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Minnesota players love to hate Iowa
Jul. 31, 2014 1:33 pm
CHICAGO - Big Ten schools usually place their century-long rivalries on hold and sing 'Kumbaya” when their basketball teams compete in the annual challenge against the ACC. But not Minnesota.
During an innocuous second-half media timeout in an early December game, Gopher fans start the chant familiar to Iowa fans every fall and winter.
'Who Hates Iowa? We Hate Iowa!”
Never mind that this is a non-conference basketball game against Florida State. Or that it's a game that Iowa fans actually wanted the Gophers to win. It's a chant that has taken a life of its own and it pops up anywhere at anytime.
'They don't miss a day,” Minnesota running back David Cobb said. 'From the first quarter of the first game if they don't chant it, I'll be surprised.
'They'll chant it at the first game of the season, I guarantee it. I guarantee you.”
The football series between Minnesota and Iowa stretches to 1891. Iowa has played Minnesota more than another team in football and basketball, and the Hawkeyes are the Gophers' second-most played series in both sports. They've played football every year since 1931 and every basketball season since 1936. They also compete for one of football's most iconic traveling trophies, Floyd of Rosedale.
The chant itself has taken off in recent years, so much so that the players themselves expect - and embrace - it.
I love it,” Minnesota quarterback Mitch Leidner said, 'because we hate Iowa. That's a huge rivalry. That goes back to a long time ago, getting Floyd of Rosedale.”
'What I love about it is they do it all year,” Gophers safety Cedric Thompson said. 'It's not just when Iowa comes. It's the first game, halftime, ‘Who hates Iowa?' So it's good they're thinking about Iowa in advance when they come. I love it.”
Some bristle at the chant, including Minnesota Athletics Director Norwood Teague. At the Big Ten meetings in May, Teague told The Gazette, 'I don't like the cheer, at all. I've talked to Gary (Iowa athletics director Gary Barta) about that. I don't like it a bit and, hopefully, we can try to steer away from it.
'I think for some kids it's funny and it takes on a life of its own. I don't like it.”
Before last year's football game in Minneapolis, the Minnesota athletics department printed a booklet on how to be a real Gophers fan. Lesson No. 8, in all capital letters was, 'Hate Iowa.” The video board also included the chant, and the Gophers' 10,000-plus student section belted, 'Who Hates Iowa? We Hate Iowa!” in unison. Teague later told his employees to remove the page from the program, and the booklet no longer exists.
The word 'hate” is somewhat cringe-worthy for the players, however.
'You don't want to say you hate anybody, especially coming from the Bible,” Thompson said. 'Hate is a really strong word. I should watch what I say.”
Leidner, a Lakeville, Minn., product, also backpedaled just a tad. But not too much.
'I think everybody knows it's a rivalry game,” he said. 'It's just a game. It's nothing like anybody would ever do anything to another person. It's all good fun.”
As for Texas native Cobb, he enjoys the good old-fashioned hatred.
'As a freshman I came in and I don't even know where Iowa is,” Cobb said. 'I don't even care about Iowa. I just want to win. As a freshman I came in with that attitude. But right now as a senior, I'm like, ‘I hate Iowa.'”
l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com