And then I wrote...
by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"
... that this old man does not appreciate night games featuring the Cubs or Iowa U. football.
The Iowa-UNI game started at 6:30, and the Wisconsin game was set for 7:30 p.m. Will the trend to lateness continue until we start one at midnight? Possibly, if television wants that!
I long for the good old days of Iowa football, when games started at 1 p.m. and were over before 5 p.m.
As a student, that gave us an opportunity to savor a victory or start to forget a loss as traffic began to leave Iowa City, and the city was returned to the students and faculty.
Then when I started work at the local newspaper in the early 1960s, and continuing ito the 1970s, the Iowa Press Association was able to reward member papers with a few tickets for each home game at much reduced prices. The university had some pretty bad football teams some of those years, and sellouts were by no means assured.
And they were good tickets, around the 30-35 yard line about halfway up.
As an aside, I should note that the student section, to which we were admitted free on a modestly priced activities ticket, also afforded excellent seating.
In those press association ticket days, I attended at least one home game every season.
We could leave Waukon around 8 a.m. and would arrive in Iowa City about 11, usually parking at the Memorial Union on the east side of the river. We would have sandwiches and drinks in a cooler, and have time to case-out the union or the museum in the nearby Pentacrest.
Between 11:30 and noon, we would start our walk across the pedestrian bridge and either bypass the Quadrangle or stop at the cafeteria for something to munch on during the game. We would generally walk through the fieldhouse and out the west doors then across a grassed parking area to the stadium.
My student days taught me the wisdom of avoiding the Iowa City - Cedar Rapids traffic and using Highway 1, so we got home just before sunset early in the season, or just after later in the fall.
Today, those from areas distant from Iowa City drive home in the dark, and maybe arrive home around midnight.
The Cubs used to have to play day games at home in the afternoon, before lights. Now, some home games start at 7:30, which means it will be 11 p.m. before they end. Tonight, the Cubs are in Arizona, and start at 8:30 local time, which means a midnight end.
That is well past my bedtime.
In fact, the Cubs have been scoring so few runs the past week that I find it difficult to stay awake even during day games!
