Trading Orange for Black and Gold

Welcome to my Blog! I’ve decided that for the next 12 months I will closely follow Iowa Hawkeye athletics. I was not born in Iowa, and honestly, there isn’t much that makes me want to cheer for them, but here’s the issue…

I really enjoy college sports. Everything about them. It’s fun to be into a game on TV or to anticipate a good recruit suiting up for your school the next year, and I miss being close to that action.

As a kid, I grew up in Upstate New York about 45 minutes from Syracuse University. Some of my favorite memories are going to football and basketball games in the Carrier Dome to watch the Orangemen (for all you feminists out there, it will never really be just Orange). I got to see the likes of Donovan Mcnabb, Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney, John Wallace, Gerry Mcnamara, and of course, Carmelo Anthony in person. That is some great talent over the years. I’m 25 now, and I still have a strong emotional attachment to the ‘Cuse. But it’s just too hard to follow the teams and truly be a fan so far away.

Some “die-hard” sports fans would say I’m being a fair-weather fan and some sports writers look down on a transplant. But I disagree…I want to take my kids to games and cheer for the home team.

I don’t think the Hawkeyes are a perfect program. In fact, there are a lot of things that I don’t like. No one likes an arrogant winner, and that’s exactly how most Iowa fans come across to me. But there are some bright spots that make me think I could live as a Hawkeye. The legacy of Nile Kinnick is a great example. I want this to be brutally honest look at the past, present, and future of the Black and Gold.

We’ll see if this sticks at the end of 12 months...