Ann Arbor – It started as a simple idea from a fan on a Facebook post and has quickly become one of the most endearing traditions in college football.
The Hawkeye Wave started in 2017 after the new University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, which overlooks the Hawkeyes’ Kinnick Stadium, opened. Someone in the online group suggested that at the end of the first quarter, fans could take a moment to wave to the children in the hospital.
And so a tradition was born.
“We totally didn’t know what to expect,” Emily Baxter, the hospital’s Child Life programming specialist, told The Detroit News.