The Tigerhawk
The legend of the Iowa Tigerhawk began in May of 1979.
As part of a plan to reinvigorate the image of The University of Iowa football program, incoming head coach Hayden Fry announced that the stylish black-and-gold uniforms of the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburg Steelers would be the prototype for his team’s new gear. With shiny black helmets replacing the old gold ones, the coach put out a call for a new logo design to top it off.
Charles Edwards, then owner of the Cedar Rapids printing company Pepco Litho, passed the word to Bill Colbert, Vice President Associate Creative Director of Cedar Rapids ad agency Three Arts, Inc., who had designed the three previous seasons’ U of Iowa football and basketball schedule posters printed by Pepco. But the designer was about to leave for a weeklong business trip, and the imminent deadline gave him little time for creative development. Still, as a lifelong Hawk fan, Colbert couldn’t resist the challenge and agreed to give it a shot.
During his week away, Colbert reflected upon certain enduring logos including Iowa’s beloved Herky the Hawk and Purdue’s Boilermaker which, like many logos of their period, were based upon cartoon caricatures. His goal was to create a contemporary hawk-head design with the simplicity and impact of the time-tested CBS “eye”, the Nike “swoosh”, and the Clemson “paw”.
On the airplane heading home, Colbert flipped down his tray table, took out a pen and made a rough sketch on a co*cktail napkin. In his mind’s eye, he saw the head of a hawk as parts of a puzzle: the feather and eye as one part, the two-component beak as another, the side of the head as the third. Together, the pieces shaped the profile of a hawk, with the spaces between each piece creating a “striping” effect – hence the name “Tigerhawk”.
Colbert worried that the power of the design might be lost if presented to Fry as a flat drawing so he prevailed upon Edwards to call former Sports Information Director George Wine, who obliged with two shiny new black helmets on which to silk screen the artwork.
On June 11, 1979, Colbert and Edwards arrived at Fry’s office at their appointed meeting time where the coach and Wine awaited them. Wordlessly, without set-up or preamble, they set the two helmets down on Fry’s desk. Immediately, the coach sparked. “I like that!” he proclaimed in that famous Texas drawl, “A splash of sunshine!” And an icon was born.
FRYfest
FRYfest was created in 2009 as a collaborative effort between the Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, the City of Coralville, and the University of Iowa Athletics to kick-off the Hawkeye football season. The event is named after one of the greatest Hawkeyes of all time and the man who is responsible for bringing the Tigerhawk to the University of Iowa:Hayden Fry.
The event also serves as a fundraiser for the City of Coralville with proceeds of the concert and beverage garden funding Coralville’s Fourth of July Celebrations.
Its first sevenyears have included the honoring of Hayden Fry, Forest Evashevski, Dan Gable, the renewal of the 35th Anniversary of the Iowa versus Iowa State football rivalry, a tribute to the fans, a tribute to the quarterbacks from the Hayden Fry era, and a tribute to the 30th anniversary of the “America Needs Farmers” movement. The event has also involved street renaming ceremonies, “The World’s Largest Hawkeye Tradeshow,” a show and shine car show, autograph sessions with coaches and former athletes, outdoor concerts, and a fully-staged, live production honoring Dan Gable. The festival’s most popular accomplishment was breaking the Guinness World Record for the Largest Hokey Pokey Dance with 7,384 participants in 2010. One record, though, wasn’t enough. FRYfest added another Guinness World Record to its name in 2014 by hosting the Longest Marathon Corn Hole (bags) Game of 26 hours, 12 minutes, and 44 seconds.
