The Hawkeye Wave: 70,000 Fans Turn to Wave at Sick Kids

At the end of the first quarter of every Iowa Hawkeyes home game, something strange happens at Kinnick Stadium. Nearly 70,000 fans stop watching the football game. They turn around in their seats, face away from the field, and start waving.

A Photo Started It

In 2017, the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital opened right next to Kinnick Stadium. Its top floors look straight down into the stands. A fan named Krista Young saw a photo of a child gazing out from one of those hospital windows toward the stadium.

She posted an idea on Hawkeye Heaven, a Facebook fan page for Iowa football: what if the whole stadium turned around during a break in the game and waved up at the kids? The page's founder, Levi Thompson, picked up the idea and spent the summer promoting it, posting photos of the hospital view and asking fans to be ready.

September 2, 2017

The first Hawkeye Wave happened at the season opener against Wyoming. When the clock hit zero on the first quarter, the public address announcer gave the signal. Tens of thousands of fans turned their backs on a scoreless football game to face the hospital and wave.

Nobody Sits This One Out

The wave has not stayed inside the home crowd. Opposing players, coaches, and even the officiating crew now join in every game, turning toward the hospital alongside the Hawkeyes fans. For a few minutes, rivalry is put on hold.

Up on the hospital's viewing floor, pediatric patients and their families gather at the glass to watch tens of thousands of strangers wave at them. It has been described by families as one of the most moving moments of a child's hospital stay.

A Tradition That Grew

The Hawkeye Wave won Disney's Wide World of Sports Spirit Award in its first year. Since 2022, the hospital's own weekly Kid Captain, a pediatric patient honored at each home game, gets to choose the song that plays during the wave.

What started as one comment on a Facebook page has become one of the most recognized traditions in college football, repeated at every single Iowa home game since.