FB: American Rivers Conference

[Walston Hoover]

I've followed Wartburg pretty religiously since I was in 7th grade in 1993. Our Jr High band marched in the homecoming parade that year and I went to the game afterwards and was hooked.
Graduated in '03 and talk pretty much at least once a week on the phone to most of my 7 suitemates from there and probably daily on average on email. Have a ton of friends and clients from going there.
Wife was a volleyball player, brother-in-law and father-in-law played football there. Uncle-in-law was an all-american LB way back in the time of Warthog.
Younger brother was All-Conference LB who followed in my footsteps at the burg and next brother after that tried soccer there for a year before deciding windowmaking was more his thing.

[sportsknight]

I became aware of IIAC football a little over a decade ago when a couple of my cousins played ball at Simpson.  The younger one was the better of the two and stuck with it the whole 4 years and student coached while he was doing his student teaching in the fall of '97.  I think I saw Simpson play 4 times while they were in school (at Cornell, UIU, Loras, and Dubuque).  It also helped that his younger sister was also a student trainer for Simpson.  They were all there during the Jim Williams era and aren't really connected to the program now, which kind of explains why I never became a big Simpson fan.

I started rooting for Wartburg after I decided I'd be going to school there.  Heading into my freshman year, I was asked to be the in-studio host for the Wartburg radio broadcasts, which led me to begin researching all the other conference schools and really gave me a good crash course in IIAC football.  I enrolled at Wartburg in the fall of 2001, and through my work with the student media, I became friends with a few of the football players and quite a few athletes from various other sports as well.  Graduated in 2006 (I joke that I liked Wartburg so much I stuck around for an extra year) and I've been rooting for the Knights since.

A couple quick thoughts on the Iowa-ISU/D1 vs. D3 debates of the past couple days.  If you asked me 5 years ago, I would have called myself an Iowa fan without hesitation.  But one thing that working in journalism will do to you is you start rooting for people as opposed to teams.  For instance, up until about a year ago, I would have probably never rooted for Central.  But after getting to know Coach McMartin and Al Dorenkamp while working in Pella, I now have a certain level of respect for Central.

I've noticed some of the complaints about the "typical" Iowa fan too.  I know there are many exceptions, but in my experience, most Iowa fans suffer from a certain brand of bipolar disorder.  Their expectations are way too high in the beginning, and when the team falls short of those expectatons, the sky is falling.  There are dramatic highs and dramatic lows, but not much in between.  I think that there is a big generational divide among Iowa fans too.  Most Hawkeye football fans younger than 40 have kind of been spoiled by a certain level of success.  From the peak of the Hayden years to now, there haven't been many lean years for the Iowa football program, especially compared to the depths of Ray Nagel and Bob Commings years.

As for the differences between going to Iowa or Iowa State games and attending IIAC games, I'll take a Saturday afternoon in Waverly, Dubuque, or Pella every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  I think Iowa and Iowa State games are plenty of fun, but can be a bit of a hassle for some of the reasons already mentioned (cost, parking, time investment, etc.).  I doubt I'll ever be at an IIAC game that will come close to equaling the atmosphere at the Iowa-Ohio State game I went to a couple years ago.  But at the same time, I doubt I'll ever attend an IIAC game where it takes me 45 minutes to drive from the stadium to the nearest four-lane highway like it did that night.  And as much as more people can often lead to a better tailgating atmosphere, you can easily have a hell of a time tailgating at an IIAC game (as Warthog, DF2004, etc. can attest).  On top of that, at IIAC tailgates, you're a lot less likely to run into someone that is only there to get drunk and doesn't plan on even watching the game.

[sportsknight]

Also, if you guys are looking for a D3 guy to root for in the Olympics next month, his name is Nick Symmonds and he'll be running the 800 meters for the US Track team.  Nick is a 2005 grad of Willamette out in Oregon and had a great D3 career.  He won both the 800 and the 1500 at the D3 Outdoor Championship meet held at Wartburg in '05.  I've heard he's a pretty good guy from others in the running community and it is not very often that someone from a Division III school can compete on the world's stage like Symmonds hopefully can.

[Wartburg Fan]

 I became a Wartburg fan in 2003, I knew more about Central and Simpson as they were the only teams in the IIAC that the Des Moines paper cover. What a way to learn about Wartburg football then in 2003. I wasn't in to the tailgate scene my son 1st yr, but met the Hammes and tailgated  with them, over the year met some upper classman parents and then the 2nd year we were at every football game all 9a.m tailgating. Learned alot about the football team listening to WH on the radio doing the games.  Met and spoke to WH after one of the games but knew his little brother better as my son was his brother's teammate, but did speak to WH a few times after that. My sons, wife played softball for Wartburg and always talks about how great Willis was as coach when he took over the softball team and took them to the NCCA tourney,she graudated in 2005. To me the atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon was just a good as a D1 game, especially at a Warburg/Central game. Tailgating was alway fun, I was always surprised at the Wartburg grads that lived in the other schools town, I will never forget tailgating at a church parking lot at the Central games in Pella the Pastor was a grad of Wartburg. I just Love the IIAC even thru Central is a member.

