Johann's First Hawkeye Football Game

Another post from a long time ago.  This one was from fall.

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The week before last saturday, I took Johann to his first Hawkeye football game.

We got a pair of season tickets this year for the first time since we were students.  The plan is to each take one of our kids a game.  Frances wanted to go to a color game, where the fans are encouraged to where a specific color.  So Johann got the season opener.

Before we left, I looked at the sky.  It was cloudy but it looked like the big storm clouds had passed.  My guess was there might be some light drizzles so I grabbed a couple kitchen garbage bags just in case.  I didn't look at an actual forecast.  (How is that for some foreshadowing?)

We parked at a ramp near campus and walked to the stadium.  It started to sprinkle so, we stopped and I fashioned a vest out of one of the garbage bags.  It fit Johann just perfectly (as well as a trash bag shirt can).  The rain stopped and I removed it.

As we got to a parking ramp across from Kinnick, it started raining hard.  While, we waited for it to let up, I took the remaining garbage bag and split it to make a sheet of plastic which I put over Johann's head as a hat.

The rain got a little lighter and I decided to go find some poncho's to buy.  We had a half hour until game time, so we went to one of the streets with vendors and they were all sold out.

As we decided to just go into the stadium without ponchos, it started pouring again.  That was the only Johann said, "Let's just go home".

We each gave our tickets to be scanned (which was made difficult because the tickets were wet).  When we managed to get into the concourse under the stands, Johann felt a little better since we were out of the rain.

Because I had gone poncho hunting, we were on the wrong end of the stadium.  The concourse was packed with people.  There were slow moving streams that you could get into and make some progress.  I held Johann's hand tightly.

We passed a consessions stand.  Since we weren't moving that quickly and no one was in line I thought it prudent to buy food then (rather than attempt it at half time).  I asked Johann if he wanted a hot dot.  He said that he wanted pop corn.  I pointed out that pop-corn would get soggy in the rain.  He got a hot dog (and also a bottle of water).

The hot dog was in a little plastic bag (which would come in handy later) and I just squirt some ketchup inside and closed it up.

We found our seats.  The were higher up than I thought they would be (really high up) but that actually made it easier to see the plays.  We stood because the seats were wet, well covered with water is a better way to describe them.

The game started.  It was difficult to see because rain spattered my glasses.  At the beginning of the game, I kept a running commentary of how many yards to the first down and how many tries left.  I taught Johann how to recognize the quarterback (aka the guy with the ball).

Johann picked up enough to be able to start following the plays.  So much so that he was able to see McNutt make a juggling catch near the end-zone in our corner of the stadium.

The first time Johann saw a punt, I heard him say "wow".  I think he was impressed at how high they could kick the ball.

We were both pretty much drenched.  I would periodically wring out the bottom of my shirt just to watch the water fall.  Johann faired a little better with his garbage bag shirt but the clothes underneath were still completely wet.  It wasn't comfortable but fortunately, it wasn't *that* cold.

As the weather got better, we could see the field so much clearer.  It was as if the curtain we were watching through got lifted.

Johann had been taking bites of his hot dog through the first half.  He would expose a bit from the bag and eat it.  I was surprised at how well the bag kept it dry even though I had taken to putting it down on the wet bench.  I shared the last couple bites and it was delicious.

The water sat undrank because we had had enough of water.

In the last couple minutes of the half, Johann noticed that we were sitting right in front of a giant scoreboard.  He craned his neck to look at it.  There wasn't that much going on in the game (Tennessee Tech was driving), so I told him that he could stand up and turn around to get a better look.

The very next play we intercepted the ball.  I grabbed Johann, spun him around and stood him on the bench in time to see most of the run back for the touchdown.

I  picked him up and put him on the bench a lot (every time there was an exciting play where everyone stood up and he wouldn't be able to see).  He told me that he didn't like that.  I think he was afraid of falling off the bench.  I kept doing it but made sure to hold him steady when he was up there.  (He says now that he almost fell off once.)

At half time, Johann wanted to watch the band.  So we did.  He liked the shapes that they made.  We talked about the golden girl and the drum major.  Nothing interesting came of that.

With 10 minutes left before the second half, we went to the bathroom.  There was a *huge* line.  I'm glad he didn't have to go badly.  After a fair wait, we got into the bathroom and it was filled with people.

