Hawkeye Wave voted best college sports tradition

Posted by author October 9, 2024 Sports

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – The Hawkeye Wave has been awarded the 2024 Readers’ Choice for Best College Sports Tradition, USA Today announced Tuesday.

The Hawkeye Wave tradition began at Kinnick Stadium in 2017.

It sees fans, athletes and coaches from both college football teams stop at the end of the first quarter to wave at pediatric patients and their families inside the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, which overlooks the stadium.

The University of Iowa and the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital also collaborate on the Kid Captain program, which started in 2009 to honor and share the stories of pediatric patients.

FILE – In this Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019 file photo, Iowa fans wave to children in the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital at the end of the first quarter of an NCAA college football game between Iowa and Miami of Ohio in Iowa City, Iowa. At the end of the first quarter, players and coaches from both teams turn to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital and wave, just as they’ve done every home game since 2017.( (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Each Kid Captain gets a commemorative jersey, a behind-the-scenes experience with the Hawkeyes football team, and they get to choose the song that plays at the stadium during the Hawkeye Wave.

Originally, the University of Iowa asked fans to vote for a new song to play during the wave, but it later decided to leave the choice up to the Kid Captains.

Other college sports traditions that earned honorable mention this year, include the Army-Navy Game, Purdue’s Big Bass Drum, and Wisconsin’s Jump Around,Texas A&Ms The 12thMan, Virginia Tech’s Enter Sandman and Script Ohio.