Awesome Inc. on campus

I was invited to attend the Iowa/Northwestern game this past Saturday and wanted to give all the Awesome Inc. readers a recap of how they do things over in Iowa City errr Evanston. (Side note: I was a bit torn about deciding not to listen to the Nebraska/Kansas game, but as it turns out I made the right call in avoiding that disaster of a game.)
I was invited by a buddy of mine who is an Iowa graduate and huge Hawkeye fan. We headed out at 6:30 am to get to the tailgating spot by 7 am, yes 7 am! Upon our arrival there are already about 10 cars in the parking lot, all of them Iowa fans. While it was a bit chilly, it wasn't too bad of a morning for November in Chicago. The beer started flowing early with the firing of the grill a couple hours later. One tailgate group already had the tunes blaring and were karaoking to such classics as the Super Bowl Shuffle and Strawberry Shortcake, so you know they had probably started drinking Friday night and just had not stopped. The theme songs to Greatest American Hero and Seinfeld were also heard, so it was an interesting morning to begin, but would only get crazier.
Now I knew a few people at the tailgate, but mostly was a stranger to the group. The only thing that probably let me fit in was wearing a yellow Iowa Alumni Association shirt I won at a golf outing earlier this summer. By 8 o'clock the whole lot was full and it was entirely Iowa fans. A combination of loads of Iowa grads in the Chicago area and plentiful tickets being available due to Northwestern's lack of football success led to Hawkeye fans pretty much taking over the area and the stadium.
Out of all the yellow-clad throng, one Iowa fan had my attention most of the morning. Andrew was his name and he was a friend of the people putting on the tailgate party. He was also one of the most drunk individuals I've ever seen in person. Mind you I've not been around a lot of drunks (and I missed J.H. Naner's shenanigans in KC in July), but this guy has to be in a class by himself. He showed up around 730 and within minutes had his bloody mary bar all set up. It would be the first and last time all day he knew what he was doing. He proceeded to down a few bloody mary's and begin stumbling about the tailgate the rest of the morning. He would say hi to girls he knew by more or less pinning them against a car and biting their neck. It wasn't rough, but it was creepy! The funniest thing was when he tried to make more bloody mary's later in the morning. He was fumbling with all sorts of bottles, pouring in way too much of everything, having half of it spill on the ground, transfering the drinks from container to container to container for some reason including almost empty olive and pickle jars, unknowingly dropping a cap into his drink and only after I pointed it out to him did he fish it out and drop it on the ground. It was just a huge mess after he got done. Oh and he also wanted to fight the 60-year old dad of the guy putting on the tailgate. Good Times!
After getting a ticket for 20 bucks from an Iowa fan with an extra, we headed to the game. Of the 35,000 at the game (Capacity is around 50,000), I'd have to say roughly half were Iowa fans. Ryan Field itself is kind of cool because it is so old, but it is missing a lot of extras that more successful football programs have in their stadiums like tv feeds at the concession stands and/or radio feed in the bathrooms. They have a video screen, but it's stuck in a corner where you can't see that and the field at the same time if you're on the visitor's side. It's a decent place, but no Memorial Stadium that's for sure. It was fairly loud when Iowa get up quickly and led at half 24-3. Northwestern put on a crazy comeback late in the fourth quarter though and scored two touchdowns in two minutes to pull out the 28-27 win. As a fairly unbiased observer it was a great game to see. The Hawkeye faithful were obviously disappointed, a feeling I would soon share when I learned of the Huskers fate.
All in all it was a cool game to see and it allowed me to avoid listening to the Huskers loss as described by the horrible Jim Rose (read the earlier blogs if you don't know what I'm talking about). Northwestern is not big time football despite being in the Big 10, but it is still a good time and was worth checking out now that I'm living in the area.

BBL