Historical past of the Hawkeye Wave: How Iowa’s iconic faculty Collage Football custom started

Tune into this Saturday’s sport between the Iowa State Cyclones and Iowa Hawkeyes, and on the finish of the primary quarter, you will witness among the finest traditions in faculty soccer. In the course of the Hawkeye Wave, followers in Kinnick Stadium will flip and present assist to children within the close by kids’s hospital.

The Hawkeye Wave has shortly change into one of the vital touching and uplifting traditions the game has to supply. For only a second, followers of each groups will come collectively to improve kids battling sickness simply throughout the road.

The truth that the Hawkeye Wave will get each side of the Cy-Hawk Sequence to return collectively says loads about its influence. So, let us take a look at the origins of this now well-known Saturday custom.

How lengthy has the Hawkeye Wave been occurring?

By way of faculty soccer traditions, the “Hawkeye Wave” continues to be very a lot in its infancy. In a sport with over a century of historical past, this specific custom has solely been in existence since 2017.

Following the primary quarter of Iowa’s 24-3 win over Wyoming, followers in Kinnick Stadium turned and waved in any respect the youngsters within the hospital’s twelfth ground window. That heartwarming gesture instantly caught, and Hawkeye followers have been doing it at each residence sport since then.

During the last couple of years, there was a minor tweak made to the custom. For the primary a number of years after its inception, the “Hawkeye Wave” was accompanied by the Pat Inexperienced track, “Wave on Wave.” Since 2022, the Child Captain for each residence sport will get to decide on the track that accompanies the wave.

How did the Hawkeye Wave start?

In early 2017, the College of Iowa Well being Stead Household Youngsters’s Hospital opened simply throughout the road from Kinnick Stadium. Hospital workers and company instantly seen that the big home windows on the twelfth ground supplied a direct view down into the stadium.

That twelfth ground was aptly nicknamed “The Press Field,” and previous to the primary sport of the 2017 season, one fan shared an attention-grabbing concept on Fb. Hawkeye fan Krista Younger recommended that followers in Kinnick Stadium take a minute to wave to the sufferers in the course of the crew’s sport in opposition to the Cowboys.

That concept unfold like wildfire on social media, and positive sufficient, Iowa followers delivered. When the clock hit zero on the finish of the primary quarter, followers in Kinnick Stadium stood in unison and waved towards the twelfth ground of the youngsters’s hospital. Similar to that, a brand new faculty soccer custom was created.

The place to look at Iowa State vs. Iowa

Date: Saturday, Sept. 7 | Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Kinnick Stadium — Iowa Metropolis, Iowa
TV: CBS | Stream: Paramount+