the IC atmosphere on Game Day, got hooked. Went to first Iowa Bowl Game Cap One 2005. Only missed FLA Outback Debacle and Insight, because I hate Phoenix, bowl trips since then.

Could now care less about USC and CAL. Bleed Black and Gold.

Moral of the story? Once a Hawk, Always a Hawk.
 
Grew up in Las Vegas in a non sports family. Family issues force me to live with my aunt and uncle in Des Moines. My cousins introduce me to the world of sports and especially the Iowa Hawkeyes. They showed me as a little boy that the Hawks are the pride of the state and I bought in big time. 17 years later I'm living and dying with every game:)
 
I grew up in a cyclone family. went to every home game growing up, iowa was not doing so well and was never a thought. I was in college at U of south dakota playing ball myself, but injuries forced me to rethink after two years.

sooo...the life changing event was going to the 1981 Rose Bowl. 50000+ passionate Iowa fans. I transfered that fall based on that experience and the iowa curriculum, having never been to IC, ever. Fell immediately in love with IC and Hawkeyes and have never looked back.

My brother growing up in the same clone family, followed me to Iowa, even in spite of our grandfather willing to help pay his education to anywhere else but there. He still came and we were both pretty much disowned from that side of family for a few years. We both bleed black and gold.

The large Hawkeye fan base in Colorado after graduation only instilled that loyalty. our dad now watches hawk games with passion as well, but he is still isu fan first.
 
I was born into a family of strong Iowa fans. My dad would watch every game with me when I was a kid. 2001 was the first season that really struck me, since I was so young. Been a huge fan ever since. Currently enrolled at Iowa and never looking back.
 
Born, raised, and still in Iowa. My first memory of me being a Hawk fan was the 1959 Rose bowl when Bob 'Jeter the Jet', ran over Cal for 200 yards. Hooked ever since.
(Yeah, I know I'm an old f***)
 
I was actually a fan of Iowa Basketball before I was a fan of the football team. Back in the early 80s the basketball team was more popular than football and Lute Olson had led Iowa to the Final Four. So the basketball team is what made me a Hawkeye fan.

But my love for the Hawkeye football started when Hayden Fry shocked the world and led Iowa to the 1982 Rose Bowl. The very next year a freshman QB Chuck Long led Iowa to the Peach Bowl. I will never forget being at my Great Aunts house watching the game. My uncle had put money on Tennessee and I remember rubbing it in his nose after Iowa had won that game.
 
In the summer of 1958 my dad, a farmer, won a Motorola portable radio at the Eldridge summer festival. During harvest that fall my older brother and I would listen to the games on that radio while hauling loads of soybeans/corn from the field to the grain bins.

The bonus for us was the Sunday morning Evy show on TV with Jim Zabel (I think) and highlights of the previous day's game. I have been hopelessly hooked ever since.
 
SoMplsHawk said:
In the summer of 1958 my dad, a farmer, won a Motorola portable radio at the Eldridge summer festival. During harvest that fall my older brother and I would listen to the games on that radio while hauling loads of soybeans/corn from the field to the grain bins.

The bonus for us was the Sunday morning Evy show on TV with Jim Zabel (I think) and highlights of the previous day's game. I have been hopelessly hooked ever since.
Click to expand...

It must have been difficult to get hooked back in the 50's and then have to endure the 60's & 70's.
 
Born in Iowa and born into a Hawk family. My dad has had football season tickets for 33 or 34 years, a couple years before I was born. Went to my first game when I was 3 and have been going ever since. I also went to Iowa in 99 and graduated in 03 and have had my own season tickets ever since. Now my son who is 4 has been to 4 games, he has gone every year around his birthday, which is Sept 5, so it is usually around the first game of the year.
 
My grandparents were big fans and went to games and my grandpa was a hero to me. Some of my best memories as a kid were riding in the combine with him and listening to Zabel call games. We stopped working and hustled to my Uncles house to see Chuck Long on the naked bootleg in 85.

I also graduated from Iowa and now am infecting my kids with my fandom.
 
My Father moved the family to Iowa City in 1955 to take a job with the U of I Athletic Dept. I grew up kind of on the inside of Iowa athletics and I've been a huge fan all of my life. I love me some Hawkeyes.
 
ssckelley said:
It must have been difficult to get hooked back in the 50's and then have to endure the 60's & 70's.
Click to expand...

I'm not just a football fan - there were some good bball teams to follow too - but yes it was disappointing. I am a grad and I hung around IC for a year or two after my studies were done. The 1973 season was the worst of course but my years of loyalty have paid off.
 
Interesting how many on this thread became Hawk fans due to the basketball program.

I grew up watching Kenyon Murray, Andre Wooldridge, Acie Earl, and others during that decade. My family didn't really have any allegiance to one school, so it was due to the players, coach, and style of basketball these teams played, that originally made me into a Hawk fan.

Can't wait for those days to hopefully be coming back with Coach McCaffrey!
 
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