We all came from different areas: Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska. Some were business executives, some designers, some students, and some retired. We all had one goal in mind: beat those Gators!!! The 2004 Outback Bowl vacation had begun.
Along on the trip were Bill, his girlfriend Ronabel, Tom, Jammie, Mike, Mac, John Paul, his girlfriend Jill, and Bonnie. For us, the Tampa trip consisted of football, grouper sandwiches, relaxing, expensive crappy food at the amusement parks, more football, beaches, sun, fun, and oh yeah… more football.
New Years Eve:
All our flights got in Tampa earlier in the day. Even though we were strangers to the Florida area, we managed to find some similar people at the downtown Hyatt. There was a Hawkeye party there. It just happened to be the same hotel where the Florida team was staying. About 1000 Iowa fans packed into one of the large ball rooms. We heard that we were partying so loudly that the Florida football players staying in the hotel had to drive back to Gainesville that night to get a good nights rest!!! We only stayed at the party for a few hours, knowing we would have to get up early. I think grandma had a hangover the next day.
The Game:
Last year, the Hawkeyes played the USC Trojans. We had many good jokes about them- giving the USC fans a good ribbing. It is too bad we didn't play the FSU Seminoles (pronounced SEE-men-oles) this year. We could have come up with some good jokes about them.
The Gator fans were, as expected, very cocky about their team. They, and their team, were soon going to get a lesson in how to prepare for a bowl game.
The game was very fun. Raymond-James was a great stadium, and the Outback Bowl put on a good show with skydivers, bi-planes, and very low Harrier Jump-Jet fly-over. The first half was unexpected to everyone- Hawkeyes and Gators alike. Tom and I have never seen Iowa play a better half of football. They were flawless. The Hawkeyes dominated in every aspect of the game. The Gator team was back on their heels pretty much all game- except for the first score. They completed a very long pass play for the first touchdown of the game. However, after Iowa scored their fist touchdown, you could tell the tide had shifted. Even though it was only 7-7, JP leaned over and told Jill, "This game is over, we can go home". However, we decided to stay until the end of the game- unlike the 40,000 Gator fans who began leaving the stadium after halftime.
If you have been to an Iowa game before, you know that when the team scores, the cheerleaders get the crowd to yell/spell out I-O-W-A. At home games, they put one letter (written on flags) in each corner of the stadium. After Iowa's first touchdown, the cheerleader carrying the W-flag mistakenly went down to the Florida corner of the stadium. Yes, the 4-corner idea works at HOME games, but not too well at away games. I don't think the Florida fans would have helped our cheer much.
Big hole in the line. You can drive a truck through there.
Hawks Score!!!!!!!!!!