[sportsknight]

Not that what we discuss around here isn't important, but I thought that it would be appropriate today to pass along this passage.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish [[sic]] brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

[DutchFan2004]

Thanks SK great post.  Never get tired of reading those words.

[Ram2]

You Might can't tell by the name  , but I am a Norsemen at heart and have been so ever sense I stepped foot on campus that first day of Camp. I love D3 football, as a fan, ex-player, and coach. Because honestly theres no real reason why these guys should play as hard as they do, because most of them know there is know there is no future once there done. But every saturday you see the most competative football you will ever see!!!!and at Luther,in my opinon, that is just elavated X1000. Just the tradition alone is CRAZY. If you have ever been to a game at Carlson Stadium and been around the alum, especially football alums, there's almost nothing like it. After a game, you go to TBOCKS downtown and enjoy  great convo and company.

Now that I'm at cornell, I'm going to wait and see what type of atmosphere the rams have during the fall!! 
Good luck to the norse this season, except on Nov.8th!!!!

[dutchfan1]

SK -- great post! You're a class act all the way. Thanks for reminding us the reason for the day!

My love for all things Central began the moment I set foot on campus for a campus visit the summer before my Junior year in HS. My cousins were going to Wartburg (with, well, a good portion of the rest of my HS graduating class) and I knew that I wanted to try something different. Central was home. My love affair with the football program began when I got involved cheering every Saturday on the sidelines. I knew a lot of the players as some of my best friends on campus. I saw the traditions, and lived the experience. I loved then, and still love now everything about the Central football program. In my opinion, the atmosphere is second to none in the conference. I got to know the players, and I respect their quiet determination. I respect the fact that they don't have to be flashy to be great. My love for the program is pure.

AND I'd like to point out that I was the ORIGINAL Dutch fan on this board!

[DBQ1965]

Okay ... this is what I have so far ... based on early responses on the long holiday weekend.  I didn't bother to go back and look at earlier posts to track down and identify everyone.  I'll add names as posts come in.

IIAC FAN BASE

UD:  dolittledog, DBQ1965, Spurrier, WillieU, Keith45

Central:  dutchFan2004, Dutchfan1

Wartburg:  Walston Hoover, sportsknight, Wartburg Fan

Luther:  Ram2

[footballdaddy]

Great post SK! Too bad our current legislators have forgotten what those words mean and why they were written.

OK, off my soapbox!

I became an IIAC fan first after going on visits with my son the fall of his senior year in HS. He was recruited quite actively by most conference schools so we were at a game almost every Saturday. Although Wartburg wasn't his favorite at first, he is very analytical and took his time to make a decision. When he decided on the Knights, he never looked back. He had a rewarding and enjoyable first year and is looking forward to three more.

[sportsknight]

He was recruited quite actively by most conference schools

Some of them even through his freshman year at Wartburg!   

[doolittledog]

Great post SK! Too bad our current legislators have forgotten what those words mean and why they were written.

OK, off my soapbox!

I became an IIAC fan first after going on visits with my son the fall of his senior year in HS. He was recruited quite actively by most conference schools so we were at a game almost every Saturday. Although Wartburg wasn't his favorite at first, he is very analytical and took his time to make a decision. When he decided on the Knights, he never looked back. He had a rewarding and enjoyable first year and is looking forward to three more.

Sounds like the 2 of you had a lot of fun in the selection process and took your time to check as many out as possible.  That is a great way to do it. 

[The Show]

BV fan base on the board:
The Show
Klopenheimer
BeaverOfYore

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Enjoy the extended weekend and stay safe. Taking the little Shows to some fireworks tonight, should be a good time.

[D1HawkD3CUI]

Found this on youtube, thought it was pretty interesting what goal #3 is for Loras football this year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG6WKJvcHLA&feature=related

And I thought I would throw this in as well: Central's 2007 highlights

part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3EF7jJD4EU

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jp-x12lco4&feature=related

[doolittledog]

That doesn't even make all that much sense.  #1 Have a winning record. #2 Win conference. #3 Beat Central.

Maybe they know beating UD is out of the question this year 

And I've seen enough of those 2007 Central videos...especially the 2nd one that has the Dubuque game on it.