Miss my uncle, bring on the Hawkeyes

When I was in college, I used to write all the time. Call it a journal. Call it random thoughts. Call it what you want, but sometimes I just felt like writing. Now that I'm in the working world, I find a don't have time to write very often. I'm going to try and change that. I don't know who will read this or how often I'll post an entry, but I think it's about time that I start writing again.

This week Michigan State takes on Iowa in a match-up pairing two of the hottest teams in Big Ten Football. Iowa hasn't lost since November 1, 2008. They've won 11 in a row and are looking to make it 12 at Spartan Stadium this Saturday evening. Michigan State has won 3 in a row and is in the process of turning around their season that got off to an unexpectedly slow start with three losses in a row after opening with a drubbing of Montanta Sate to start the season.

I can't attend an Iowa football game without thinking about my Uncle Jerry. My Dad and his family grew up in the small town of Clinton, Iowa. Jerry was the biggest Hawkeye fan I've ever met. He raised his kids to be Hawkeye fans. One of his sons went to Iowa State and I wasn't sure Jerry would still consider him part of the family any more. Jerry lived and died with Iowa football on fall Saturdays.

Growing up in Wisconsin, there wasn't an Iowa-Wisconsin football game that didn't include a family gathering of Iowa Petersens and Wisconsin Petersens. Uncle Jerry and Aunt Rita would put the four kids in the car and drive the two hours up to Madison every other year. In opposite years, Mom and Dad would put my brother and I in the backseat and drive down to Iowa City. Uncle Jerry always made sure I had some sort of Iowa paraphernalia for these games. One year it was an Iowa shirt. The next it was a Hawkeye football. He'd do everything he could to get me to say, "Go Hawks!" but I couldn't drop my love of the Wisconsin Badgers. After spending 5 years at Michigan State University, the Spartans are my team, but those of you that know me well know that I still have a love for the Badgers deep inside.

For the first 10 years of my life, Iowa and head coach Hayden Fry were by far the better team in that match-up. Wisconsin was stuck in a downward spiral with coaches who couldn't seem to get the team more than 3-4 wins per year. Then Barry Alvarez (a former Hayden Fry assistant) became the Wisconsin head coach and things really turned around for the Badgers. The games with Iowa became more and more competitive and Wisconsin got the best of the Hawkeyes in the 90's.

When I was in high school, my Uncle Jerry died. I still remember my Dad coming into my bedroom early in the morning. It was strange because Dad was almost always at work long before I woke up for school. He sat down on the edge of my bed and I could tell something was wrong. He told me his brother had suffered what was believed to be a brain aneurysm and was in the hospital. They really didn't think he was going to make it. Two days later, Jerry passed away after all of his kids had been able to travel to Cherokee, Iowa (a small town in the far Northwest corner of Iowa) to see him one last time. We drove through a massive snow storm to be there for the funeral and it was more of a celebration of his life than anything else.

Uncle Jerry would have been 71 this year. When the Hawkeyes take the field in East Lansing this weekend, in my head I'll hear him yelling, "Go Hawks!" and I know he'll be watching from above.