College football season has started, and I, a college freshman, despite not knowing a single thing about football other than quarterbacks exist, still wanted to experience a college football game (and also any football game in general). So when I was given free tickets to go to the season opener on September 2nd, I couldn’t refuse.
As a Hawkeye Influencer, I received a pair of free tickets to watch the season opener football game between our Hawkeyes and the Utah State Aggies. After much trouble finding who to go to the game with, I made plans to go with my friend Rose (who is also a blogger here, so make sure to check out her posts in the future). After briefly meeting up with her to know who we were going with, we soon realized that there would be no Cambuses running until 9 am, which is an hour later than the time we wanted to be at Kinnick. Luckily, one of Rose’s friends has a friend who would be driving, so I got to hitch a ride with them.
After getting dropped off near the west-side residence halls, we walked past many tailgaters and merchandise stalls before finally arriving at Kinnick Stadium. I thought we got to the stadium quite early, but I was clearly wrong; there was already a hoard of people standing outside the gates, waiting to be let in to get the front-row seats. We stood by the entrance for about 10 minutes until the gates creaked open, and the cluster of people shuffled forward into the stadium.
Once we entered the stadium, we quickly found seats in the first few rows of the bleachers. It felt weird to be sitting so close to the actual field, but we were so close we could actually see all the wires and cables used for broadcasting. As the minutes went by, we watched as the players ran in groups, warmed up with drills and exercises, and ran out and off the field again. The distinct difference between the cheering for the Hawkeyes and the booing for the Aggies was quite funny to hear (I personally didn’t boo, but I didn’t dislike the blatant bias).
At around 10:30 a.m., the performances started. The marching band came out to play some songs, the cheerleaders were throwing their flyers in the air, and the dance team lined up in front of the bleachers to dance a routine. Herky even zoomed by in an off-road vehicle, waving a flag proudly and hyping the crowd up. Safe to say, the audience was quite energetic, not stopping our cheers until it was time to sing the national anthem. Right after that, it was like there was no pause on the hype.
Come Saturday, I was ungodly exhausted at a football game. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready and decided to be fancy and put some gems on my face. I put on one of my yellow Iowa shirts and tied my hair up with a black and yellow Iowa scrunchie. By the time I was done, it was 7:50 a.m., and I had not eaten a single thing since waking up (and would not eat until noon), so I grabbed an energy bar and rushed downstairs to meet my friends. We waited a bit for everyone to show up, then headed out for Kinnick Stadium.
I’ll be honest, I have no clue how American football works, so most of the game went by in a blur for me. Every 10 seconds I would hear some screaming coming from all around me like I was in a surround-sound theatre, and the people around me seemed to all be very invested in the game. I did recognize the touchdowns that the Hawkeyes scored, but other than that, I was mostly confused the rest of the time. Not to mention it was blazing hot that day with the sun scorching my skin the whole time. Nevertheless, it was fun to watch the game and experience the feeling of being at a football game. Even in my confusion, I felt glad that I was there and I could feel a sense of pride in being a part of the crowd and Hawkeyes.
When we left, we stood in front of the “Big Ass Fans” for a few minutes to cool off (in our defense, it was 92 degrees that day) before inevitably being back out under the sun. In walking out of Kinnick, we shuffled along with the rest of the viewers and walked towards the residence halls, where one of our friends’ dads came to pick us up and drop us off back at Mayflower. Upon returning, I saw a few of my friends in the lobby hanging out, and they invited me to go grab lunch with them. As hungry as I was, I also had just spent six hours burning in the heat at a football game, so I declined and was knocked out in my room.
Overall, the game was more fun than I thought it would be. Would I do it again? Maybe; that depends if I know any more about football for this hypothetical “next time” (oh and also when it’s not as hot. Would not recommend going to a game when it’s also heat wave season). Would I recommend this experience? Definitely.
Check out this Instagram reel I made of my time at the game!