IOWA CITY, Ia. — There was a big delay before commercials between the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second in Iowa's home game against North Texas.
Instead, ESPN2 stuck around to air the coolest new tradition in college football: the Hawkeye Wave.
ESPN2 broadcast the entire Kinnick Stadium wave. Meet some of the kids fans said hi to. From @MarkEmmert https://t.co/o83rS97HNx pic.twitter.com/OyV6wRD925
— Danny Lawhon (@DannyLawhon) September 16, 2017
The recently finished University of Iowa Children's Hospital sits right next to Kinnick Stadium. The top floor features the Press Box Cafe, a rotunda of sorts with floor-to-ceiling windows that provide a perfect view of Hawkeye games. And during Iowa home games, patients and their parents will pack the cafe and watch their Hawkeyes from one of the tallest vantage points in Iowa City.
After every first quarter this season, fans inside Kinnick will turn around and wave up to the top floor of the hospital. Inside, patients and their families wave back.
Levi Thompson first promoted the idea of the wave on his Hawkeyes fan page after Krista Young, a reader of his site, suggested something could be done to recognize the patients and their parents watching from the brand new, 12-story hospital.
