“When the Kinnick clock hits zero, at the end of the first quarter, 70,000+ football fans turn their attention from the field to UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital,” Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics says. The university calls it the Hawkeye Wave, “this tradition, born in 2017”; Sports Illustrated has called it the “Iowa Wave.” The hospital stands across the street from Kinnick Stadium: “Open in 2017, this 507,000 square feet 190 bed, 14 floor world-class pediatric hospital,” University of Iowa Health Care says. ESPN wrote that the hospital “opened in February as an extension of century-old UI Hospitals and Clinics campus,” and its 12th floor looks out “over Hawkins Drive into the stadium below.”
“The 12th floor window was built to overlook the stadium to give patients and their families a respite on game days,” the athletics department says. ESPN called that space the hospital’s “press box,” “the space designed to accommodate patients … and their families for all Iowa games, home and away.”
“The idea came from Krista Young, a Hawkeye fan from Anita, Iowa,” MPR News reported. From “the small town of Anita,” she “posted to Hawk fan page ‘Hawkeye Heaven’ in May,” KCRG-TV9 reported. “I just kept seeing the photos when they opened up the addition,” she said. “I think with the new U of I hospital addition open,” the post read, “Kinnick should hold a ‘wave to the kids’ minute during every game.” Levi Thompson, of Hawkeye Heaven, “liked Young’s idea and came up with the twist to make it happen at the end of the first quarter,” ESPN wrote, and “Every Sunday over the summer, Thompson posted a photo and pushed the concept.” “The posts were shared thousands of times, perhaps reaching millions of people,” KCRG-TV9 said.
“Much has been made of The Wave since Sept. 2, when Iowa fans at the season-opening Wyoming game turned a grassroots movement on social media into a touching moment,” ESPN wrote in 2017. “At the end of the first quarter, the fans turned and waved at the building next to the stadium, particularly those assembled on the 12th floor,” MPR News reported. “The football players and fans began waving Sept. 2, the patients waved back, they’ve all been waving at each other at every home football game since,” Patch reported that November. One father wrote on Facebook, as ESPN and Patch reported, that “to see them so happy when the fans do this it brought tears to my eyes and chills down my back!!”
Of the wave at night, KCRG-TV9 reported on September 23, 2017, that “after the first quarter thousands of cell phones and flashlights lit up the stadium,” and at the 2018 Wisconsin game, “Fans used their cell phones to light up the night sky as they waved to those watching the game from the hospital,” Sports Illustrated wrote. “Since 2017, nearly 70,000 fans, student-athletes, and coaches, even from the opposing teams, take a break between the first and second quarters of Iowa Football home games at Kinnick Stadium to exchange waves with patients and families inside UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital,” the athletics department said in 2022. The wave “won the 2017 Disney Spirit Award,” the athletics department says; “The Disney Sports Spirit Award will be presented Dec. 7 during the Home Depot College Football Awards Show,” Patch reported in November 2017.
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- In the middle of a football game, 70,000 fans turn away from the field. Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics: “When the Kinnick clock hits zero, at the end of the first quarter, 70,000+ football fans turn their attention from the field to UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital.” Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics (2022): “nearly 70,000 fans.” 12
- They call it the Iowa Wave. Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics, on “The Hawkeye Wave”: “this tradition, born in 2017.” Sports Illustrated: “fans lit up Kinnick Stadium during the ‘Iowa Wave’ on Saturday night.” 19
- Across the street from Kinnick Stadium, a new children’s hospital opened in 2017. University of Iowa Health Care: “Open in 2017, this 507,000 square feet 190 bed, 14 floor world-class pediatric hospital.” ESPN: “on the 12th floor of the hospital -- opened in February as an extension of century-old UI Hospitals and Clinics campus”; “over Hawkins Drive into the stadium below.” 34
- The 12th floor window was built to overlook the stadium. Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics (2022): “The 12th floor window was built to overlook the stadium to give patients and their families a respite on game days.” 2
- Sick kids could watch from up there. ESPN, of the hospital’s “press box”: “the space designed to accommodate patients … and their families for all Iowa games, home and away.” 4
- A fan named Krista Young kept seeing photos from the new hospital. MPR News: “The idea came from Krista Young, a Hawkeye fan from Anita, Iowa.” KCRG-TV9: “from the small town of Anita, posted to Hawk fan page ‘Hawkeye Heaven’ in May.” Young, to KCRG-TV9: “I just kept seeing the photos when they opened up the addition.” 75
- She posted, “Kinnick should hold a wave to the kids minute during every game.” KCRG-TV9: “I think with the new U of I hospital addition open,” the post read, “Kinnick should hold a ‘wave to the kids’ minute during every game.” 5
- Fans shared it all summer. ESPN, of Levi Thompson of Hawkeye Heaven: “Every Sunday over the summer, Thompson posted a photo and pushed the concept.” KCRG-TV9: “The posts were shared thousands of times, perhaps reaching millions of people.” 45
