College Football / Jerry Crowe : At Iowa, Fans Can’t Drink in the Atmosphere

It’s just no fun attending games at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium anymore. Seems the only activity that hasn’t been banned in recent years is the use of binoculars.

Consider:

--In 1985, barbecues on ramps in the parking structures were banned.

--In 1986, keg parties and open bars in the parking lots were banned.

--In 1987, body passing--holding persons overhead and passing them up rows of fans--was banned.

--This year, wineskins were banned, along with plastic squeeze bottles, coolers, canned and bottled beverages, banners and signs, seat backs, noisemakers, horns, bugles, video cameras or “any other disruptive device.”

And then, of course, there is the team. It doesn’t take a pair of high-powered binoculars to see that the Hawkeyes have struggled. Ranked among the nation’s top 10 in most preseason publications and considered the Big Ten favorite in many, Iowa is 2-2, having lost to Hawaii and Colorado.

Last week, before the Hawkeyes’ 10-3 victory over Iowa State, Coach Hayden Fry said, “To be ranked in the top 10, or to be ranked first . . . the guy (who ranked Iowa that high) must have had a hangover.”

Probably not if he attended a game at Kinnick Stadium.

Why do they spend so much money on weightlifting equipment and so much time on conditioning?

According to Ohio State Coach John Cooper, “This game is played from the eyebrows up.”

A knee injury that is expected to keep him out of Saturday’s game against Tulane put a fright into Florida State’s All-American defensive back, Deion Sanders.

“My whole life, my career, flashed in front of me,” said Sanders, who played in the New York Yankees’ farm system last summer and is expected to be a first-round choice next spring in the National Football League draft. “I saw dollar signs jumping back across the fence away from me.”

An unusual chant has gone up this season in Jayne Stadium at Morehead State in Morehead, Ky.

A Hardee’s restaurant in Morehead is offering a 50-cent reduction on its “sack pack,” which includes a hamburger, a large order of French fries and an extra-large soft drink, for each sack recorded by the Eagle defense.

So when the opposition has the ball, Morehead fans chant, “Har-dee’s, Har-dee’s, Har-dee’s . . .”

Morehead followers were especially vocal during the Eagles’ 5-sack effort against Marshall. The sack total reduced the price of the “sack pack” from $3.44 to $.99, including sales tax, and drew about 600 customers, although the reduction had to be claimed after the game, between midnight and 5 a.m.

“Good thing it rained,” Hardee’s Manager Cathy Greene said.

Led by sophomore tackle Ahmed Fowler, who has 5 sacks, the Morehead defense has 12 in 4 games.

That has added up to a pretty good saving for the fans.

Still, Greene said, “It’s worth it just to hear the cheer.”

Walk-on punter Carlton Craig, a transfer from Morehouse College in Atlanta, is ineligible to play for Ohio State this season because he didn’t meet the school’s requirement of 132 credit hours for fourth-year athletes.

The ruling, however, won’t keep Craig from performing this fall in Buckeye Stadium.

When it was discovered that he would be academically ineligible to play football, Craig became a trumpeter in the marching band.

What would have become of Troy Aikman if he had stayed at Oklahoma after he broke his leg in 1985 and lost his starting position to Jamelle Holieway?

The UCLA quarterback told the Sporting News: “I’d be the backup quarterback--the guy trying to rally us against Miami.”

Change of allegiance: When West Virginia running back Anthony Brown ran for 110 yards and a touchdown in the Mountaineers’ 31-10 victory over Pittsburgh last week, it was the second time he had run for more than 100 yards in a West Virginia-Pittsburgh game.

In 1985, he did it for Pitt.