UI logo on water tower? Why not?

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Most University of Iowa Hawkeye football fans probably haven't given much thought to the water tower that looms just beyond the stadium's northeast wall. Fans go to Kinnick, after all, for the action on the gridiron - not the view.

But for some Hawk fans, that water tower is more than a mundane piece of UI Hospitals and Clinics infrastructure. It is a blank canvas, just begging for an expression of school spirit, of team pride. To those fans, the water tower is crying out for a Tigerhawk. Or maybe a UI logo - some kind of eye-catching design that delivers an instant visual reminder to visitors and television viewers: This is UI and Hawkeye territory.

We say: Why not?

“Every time I see the tower in the background of a football game, I can't help but think how nice it would be to have something on it,” UI alum Derek Yoder wrote to us this week.

More than 5,300 people have signed Yoder's online Paint the Water Tower petition. Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta has voiced support.

The idea's not new. Former coach Hayden Fry wrote about it in his autobiography: “I thought it would look great on game day, in full view of 70,000 fans and all the television cameras,” he wrote in “Hayden Fry: A High Porch Picnic.”

More than a decade after he published those words, the white water tower still stands, unadorned.

Paul Forbes, of Cedar Rapids, asked in a recent letter to the editor: “When will the UI administration stand up and be Iowa fans? The Hawks are competitive, darned fun to watch, and they have given us all a chance to dream.”

Dreaming's one thing; painting's another. And UI officials have said one of the biggest obstacles isn't their lack of Hawkeye devotion. It's the cost.

The last time that water tower was painted, it set the UI back $370,000. Repainting isn't scheduled for at least another six years.

But Yoder thinks fans would be willing to foot the bill for a more creative paint job. He doesn't know if that's an option - he said university mucky mucks haven't returned his e-mails.

But do a little quick math: $370,000 divided by 70,000 fans ... hey, why not?