Here is the difference that I continually see on this site. Cyclone football fans are more about how hard we play and sportsmanship, yadda yadda.
Hawkeye fans expect to win b/c they have had success winning so they expect it. Where has ISU been expected to win in football?
These are very two different fan bases, one cares more about how they play, and the other cares more about wins and losses.
That is the difference in life too. Do I always plan to win and hope to win in everything I do? You bet. You have to if you want to have success. It does not always happen that way, and when you do fail, you get back up and keep on trying.
Cheering for a winner is easy. For most of the 80s and 90s it was easy to be a Hawkeye. Rose Bowls, a 15 game win streak over their in-state rival, favorable media exposure throughout the state. Putting on the Hawk gear meant you probably ruled the roost. During this time is when a lot of us really adopted ISU as our team, at least I did. I really enjoyed the gameday atmosphere at ISU, as well as the team. I learned to value effort and hard work as much as victories.
All this leads into the biggest difference between the two schools and their respective fan bases. ISU fans are mostly pretty humble, and can take the good natured ribbing of rivalries. Iowa got so used to being on top, and having that reaffirmed by pretty much every media outlet, that they never learned to deal with adversity. Competitions became an all or nothing proposition, only winning mattered. This persists today. I have long said that Iowa fans should be the ones clamoring for the removal of KF (HPSE). If any ISU coach had done what he had done, and permitted the continual legal problems throughout the program, I would be making sure that guy was gone.
Finally, in my opinion you cannot compare the fanbases. ISU may have not had great attendance at the Missouri game for the north championship, but we also had around 10k at KU, over the Thanksgiving weekend. I don't remember any booing of the ISU team off the field at either game.
My father and sister were at the senior day game last year in Iowa City. I know what sort of crowd that was. I also had friends in the stadium for the 2002 game in Iowa City. Needless to say, most the loud mouth jerks were nowhere to be found in the 4th quarter, so the stadium was almost all ISU by the end. It is just so indicative of the two fanbases. I am a fan of ISU, win or lose, in my experience Iowa fans are the poorest losers I have ever seen. Doubt me? Turn on soundoff sometime. Case f'ing closed.
As for Wegher, I don't care if he goes to Iowa or not. I am not a fan of Heelan, so why would I really care about him? Any high school kid that can see what is going on in Iowa City, and the complete lack of leadership or character, and still thinks this is an option for where to attend college shows me all that I need to know. As of now Iowa athletics is quickly becoming a disgrace to both the University and the State, as are those who refuse to acknowledge this.
