If you live in or near the Quad Cities, you must be familiar with the Iowa-Illini rivalry. I know it all too well. My entire family is almost evenly split between Hawkeye fans and Illini fans, even though no one has actually attended either university.
My grandpa is the origin of our family’s fandom of the Iowa Hawkeyes. He grew up in Iowa so he was an Iowa fan, and rightfully so. It branched with four of his daughters, two of which married Illini fans (yikes). These two daughters went on to have two children, one Iowa (me) and one Illini fan, and the other had three children, one Iowa fan and two Illini fans.
It gets to be interesting, especially during football season. My brother and I were at the Iowa-Illini football game in the 2023 season, after which, I would say “Go Hawks” any time I saw the signature “I” logo, regardless of the colors.
Thanksgiving dinner was either entertaining or annoying, it depends on which team you root for and whether or not you even care. My brother and I sat at the kids table with two of our younger cousins, one Iowa fan and one Illini fan. The adult table was similar, split between the two states. So naturally, as a true Iowa Hawkeye fan, I started the I-O-W-A chant at the table while we were eating.
Every time they play, there’s always a countdown until the next time we get together as a family because someone will get a loss thrown in their face- luckily I was not the victim for football season. We’ll see about basketball season on February 24…
And as always, go Hawks!