When the Hawkeyes took the field last Saturday morning and ran toward the freshly installed tiger hawk logo at midfield, blood began to boil in the Bergstrom Indoor Football Complex.
Matt Campbell was fifty shades of cardinal as he had some legitimate beef with the Iowa football coaching staff. Campbell may be new to the rivalry, but he’s vigilant enough to realize when he has been blatantly plagiarized.
After going over 40 years without any sort of a logo at midfield, the University of Iowa finally decided to give it a shot. Why was Campbell so mad? Well, Iowa State ALSO has a logo at midfield. It makes you wonder where those boys in Iowa City got the idea.
Here is their excuse rationale.
“For the longest time us administrators calculated the risk of players tripping over the damn thing in the middle of a game,” Iowa athletic director Gary Barta told WRNL.
Their thinking all changed when Ferentz announced Nathan Stanley the starting quarterback for the season opener. No longer worried with the offense reaching midfield, Iowa officials decided it was time to follow in Iowa State’s footsteps and put a logo at the 50 yard line.
While Iowa was caught with their hand in the cookie jar this time, it’s important to note that sometimes Iowa does dip into some creativity of their own.
If we’ve learned anything over the past few weeks its that those boys in Iowa City are really innovative. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison get most of the headlines, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that the Iowa Hawkeyes are responsible for some really cool shit.
By now you’ve heard they were the first school to include the word “fight” in their.....fight song.
You’ve also probably heard they were the first philanthropists to act on behalf of Iowa farmers, which makes sense why they wouldn’t want anyone else actually helping the cause.
Don’t forget that Kirk Ferentz and company penned the ancient parable “move the rock”.
It certainly drew the attention of the Hawkeye faithful, who spent countless hours protecting Iowa’s trademarks this past Sunday.
Actually Helping Farmers, Fight for Iowa State, Move the Rock. These are creative times in which we live https://t.co/rv3Kz4Mzua
— Jon Miller (@hawkeyenation) September 3, 2017
It is hard to imagine a world without these contributions, but believe it or not, they are only the tip of the iceberg. We’ve done some digging and discovered that the world as we know it wouldn’t be the same without those boys in Iowa City.
We must also tip our cap and give Iowa credit where credit is due for the following.
The Fake ID
Iowa, affectionately known as the “fake ID” of college football has done their part the last two bowl season to firmly entrench themselves in the role. With the appearance of Tarzan and performance like Jane, the Hawkeyes invented January bowl blowouts (which are inherently better than December bowl wins). Just don’t bring it up to Iowa fans, as they tend to get awfully salty should anyone else use the term.
Back in Black
The Hawkeyes have emerged from their Kinnick Stadium locker room donning their black uniforms since the beginning of time it seems. Rock band AC/DC loved the theme so much they jotted down some beats and turned the entrance into one of the top hits of their generation. Iowa still gets zero credit to this day. Some people even have the audacity to play this song outside of Iowa City. Sad!
Gator Chomp
If you have ever been down the Iowa River, you know that bitch is full of ‘gators. It makes sense that one of Iowa’s state universities, nicknamed after the state bird, would incorporate this into their game-day experience. Other schools like the University of Florida have carbon copied this, leaving the Hawkeyes with ruffled feathers.
Tailgating/Drinking
In the old days, fans would show up at kickoff and leave after time had expired in the fourth quarter. Those guys in Iowa City were the first to tip back a couple of “toddy’s” before the game so they could gator chomp with reckless abandon. Iowa fans are pretty proud of this achievement, although some take it more seriously than others. If you like the shirt below, you can order this at...you guessed it...Wal-Mart.
NFL Jersey Designs
The NFL has long been known as a copycat league. It appears the aren’t just copying each other though. The Pittsburgh Steelers can thank the Iowa Hawkeyes for this unique jersey design.
At this point it is unclear whether the University of Iowa had anything to do with Adam and Eve, the Internet, or sliced bread, but if you bring up any of these things to them this Saturday I’m sure they’ll pinpoint the origin to Iowa City.