College Football Preview: Kinnick Stadium, Home of the Famous Iowa Hawkeyes

It's about that time of year again....Hawkeye football season and the fans are anxious for their beloved Hawkeyes to reign victorious over many a gridiron giant! For some fans victory can be as simple as having a perfect tailgater, wearing those new striped bibs or even finding a place to park that isn't in the next county...or that doesn't require a second morgage on the house to acquire!!

Returning fans will find many changes in Kinnick stadium with a finished south grandstand, the Krause Family Plaza which is not quite complete and other assorted parts of "Phase 1" of the over 70 million dollar renovation project of Iowa's famous football stadium! Those that find themselves lucky holders of tickets for the west area of the stadiums are reminded to look for signs which have been posted for their convenience. Though the renovations are far from complete the athletic department has done its best to assure game day is an enjoyable experience for all! U of I fans are a patient bunch, eagerly awaiting any and all changes and enjoying the process as they watch the season unfold before their eyes.

In the past, there has been a lot of "flack about the pink visiting players locker room. This has ruffled a lot of feathers and I am sure it will continue to do so for awhile, but this reviewer would like to go on the record to say with all the SERIOUS problems there are in the world, WHY is it so important to stress over a color that in reality only has power over the players if they want it to!?!

Though fans are not able to view the "pink" visiting team locker room it should be noted that the tradition begun by former coach Hayden Fry to paint the visiting teams locker area pink (which some believe creates docile behavior as opposed to the aggression football teams strive for) has been extended during the renovation process to include not just pink walls but lockers, ceiling tiles, carpet and even restroom fixtures. I wouldn't be surprised if they had somehow figured out a way for the water to be pink in the shower as well! How frustrating and irritating it must be to the team to have to look at all that "girlie pink"! Rumor has it that more than one team arrive at Kinnik supplies in hand to temporarily cover as much of the pink as possible. If that isn't humorous enough, it is also widely shared that one team upon finding they had forgotten supplies went out and bought each and every newspaper they could find to paper the pink. A mental image that never fails to illicit a smile from this Hawk fan! But all joking aside, remember the pink locker room is a part of Kinnick history and in no way were intended for any other purpose than "good clean fun!" That said, I will drop the issue of the pink locker room....it has served the "complainer" no real purpose and achieved no goal except to boost the sale of pink items sold in the area to an astronomical height!

And back to the stadium.....There are in fact, 3 scoreboards which fans enjoy during the game but it is a given that the most impressive of the lot is located at the south end of the stadium. With a scoreboard measuring more than 132 feet wide and 42 feet tall, fans will agree that this is one impressive piece of electronic equipment! Manufactured specially for the University of Iowa by Daktronics, Inc of Brookings, South Dakota, this beauty is located at the south end of the field and boasts not just state of the art electronics but eye catching appeal as well!

With a sold out crowd of 70,000 at virtually every game, fans will find it not only difficult to buy those last minute tickets but harder and harder to find parking close by the stadium and some in fact will literally walk blocks before entering the haven of the University of Iowa football stadium. The key to surviving the traffic in the area on game day is to "start early"....give yourself enough time to get to your location and ultimately enjoy yourself!