- On September 2, 2017, the first quarter ended. ESPN: “Much has been made of The Wave since Sept. 2, when Iowa fans at the season-opening Wyoming game turned a grassroots movement on social media into a touching moment.” MPR News (September 12, 2017): “started a wave during their game against Wyoming last week.” 47
- And the crowd turned and waved up at the hospital. MPR News: “At the end of the first quarter, the fans turned and waved at the building next to the stadium, particularly those assembled on the 12th floor.” 7
- Up on the 12th floor, the kids waved back. Patch: “The football players and fans began waving Sept. 2, the patients waved back, they’ve all been waving at each other at every home football game since.” 8
- A father wrote that it brought him to tears. His Facebook post, as ESPN and Patch quote it: “to see them so happy when the fans do this it brought tears to my eyes and chills down my back!!” 48
- Now the players wave too, even the visiting team. Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics (2022): “Since 2017, nearly 70,000 fans, student-athletes, and coaches, even from the opposing teams, take a break between the first and second quarters of Iowa Football home games at Kinnick Stadium to exchange waves with patients and families inside UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital.” 2
- That season, it won the Disney Spirit Award. Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics (2022): “The Hawkeye Wave, which won the 2017 Disney Spirit Award.” Patch (November 21, 2017): “The Disney Sports Spirit Award will be presented Dec. 7 during the Home Depot College Football Awards Show.” 28
- For one moment, Kinnick’s most important fans aren’t even in the stadium. Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics (2022): the window was built “to give patients and their families a respite on game days,” and fans, players and coaches “exchange waves with patients and families inside UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital.” ESPN: “for all Iowa games, home and away.” 24
Sources
- The Hawkeye Wave Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics
- Iowa asking fans to nominate new song for Hawkeye Wave (April 21, 2022) Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics
- About the Stead Family Children’s Hospital Building University of Iowa Health Care
- Inside college football’s coolest new tradition: Iowa’s hospital wave (Mitch Sherman, September 18, 2017) ESPN
- Meet the woman who helped make ‘The Wave’ happen (Forrest Saunders, September 22, 2017) KCRG-TV9
- ‘The Wave’ at night: New tradition lights up Kinnick Stadium (September 23, 2017) KCRG-TV9
- The best wave in sports? It’s in Iowa (September 12, 2017) MPR News
- ‘The Wave’ Wins Iowa Football Program Disney Sports Spirit Award (November 21, 2017) Patch Iowa City
- Watch: Fans Light Up Kinnick Stadium at Night During Iowa Wave (September 23, 2018) Sports Illustrated
Notes
Attendance: “70,000+” is the athletics department’s figure on its wave page, and “nearly 70,000” in its 2022 release; ESPN gave 65,668 for the September 16, 2017 game. The Short uses the university’s round figure.
When she posted: KCRG-TV9 and MPR News say May 2017, ESPN and Patch say June. The Short gives no month.
Whose idea: the university told KCRG-TV9 its officials “had been discussing doing something like The Wave” as the hospital neared completion, and Levi Thompson of the Hawkeye Heaven page “came up with the twist to make it happen at the end of the first quarter” (ESPN). The Short credits Krista Young’s post, as KCRG-TV9, MPR News, ESPN and Patch do, and says fans spread it.
The photos she saw: the Short says she kept seeing photos “of kids at those windows”; her own words to KCRG-TV9 were “I just kept seeing the photos when they opened up the addition.”
Which floor: Patch says the 11th floor and one blog the 10th; the athletics department and ESPN say the 12th, which the Short uses.
The visiting team: we didn’t confirm that the visitors waved at the first wave, against Wyoming, so the Short says “Now the players wave too, even the visiting team,” as the athletics department described it in 2022.
No patient is named or shown on this page. The children are spoken of only in the general terms the sources use, and the father whose Facebook post is quoted is not named. Krista Young is named, as KCRG-TV9, MPR News, ESPN and Patch named her, only for her post and her own words. Nothing about the Iowa football program beyond the wave is part of this story.
Pictures: no free photo shows the first wave on September 2, 2017; no patient is shown, and the hospital is seen only from outside. Zoey Holmstrom of Maize & Blue Nation photographed fans waving up at the hospital tower at Michigan’s game at Kinnick Stadium on October 1, 2022, at the end of the first quarter by the camera’s clock, and, the same day, Michigan, the visiting team, running out under the tower, the tower above the stands, and the crowd. MediaGuy768 photographed Kinnick Stadium and the round hospital tower next to it from the air on February 18, 2025; Symetrical, the east stands at the Wisconsin night game on September 22, 2018 (not during the wave); US Army National Guard photographers, Iowa’s players taking the field before the Iowa State game on September 7, 2024, and facing the stands with the hospital tower above on November 18, 2023 (Sgt. 1st Class Jason Everett and Sgt. Rachel White); and Jared Winkler, the main street of Anita, Iowa, Krista Young’s hometown, on June 26, 2020.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: I. Morning Mood (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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