The Iowa Hawkeyes are undefeated when Samuel and Samson Tanner are at Kinnick Stadium. This streak continued last Saturday at the Cy-Hawk game.
Sure, the game wasn’t pretty. One thing I’ve learned over the last five years is that Iowa football isn’t pretty. Hawkeye football has more to do with field goals and punts than touchdowns or points.
Still, the Tanner winning streak is intact. A last second field goal clinched a 16-13 victory. Go Hawks.
***
Hawkeye games have proved overwhelming for me. Over the last few years, I’ve learned a great deal about moving with my anxiety.
Big crowds make me nervous. Drunken debauchery makes me nervous. Heights make me nervous. A Hawkeye game is a perfect storm.
Samson and I parked in my faculty spot. This was our first night game. The sun was bright as we merged with a crowd on the way to the stadium. We walked across the river with fans who had been tailgating since early in the morning.
I didn’t bother to cover Samson’s ears as profanity mingled with “bruhs.” Who am I to protect Samson from the undergraduate carnival of a Big Ten college football game?
“Iowa State fans are dingleberries hanging from my ass,” the extremely intoxicated woman walking behind us shouted as Iowa State fans came walking past.
The pedestrian bridge over highway 6 really activates my anxiety. Especially when hundreds of people are slowly making their way across. The concrete wobbles in the wind and vertigo sets in. I try to avoid the bridge at all costs. Thank God for the campus commuter.
I know, on a conscious level, that walking across the pedestrian bridge over highway 6 in a large, drunken crowd is not dangerous. But tell that to my dizzy head.
“Are you going to have another mental breakdown?” Samson asks me as we walk over the bridge towards the stadium.
I laugh. “Maybe.”
Samson laughs too.
No mental breakdowns.
***
Samson requested tickets to a meaningful Hawkeye game this fall. Our previous games involved FCS opponents. Glorified preseason contests. I gave in and searched for tickets to the Cy-Hawk rivalry game.
Could I afford tickets to a Cy-Hawk rivalry game? Not really. But who am I to deny my son something he wants? So I splurged.
Our seats were in the corner of the end zone. It was supposed to rain and then it didn’t. I muscled through the crowd, got a Coke and some Twizzlers, and spent the evening high-fiving the dude next to me who smelled like Coors and Kodiak. The sun set and a cool breeze filled the stadium. It was a beautiful evening with my son.
Samson and I spent most of the game standing. Most of the game screaming. And I jumped up and down when we hit the game winning field goal. I howled with delight when the clock hit zero. I almost asked my new friend for a dip to celebrate.
Instead, Samson and I quietly exited the crowded stadium. Made our way back across the pedestrian bridge over highway 6. A traffic jam of college students left us standing on the bridge for a long time.
“You’re squeezing my hand too tight,” Samson said.
“It’s because you’re so anxious,” I told him.
He rolled his eyes and laughed at me.
What a wonderful night with my son.
Samuel Jaye Tanner 