We got in lines next to each other.  My line was slightly shorter so I could wait for him to finish (rather than him getting swept away into a sea of people when he was done).  When it was his turn he got up there and peed like a champ.  My little guy is growing up.

I was going to get pop corn then but the game had already started, so we went back to our seats.

At one point, Johann asked what the far end-zone said.  I told him "Hawkeye".  Then, I spelled it for him, "See, H-A-W-K spells hawk and E-Y-E-S spells eyes, even though that's weird".  He said "Oh, I thought it was Hawk-Guys".  I thought that made more sense than Hawkeyes.

In the third quarter, there were a few heavy drops of rain.  That prompted everyone to put back on their ponchos.  I put the garbage bag back on Johann (which I had removed in the vain hope that he would dry off).  This time I put the flattened bag over both of our heads, which helped to keep the rain off my glasses.

Then the sky gushed water.

Later, I saw clips on TV of water flowing down the steps like a waterfall, a fast flowing waterfall.

At the time though we were just huddled under the garbage bag.  We yelled in support the defense but also in a bit of defiance of the rain.

The crowd got loud.  The rain was loud.  When there was an announcement, I couldn't make it out in the slightest.  The rain started letting up a bit (from the torrent) and that was a bit nicer.

Soon after though, on third down, the refs refused to start the play.  There was a bit of confusion and then they announced that there would be a thirty minute delay due to lightning.

Apparently, that was the first weather delay ever at Kinnick.  We picked a great game for Johann's first.

We went underneath the bleachers to get out of the rain.  We made our way into the pack of people hoping it would be warmer.  There was a place where the wind wasn't too bad and it was almost warm.  I held Johann close to me trying to keep him warm.  It would be bad for him to die of hypothermia so near a hospital.

After a bit, we got up to finally get some pop corn.  There was scare when the guy said that they were out but then they scrounged up some (they were out of pretzels, which I guess is the preferred lightning delay food for the masses).  Then we went back to our out-of-the-wind spot and ate our pop corn.

As we sat on the concourse, Johann on my lap for warmth, we finally drank the water that I had been reluctantly carrying around with us.  I felt mildly prepared for something.

The father and sister of Frances' best church friend found us there.  Talking with them helped pass the time, which was good because apparently every time there was lightning, we had to wait another 30 minutes before the game would start.  The delay was somewhere between 1 and 1.5 hours.

When we went back in, all four of us decided to sit together (since at that point 80-90% of the fans had left).  We decided to go stand at the top of our section, next to the giant score board.

Johann was amused by the back wall which was covered with this giant sticker thing to make it look like brick.  He asked "Is that real brick?".  I told him to touch it and find out.  He discovered that it was in fact fake.  I let him walk down to where the wall bent a little to see if it was fake there too.  It was.

The weird thing about the wall sticker was that the bricks were too small.  They were about 2/3rds size, which made it look odd up close but it looks fine on TV.

When play resumed, the whole thing felt like a scrimmage.  The game was well in hand for the Hawks and the second string players were in.

Eventually we sat down on the top row.  I held Johann on my lap again.  It had stopped raining but Johann still felt cold.  With about 2:00 minutes left on the clock, he fell asleep.  The whole day, with the excitement of the game and being out in the rain for so long was exhausting.  I thought about trying to keep him awake (the fears of hypothermia still in my gut) but decided against it.

When the game was over, I picked him up but it was apparent that it was too dangerous to try to carry Johann down the steep steps.  He woke up pretty easily and we said our good-byes.

On the way back to the parking ramp, I carried him some and some he walked.  I was torn between my desire to go to Hardee's and get a big, warm hamburger into my stomach and wanting to get into dry clothes.  By the time we got to the car, I had decided that the clothes were the more pressing issue.

To help keep us warm, I turned up the heat in the van and we took off our cold wet shirts.  We still had wet shorts and shoes that you could drink from but it was better.

That evening, I was wiped.  The combination of the excitement, the cold and carrying Johann got to me.  Arial let me take a nap but I was still sore the next day.

All in all, it was a great experience.  Even with the misery, it was worth it to spend time with Johann at a football game.  Johann enjoyed it too.  He said he wants to go to another one...

...as long as it's not raining.

mwz