‘GameDay’ in Ames
You might have heard about that little college football game they played right here in Ames today. It was the contest pitting our own Iowa State University against the University of Iowa. The Big 12 against the Big 10. Cy against Hawk. The biggest game of the year here. The most “in-demand” game ticket in Iowa since maybe forever, with on-line tickets going for $272. And the most in-demand tickets in college sports this weekend. The next closest: Alabama at South Carolina, at $219.
The annual Cy-Hawk football game alternates each year between Iowa City and Ames. And when it takes place here, it’s a Very Big Event, indeed. And this year, it was an Even Bigger Event because ESPN had decided to host its incredibly popular “College GameDay” show right outside our own Jack Trice Stadium. You know — the show hosted by ESPN’s college football announcing royalty — Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreet, Desmond Howard and “the coach,” Lee Corso. Oh, my.
It was rainy much of the week before the game, but that did nothing to dampen the excitement that kept building in this Midwestern university town. You could hear people talking about the game and “GameDay” everywhere you went — at City Hall, at our neighborhood Fareway grocery store, even at Café Diem, where I hang my hat most summer days when we’re here. The Cy-Hawk games always generate big get-togethers — and the presence of “GameDay” — which was coming to Ames for the first time — added, enormously, to the build-up.
“Game Day” technical crews rolled into town in mid-week and started setting up the program’s imposing stage and all that accompanied it. And while they were doing that, people — lots of them — showed up to watch and cheer. Des Moines’ TV stations started doing live shots during their 6 p.m. newscasts from the “GameDay” site and other parts of Ames. Day by day, tension and anticipation were building.
All of this pre-game stuff reminded me of our experiences in Buffalo decades ago, when I was working at the city’s top-rated station, WKBW-TV, which was an ABC affiliate. The net’s “Monday Night Football” rolled into town with its legendary announcing team of Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and Don Meredith to do a Bills game. And that turned our city of 350,000 upside-down with energy and exuberance. So you can imagine how “GameDay’s” arrival in our town of 65,000 (counting 33,000 students at Iowa State) caused so much hoopla around these parts.
Would Saturday ever come? Yes, and at 8 a.m. today, I tuned into the start of “GameDay.” And even after all the week’s hype and build-up, I was still somewhat surprised to see that thousands — yes, literally thousands — of fans had shown up outside the stadium to welcome and cheer the program’s hosts. It was a wild scene. Many of those in the crowd had arrived in the middle of the night to claim their spots in the audience. 
They came dressed in all manner of mostly Cyclone gear, and they carried all kinds of signs, designed solely for the purpose of getting on national TV. Most of those signs had the usual “us-versus-them” messages. A few were more creative.
That hyped-up crowd cheered and yelled from the time the program started until its end, three hours later. More people may have showed up to watch “GameDay” than had turned up at the polls the previous Tuesday for the $29 million bond referendum that would decide the fate of a proposed Healthy Life Center in Ames. That measure went down to defeat, and my guess is that — given the choice between victory for the Cyclones on Saturday or victory for the bond measure on Tuesday — those in the “GameDay” crowd would overwhelmingly have chosen the football win.
Well, being the reporter I still am — in spite of that “retirement thing” that’s been going on for a few years — I pulled away from the TV and ventured outside to check on the “temperature” of the Ames citizenry downtown, which is just a couple of blocks away from our Old Town place. The problem was, it was tough to find any citizens. At 9:06 a.m., I strolled into our city library, as I do most mornings of most weeks. I should not have been surprised when I saw that — aside from one person at the front desk — I was the only person in the lobby. Any other day of the week — including Saturdays — there would have been parents with small children, or senior couples, there. I made my way upstairs to the second floor, and found I was one of four people there. One was a library worker. The other two were a man and woman who were perusing books in the “new arrivals” section.
