College Football Season Begins

I knew something was up when I went to buy a Rockpile seat (the cheapest in the house) for Saturday night's Colorado Rockies baseball game.  I was surrounded by a sea of people wearing blue University of Wisconsin t-shirts.  It was hours before the game started, and so I walked over to the Taste of Colorado Festival in Denver's Civic Center Park   After an hour or so there, I walked back to Coor's Field, but it was still an hour before the gates opened.  I decided to stop into the Sports Column down the street for a beer to pass the time.  The ground floor had the music turned up to about the level of a 747 taking off, and so I went up to the rooftop bar.  I was surprised to find that it was filled to the rafters with Iowa Hawkeye football fans, probably most of the population of Iowa between 21 and 30. Most wore yellow University of Iowa t-shirts with black lettering, although there were a few "I Miss Iowa City" (Really?) t-shirts scattered around.  Everyone was very enthusiastic, to say the least.

I miraculously found a seat at the bar, and tried to get the attention of the young woman tending it so I could order a beer.  This was not easy, considering there were roughly 2,000 Hawkeyes fans demanding service and only two bartenders.  She looked like she was about to have her 19th nervous breakdown, and it was only half-time.  College football is serious business to Iowans, as you can tell from the photograph on the right. Sitting there made me think about the State of Iowa, of all things. My friends Darrel and his wife Linda grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and make frequent trips back there (at least Darrel, anyway).  My Grandfather and Grandmother Hoyt grew up in Clear Lake, Iowa, and moved to Chicago from there.  My Great Aunt Gladys also lived in Cedar Falls, Iowa before moving to Chicago and then California, where my grandparents and my Uncle Jack and Aunt Helen eventually moved.  My father Nelson told me once that everyone who comes from Iowa just loves the place, but mostly move to California (like most of our family did) as soon as they can.  They then hold annual Iowa reunions where they talk about how great the place is, but never move back.  Even I spent a year going to Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and so I felt I had every right to be sitting at that bar, too.  I started to explain all of this in detail to the woman sitting next to me, but suddenly she and her friend remembered that they needed to be somewhere else right away and left. Go figure. Iowa beat Miami of Ohio (Yes!  They still have a team!) 45 to 21, by the way.