Ioweya

Iowa's Kinnick Stadium- capacity 70,585

1939 Heisman trophy winner Nile Kinnick

This week in the media press conference Joe Paterno was asked if he felt there would be a “revenge” factor in this week’s game against Iowa. He said he didn’t like that word to describe a football game. He went on to say Iowa was a good football team last year and “we got licked”. Well after witnessing last year’s game in person I have to say if this year’s game is not revenge it must be “Ioweya” (one of the cubs coined this word).

Last year we traveled to Iowa in our motor home a few days before the game. In hindsight I realize I should have paid better attention to the trip out there because I might have seen the “omens” beginning to form. It all started with our toilet.

The flusher button wouldn’t work. So as the lion drove, I called the motor home tech people to try and figure out what was wrong. After trying different things that didn’t work I figured out where we would be stopping for the night and arranged for a tech person to meet us there. Oh by the way it would cost $250.00 just to have the “toilet fixer” come meet us and that didn’t include any labor or parts. That piece of info inspired the lion to trade places with me, I drove while he fiddled around and what do you know he fixed it! Maybe from this you might reason that we won the game. Obviously we didn’t and the rest of our trip was full of other ominous signs that said “danger ahead”.

The weather was a shock since we left Happy Valley on a pleasant fall day but arrived in Iowa to snow flurries and lots of wind. It was so cold we had to buy extra stuff to keep warm. The problem was our team wasn’t prepared for the cold weather.

Our visit to the campus and stadium the day before the game should have been a big flashing sign that said, “beware”. At just about every other Big Ten school we take pictures of the stadium and football field. So at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium we took some pictures around the complex. We got into trouble when we went over to look at the field (which was in plain view). The security guard there informed us we “must leave”. There was such urgency about us leaving you might have thought we were trying to steal the stripes off the field. We left but none of us still recognized the signs.

The day of the game I arrived to pick my ticket up at the will call window. As always I had my camera, and my binoculars in on of those recyclable grocery bags. The security guard at the gate told me my bag was too big and I couldn’t go through the gate. I took my camera and binoculars out, put them around my neck and folded the bag into a small square and put it in my pocket. I walked through the gate and then promptly got accosted by security. They acted like I was carrying “secret weapons” in my folded 4x4 square bag. I had to throw my grocery bag away or be kicked out. Needless to say by the time I took my seat I was feeling a bit “picked on”.

The rest of the story is history. The omens were pointing at what became the only loss for Penn State in regular season play. So yes in spite of what Joe thinks about revenge, I would like to have some. Yes, Iowa was a good football team that day, but tomorrow is a different day.
Iowa is visiting us at BEAVER STADIUM, with a WHITEOUT, and GAMEDAY, and 110,000 FANS screaming not only for a win but also for REVENGE.