I love sports. Football is my favorite. The Iowa Hawkeyes are my favorite team. This has been the case for as long as I can remember. I grew up east of Iowa City, in the same hometown of former Hawkeye great Marv Cook. My parents are both University of Iowa
alums. I would usually get to go to one Hawkeyes game each season as a child, but I always watched them on TV. Nick Bell was the first player that I recall being my favorite, but other favorite Hawkeyes from my childhood included: Vernon Rollins, Damien Robinson, Sedrick Shaw, Tavian Banks, Bashir Yamini, Jerry Montgomery, and Fred Barr before my age equaled that of the players on the roster.I was fortunate to be an undergraduate at the University of Iowa while Kirk Ferentz was re-establishing Iowa as a regular Big Ten contender. I had season tickets and I never missed a home game. Actually, my fondest memories of college took place while attending Iowa football games on the road in places like Minneapolis, Madison, Champaign, Miami, and Orlando, but those memories are longer than 500 words would allow. After graduation I moved to Davenport and gave up my season tickets as I became a graduate student taking Saturday class. Nonetheless, I still followed the Hawkeyes. My wife and I would travel to Iowa City for a handful of games each fall, and I would watch the rest on TV. Even when occupied by class, during games I would receive play-by-play text messages keeping me updated.
This year, however, I was done with graduate school. My wife and I purchased sea
son tickets. Expectations for the season were the highest they’d been in my adulthood. Not only was 2010 going to be great because Iowa was going to contend for the Rose Bowl, but it was going to be great because my wife and I were expecting our first child on October 13th! The pregnancy was going well; my wife was a trooper going to the Iowa State, Ball State (staying through the rain), and Penn State games with me. After the Penn State game, I thought that I was in the clear! There were 20 days until Iowa’s next home game, and surely our son would be born prior to that. My son, knowing how
much his Dad loved the Hawks was timing his entrance perfectly! Then the due date passed. The Michigan game came and went. My attendance at the Iowa/Wisconsin game was questionable. My wife agreed that if we were out of the hospital before Saturday, I could go to the game. We had Ryne on Thursday, the 21st. We were in the hospital on the 22nd, and we left around 10am on the 23rd. I decided to skip the game; I would be watching the Iowa/Wisconsin game with my family in our home. Unfortunately Iowa lost, but I’d never been in such a good mood after a loss due to the presence of my newly born son!I'm not sure if I will win, but I'm pretty sure that I should win.
No comments:
Post a Comment