I left quickly, hustling downstairs and out the front door, turning right onto Douglas Avenue. No one — not one person — was on Douglas as I made my way to Main Street, a block away. I turned right onto Main, heading west toward the Saturday Farmers Market. Usually, it’s crowded with families young and old, strolling down the middle of the closed-off street and stopping at the many vendors who set up shop there. Not today. There were, at most, a few dozen people in the two-block stretch of Main from Kellogg to Clark.
I turned onto Clark Street and ventured across the commercialized Lincoln Way, into the neighborhoods just to the south. And there they were — literally hundreds of people, young and old, walking in small groups, on their way to the stadium, which was more than a mile away. You knew where they were headed because of how they were dressed and what they were carrying. Virtually everyone walking in that five or six-block stretch was wearing cardinal-and-gold Cyclone gear. T-shirts. Hoodies. Hats. Backpacks. And many were carrying six-packs of their favorite adult beverage.
They were walking to the stadium because they knew there was no way to find decent parking at this “late” hour. After all, the game was “only” six hours away, and any parking slots near the stadium had been nabbed much earlier. And most of those walking were not planning to go to the game — they were on their way to tailgate. Iowa State University’s police department had estimated that the game would bring in 100,000 “additional” fans to Ames on this Saturday. “Only” 61,500 of them would be in the stands. The rest would tailgate or “hang out,” trying to find a place to watch the game. That additional 100,000 would temporarily make Ames the state’s second-biggest city, trailing only Des Moines.
As I made my way through these neighborhood crowds and back toward Lincoln Way, I encountered three Iowa State coeds with backpacks. One of the young women was carrying a cute white dog. I asked her if she was going to try to take the dog into the stadium. “Oh, no,” she said. “He’s just going to tailgate with us.” On Lincoln Way, four young men and a young woman were walking as a group toward me. One of the men in the front row was carrying two six-packs. The other young man had a heavier load — a box with 24 beers inside. I made way for this genial group, giving them the respect their youth and energy and enthusiasm deserved.
As for the game itself — no, we did not go. It’s probably a sign of our advancing ages, but we could not see putting ourselves through the considerable trouble of battling the biggest and rowdiest crowd of the year. Besides, we had an invite to watch this game with friends who have nice, big TV where we can see every play right in front of us. Combine that with the brats they made and the hot dogs we brought, along with all those chips and all that wine and a nearby bathroom with no waiting line — and the lure was irresistible.
And our decision turned out to be the correct one, because the game took more than six hours to finish. Iowa’s notoriously volatile weather showed up, big-time, on this afternoon, as it had during last season’s home opener. That game a year ago was finally postponed because of booming thunderstorms that stayed right over the top of the stadium for hours. Today, two separate thunderstorms caused two interminable game-stoppages during the first half. Combined, the teams were off the field more than three hours — and the first half took nearly five hours.
During the second of the seemingly endless delays — while our friends and we were skipping all over the cable dial to kill the time — we came upon one of the more memorable movies of all time — “Ghost.” It has a great story, a great cast, and several tear-jerking moments. Yes, we’d all seen it before — but we got hooked again, and even when the game resumed, we continued going back to “Ghost” until its searing, heart-rending end. Darn it. I cried again.
Having eaten all the hot dogs and imbibed all the adult beverages, we headed home after five hours, during the early part of the third quarter. We arrived back at our place just in time to see Iowa somehow score a touchdown to take the lead on the up-to-then dominant Cyclones. 
Sure enough, Iowa State drove down the field late in the fourth quarter and kicked the field goal to put themselves on top by two points. And, yes, there was another “sure-enough” moment — when Iowa made its own late fourth-quarter field goal to go up, 18-17. And that turned out to be the final score, because Iowa State failed on its last drive — then fumbled a punt that could have given the Cyclones one more shot at victory.
For ISU fans, it was a sour ending, but no one can doubt the energy that TV’s “GameDay” had brought to our real-life game day, and no one will likely forget just how good big-time college football felt — win or lose — in this Midwestern town on this late-summer Saturday.