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Before College GameDay took the stage in Iowa City last weekend, members of the on-air team made a special visit to the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital, a facility perched high above Kinnick Stadium that is home to one of college football’s most beloved traditions: the Hawkeye Wave.
Every home game, fans, players and coaches pause at the end of the first quarter to wave at the kids watching from the 12th floor and from their hospital windows. Reporter Jen Lada brought that story to life in a feature, capturing how much this simple gesture means to the families inside.
On Friday, Oct. 2, Rece Davis, Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit, Nick Saban and “Stanford Steve” Coughlin were among the GameDay team members who visited with children and families at the hospital. While they had conversations, colored and took pictures with the kids, the experience was profoundly moving. In the days that followed, the GameDay crew reflected on the visit, sharing the personal connections and the moments that will stay with them.
On his podcast, Nonstop with Kirk and Joey, Herbstreit discussed the visit while opening up about his own personal experience in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, “My twins were born at 28 weeks, so they were in the NICU after that for eight weeks…To be able to meet a lot of the doctors and the staff, it was powerful on Friday to be able to experience that.”
Coughlin was equally moved, telling SVPod listeners, “It was incredible how good these people are…it’s real and genuine. Blown away by this place.”
During Saturday’s show, Rece put it simply, “It was heartwarming, it was heartening, it was emotional. You’re struck by the courage of all those kids.” While Nick echoed the sentiment, offering “a special thanks to all the staff we met there that dedicate their lives to helping these kids.”
Then on Monday’s The Pat McAfee Show, McAfee poignantly named every child he met and reflected on what the experience meant to him. “We were so thankful to be there,” he said, before announcing a $1 million donation to the hospital and alluding to plans that he would be working with them more in the future. With the gift, McAfee and his ‘Kicking is Easy’ contest have now surpassed $10 million in giving since he joined College GameDay.
While College GameDay is built on Saturday’s big games and bigger moments, Iowa City delivered a memory that will resonate for years with ESPN’s crew — and it all happened on a Friday afternoon with some of the sport’s youngest and most inspiring fans.