Experiencing the ‘Kinnick Wave’

If you haven't heard of college football's newest and best tradition, maybe it's time to flip on the television each Saturday afternoon.

The "Kinnick Wave" is now a staple of the Kinnick Stadium experience, and it embodies everything college football should be and more.

I made the trip to Iowa City last Saturday, and I can tell you from personal experience that what you see in videos and on TV doesn't do the "Kinnick Wave" justice.

I will never pretend to know what it's like for the families and children who face heartache and suffering on a daily basis. I've had family experience similar pain and suffering, but I myself will never pretend to know what it's like to go through that battle every single day of my life.

And so in those daily battles, it's a brief break, a passing moment that creates lifelong memories. There's energy, emotion and passion after the first quarter of a football game at Kinnick Stadium ends. People cry. People smile. People laugh.

Because in that minute of waving in between two quarters of a college football game on a Saturday afternoon, there's no winning and losing; there's no Iowa and Ohio State; there are no Buckeye fans and Hawkeye fans.

There's just people loving people.

In that video from the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, you hear laughter. You feel joy. You experience a lifelong memory.

I'll remember the Buckeyes got drubbed by a better prepared and better motivated Hawkeye team. But in one year, I'll be watching a new Buckeye season with new goals. In five years, it'll be another new season. The same applies for 10 years down the road. But the only memory from that game that really holds meaning beyond this year was the "Kinnick Wave." It's that moment that can make a difference even a decade beyond last Saturday.

Go to Iowa City. Experience the "Kinnick Wave." Because it rewires your brain and changes your thinking.

But, more importantly, join the "Kinnick Wave" at Kinnick Stadium because of what it means to the children and families at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

The "Kinnick Wave" is for them. It always will be.