Football Frenzy

NFL’s annual Super Bowl extravaganza might receive the media attention and money, but for many sports fans across the United States, nothing can top the thrills and spills of college football.

They call it the Hawk Walk. Two hours before kickoff, the promenade leading to the players’ entrance of the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium becomes a river of black and gold. Fans, clad in the colors of the Hawkeye football team, welcome the players as they step down from the team bus.

“You walk through a gauntlet of people. It’s a thrill, and for lack of a more elegant saying, you get really jacked up,” says Club Member Todd Moses, who played for Iowa from 1989 to 1991. “The special thing about Iowa football is there are no professional sports in the state. Iowa football is the only show in the state. The fans drive in from everywhere.”

Member John Lemkuil, who graduated from the University of Iowa the year before Moses arrived on campus, attended every football game during his four years as an undergrad.

“It was more than just a game, it was a full event,” says Lemkuil, 51, who watches college football at Traders’ Bar with fellow Members every Sunday during the season. “To have 100,000 people get there at 6 a.m. to start tailgating, there is nothing else like it. There are people who have been tailgating for three generations. It is part of their family history.”

Football game days in a college town like Iowa City, College Station, Texas, or Ann Arbor, Michigan (places where the university is the center of the local economy) are raucous affairs. Hordes of fans, decked out in the team uniform or costumes, sing fight songs and religiously enact decades-old traditions.

Beaver Stadium, home to the Penn State Nittany Lions, is the third-largest stadium in the world. In fact, eight of the nine largest stadiums are home to college football teams. On game day Saturdays, Beaver Stadium boasts the fourth-highest population in Pennsylvania.

After his playing days were over, Moses held a tailgating party every Iowa homecoming game, inviting 30 to 40 friends and clients for a daylong barbecue, complete with beef brisket, bratwurst and spare ribs.

A Connecticut all-state high school player, Moses, 48, originally enrolled at Colgate University, where he started at defensive end for two years.

His grandfather, Warren Junge, played for the University of Iowa’s 1939 Ironman football team, led by Heisman Trophy winner and World War II aviator Nile Kinnick. Junge played in the same football stadium (now named after his teammate) as his grandson.

Moses’ father, James “Mickey” Moses, was a backup quarterback and punter for the Hawkeyes from 1962 to 1966, as well as a first team All-Big Ten baseball player.

“I had an itch to play in front of 100,000 people, as opposed to 15,000 to 25,000 people at Andy Kerr Stadium in Colgate,” says Moses. “Iowa was a natural choice for me. My grandfather played there. My father played there.”

Moses arrived in Iowa City in the spring of 1988 and switched positions to tight end. He played sparingly on special teams and as a blocking tight end. The last game of his senior season was Iowa’s loss to the University of Washington in the 1991 Rose Bowl.

“It was less exciting than being in Kinnick, if you know the truth,” says Moses. “It wasn’t as loud as Kinnick.”

Last November, Moses surprised his father by flying him to Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship between Iowa and Michigan State. At the pep rally, fans were entertained by the pep squad, cheerleaders and mascots.
Most of college football’s rules and traditions emerged from the Harvard and Yale rivalry, which began in 1875. The two teams play each other every year in an annual rite, referred to as “The Game.”

From 1890 to 1920, Harvard was the juggernaut of college football, winning nine national championships. Harvard Stadium, built in 1903 and a historical landmark, was the nation’s first athletic stadium.

When Club Member Andy Fried arrived on campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1998, the school hadn’t achieved an undefeated season since 1913.

Growing up in the shadow of the Buffalo Bills’ stadium, Fried collected cans after NFL games for extra cash. He was offered a scholarship to play lacrosse, but when Ivy League schools began recruiting him to play football, he switched his focus.
“Harvard was my first plane flight from Buffalo,” says Fried, 35, who looks like he could still step on the field. “Harvard had won an Ivy League title in 1997. They had come off a great season. Of course, Harvard has a great reputation as an educational school, but as a competitor you want to play for a contender.”

As a sophomore, Fried was named as an honorable mention All-Ivy League wide receiver. His junior year, he switched to defense, and he was second-team All-Ivy League as a cornerback.

The Game between Harvard and Yale is the last showdown of the season. Harvard lost to Yale Fried’s first three years, and as a junior he conceded 21 receptions to future NFL tight end Eric Johnson.

“For all the alumni, for all intents and purposes, if you lose the Harvard-Yale game, it’s not a successful season,” says Fried. “A coach will only be remembered based on his win-loss ratio in the Harvard-Yale game.”

In 2001, on the final play of Fried’s career, he intercepted the Yale quarterback, sealing Harvard’s victory and completing an undefeated season in front of a crowd of 53,000. Fried was named first-team All-Ivy as a strong safety.
“It’s hard to describe. College football has that certain element of loyalty from the alumni. They are a very passionate fan base, especially for the Harvard-Yale game,” says Fried. “It is a unique situation where this is the only game that people watch. Most of the student body does not know the record of the team. They probably don’t know that the Ivy League championship has been won.”

Fried, who played football for two years for the Osaka Iwatani Sidewinders in the Japan X League, says Harvard’s championship season was down to the leadership of the senior players. 

“I always felt special running through that tunnel at [Harvard’s] Soldiers Field, knowing so many other great players ran through that same tunnel,” says Fried. “Even though Harvard isn’t competing for national championships anymore, I feel like it’s the same sort of student that played back in the 1920s and 1930s. It’s a similar fan base and the guys are playing football just because they love playing football.”

Super Bowl 50 at the Club
Monday, February 8
7:30 a.m.–12 p.m.
New York Ballroom
Members: ¥5,000 (VIP area ¥8,000)
Non-Members: ¥7,000 (VIP area ¥10,000)
Adults only

Super Bowl 50 at Traders’ Bar
Monday, February 8
8 a.m.–12 p.m.
Traders’ Bar
Buffet breakfast: ¥2,750
Adults only

Words: Nick Narigon