IOWA CITY – Carol Walden never thought she’d get to watch a Hawkeye game in person. That changed when the world realized her devotion to the team.
Walden, 71, not only got to watch the Hawkeyes beat the Gophers, but she got to see from the field and the President’s Suite in the press box.
Her story started back on October 17th, 2009, during the Hawkeye game against Wisconsin. Walden was watching the game at home and got up during halftime to use the bathroom. But in the rush to make it back for the action, she slipped and fell on the kitchen floor, breaking her hip. Not wanting to also break her streak, she ordered her husband to carry her back to her chair so she could watch the end of the game.
This grandmother from Mount Vernon can’t remember the last football game she didn’t either catch on TV or the radio. And, she says she’s got a good memory. To add to her devotion, she refused when her husband tried to call and ambulance after the game. She instead asked to be driven to the hospital because, “You can’t hear the postgame report in an ambulance.”
Her story grabbed national headlines, and it grabbed the attention of the University of Iowa, including President Sally Mason.
"Here's a woman who falls in her home and breaks her hip and refuses to go to the hospital until the game is over cause she doesn't want to miss the end of the game. Now that's a fan,” said Mason.
After following the team for so long, she’ll gladly tell you her favorites. "All of them. They're all wonderful, everyone of them. Clear down to the water boy,” said Walden.
When Mason heard about the devotion, and the injury, she invited Carol, her husband, Don, and her daughter, Beth Smith, to come watch a game in her suite.
Saturday morning, Walden joined Mason for breakfast and then went down to the field to watch the team enter the stadium. Then, it was off to the President’s Suite to watch the game. In the suite, Mason gave Walden a special broach in the shape of a Hawkeye.
Mason said with the team doing so well, she’s heard countless stories of devotion from fans. But this one stood out to her, she said.
Walden said she rated her day at Kinnick just below the births of her children, and her wedding.
"It was just fabulous. I can't wait to come again sometime and the Hawkeyes are the greatest. Even if they didn't look the greatest, there are the greatest,” said Walden.
While her show of devotion might put her in a different league, she shrugs off the idea of being special, and instead said she's just one of the many great fans in this Hawkeye Nation.
Walden hopes to go to a game next year, but by then, she hopes to walk to her seat.
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