Iowa Hawkeyes Men’s Basketball

March 10, 2024

For Sue’s birthday, Brandy and I decided to get her and Craig tickets to the Iowa Hawkeyes Men’s basketball game in Iowa City where they were to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini. This was my first time ever going to a college sportintg event, and my first time at a basketball game at any level.

With a start time of 6:00, and an hour and a half drive ahead of us, Brandy and I left the house at about 3:00 on Sunday to pick up Craig and Sue from their house. We sat and socialized for a moment then headed out.

We made it to Carver-Hawkeye Arena at the University of Iowa at around 4:45. With Craig’s handicapped parking placard, we were able to park super close to the arena, only walking about 100 yards before we were in the arena. We wound up entering on the opposite side of the court from where our seats were so we made the trek around to the north side of the stadium.

The doors into the stadium are on the concourse level and stairs are taken down to the seats and the court. We got to section HH, which was behind a black curtain, and entering our rown on the concourse level.

There were tables lined up against the railing and four permanent chairs around each table.

There was a small bucket of popcorn waiting for us on the table, along with a napkin and condiment caddy and a lone paper menu.

The tickets we purchased included food and non-alcoholic beverages. I scanned the QR code on the front of the menu and was taken to a website where I was able to order food and drinks for the four of us. I was also able to order alcoholic drinks for a charge there too.

The food took a while and, when delivered, was somewhat disappointing- my french fries were cold and the burger I ordered was akin to an old school cafeteria burger.

The pretzels were good though, as was the beer I ordered.

The halftime show was one of those troupes of trampoline-powered acrobats that throw down astounding dunks that are so common at basketball games. Alas, I neglected to discover the name of this particular troupe, however I was able to capture some video of their performance.

As for the game… well, let’s just put it this way:

We left before the game ended, but we discovered that the Hawkeyes did wind up losing, 73-61, not a great showing, the Hawkeyes scorng their lowest point total of the season.

We did have fun, though I was surprised that the game is only two 20 minute halves. It wound up being a shorter outing than I was expecting (in fact, we spent more time on the road to and from the game than we did at the game.)

But it was nice, Sue and Craig were very appreciative, they still had fun and it was a wholly new experience for me. I suppose at some point, I will wind up going to a Hawkeyes football game…

Pictures from this outing are, of course, found in my Photo Diary.

My next post will be a very, VERY exciting post. Let’s just say, we managed to make more room for us when we’re traveling. No more cramped space and plenty of room for Ash in the back seat.

That post will be up soon.

Until then!

-Phil