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Iowa Wave wins Disney Spirit Award

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

The best new tradition in college football was recognized properly during ESPN’s College Football Awards Show on Thursday night.

Iowa’s wave, a new tradition in which fans, players and coaches wave to patients in the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital at the end of the first quarter, was presented with the Disney Spirit Award. The honor is presented to college football’s most inspirational individual or team.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz and cornerback Josh Jackson were on hand to receive the award for Iowa.

The tradition started this season, in Iowa’s first game against Wyoming. A Facebook initiative kick-started the project, which helped notify the 70,000 fans in attendance to turn and wave at the children in the hospital that overlooks Kinnick Stadium.

Since then, Iowa’s tradition has taken off and captured the nation. Several stories have been written and videos produced about this incredible new tradition.

Now, everyone from fans to media, opposing coaches and players to officials are participating in the wave on football Saturdays. The Disney Spirit Award was definitely presented to the most deserving program.

To make the evening even better, everyone in attendance was silent and waved as the ESPN Awards Show broke into commercial.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB