University of Iowa Alumni Spread Hawkeye Pride on Summer Trips

When University of Iowa alumni take flight for a summer trip, they bring black and gold along for the ride.

These UI alumni and friends have spread their wings and explored far corners of the planet, from Iceland to Botswana. Whether Hawkeyes are trudging through the arctic or taking a day trip, they always leave room in their suitcase for some Iowa pride.

We recently asked alumni and friends on Facebook and in the Iowa Newsletter to share their Hawkeye travel photos with us. They confirmed that bringing out the Hawkeyes gear is a great way to meet fellow alumni and friends—and receive a “Go, Hawks!”—while traveling.

Craig Nichols (84MA), says when visiting Iceland, he met a family from Marshalltown, Iowa, posing with a Tigerhawk flag. They struck up a conversation, and the fellow Hawkeyes let Nichols and his wife borrow their flag for their own photoshoot.

Repping Hawkeye pride while traveling is “a perfect reminder that black and gold looks good in every state,” says Carleen FerroNyalka, financial coordinator in the MD Program at the UI Carver College of Medicine.

“My wife and I are proud Hawkeyes, and we both graduated from the University of Iowa in December 1984. When we visited the Fjallsjokull Glacier and Fjallsarlon Lagoon in Iceland, we encountered a family from Marshalltown, Iowa, posing by the lagoon with a large Tigerhawk flag. It was great fun to cross paths with other Hawkeye fans in such a special and distant place as Iceland. Of course, they let us borrow their flag so that we could get a photo to memorialize the moment and show our Hawkeye pride!”
—Craig Nichols (84MA)

Mount Kilimanjaro
—Matthew Monson (03BA)

“A May trip to Utah provided the perfect opportunity to represent Hawkeye pride! Against the marvelous background of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, several members of our family repped Hawkeye gear.”
—Carleen FerroNyalka

Northern China corn production tour
—Julius Schaaf (75BS)

“This photo was taken in 2002, which was quite some time ago now. I am pleased to have represented the University of Iowa on Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska, dog mushing with my mother, who died in 2007.”
—Sandy Brown (92MFA)

Pikes Peak, Colorado
—Curtis Muckey

Botswana
—Betsy Johnson Page

Antarctica
—Andy Houk (86BM) and Arlene Houk (84BBA)

Norway glaciers
—John Milligan (74BA)

“Mackenzie Hanna, daughter of Chris Hanna (94BA) and Katie Hanna (94BS), is walking more than 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. She’s representing the U.S. and the University of Iowa daily on her walk in her Iowa Hawkeye hat and Hawkeye rain poncho. It’s a pilgrimage carrying Iowa along the way.”
—Mackenzie Hanna