[NU Sports] Morons in Iowa (fwd)

[John Labbe]

I'm not sure whether the original poster was referring to the Iowa pink locker room tradition as idiocy or the law professor who wants it changed as an idiot, but the pink Iowa locker rooms are at the heart of a classic story of Northwestern football.

It was 1996 and we were the defending Big Ten champs and had two tough road games, at Penn State followed by Iowa.  We lost badly at Penn State and everyone thought our hopes of repeating as Big Ten champs were slipping away.

The next week, Barnett had the team's locker rooms in Evanston painted pink.  The team knew the Iowa locker rooms were pink.  This was some sort of wierd motivational tool.  I didn't know that Taylor was mad about it, but we marched to Iowa and defeated a good Iowa team in a road victory that hasn't been rivaled since.

It was an especially great game if you had the pleasure of attending, as I did.  It was freaking cold, but the Kinnick Stadium hot chocolate and NU's great play went a long way in keeping one warm.  I'll never forget the D'Wayne Bates TD PASS, and upon reviewing the stats, I now recall that Autry had 4 touchdowns and nearly 250 yards.

We finished the season at home with a close win over Purdue, and were able to secure a piece of the Big Ten championship (after Michigan beat OSU).

All thanks to the pink locker rooms.




On Wednesday, September 28, 2005, at 12:53PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:

>> Only those idiots would think up something like this.
>> _http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-FBC-Iowa-Pink-Locker-Room.html_ 
>> (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-FBC-Iowa-Pink-Locker-Room.html) 
>
>Wasn't that why Gary Barnett painted the NU locker room pink the week before
>the team was playing Iowa on the road one year?  (And got chewed out by
>Rick Taylor for doing it, too, though as I recall he won the game.)
>--
>Mike Nolan
>
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