Resilient Hawkeye fan gets another game to remember

Watching an Iowa Hawkeye game is always a treat for Carol Walden of Mount Vernon and Saturday's game will be even more so.

Walden, 71, who gained fame last month when she fell and broke her hip but refused to go the hospital until after the Hawkeye game finished, will be will be watching Saturday's game with the Minnesota Gophers from University of Iowa President Sally Mason's skybox,

It will be Walden's first game at Kinnick Stadium.

“That one I'd let them take me to on a flat board or a stretcher,” Walden said of the game. Her husband, Don, 74, drove her to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance after her fall Oct. 17 so she could hear the postgame radio show.

Walden, her husband and daughter, Beth Walden, 44, of Mount Vernon, will start their day with Mason and other Iowa fans for breakfast at the UI's Levitt Center before going to Kinnick.

Walden said she will agree to use a wheelchair on the trip but is getting along fine using a walker.

“I'm doing wonderfully other than being stir crazy,” said Walden, a traveling public notary. “There's no pain and I'm doing my exercises.”

Mason's invitation followed a report on Walden's fall on KCRG-TV9. She also received flowers from Hawkeye Athletic Director Gary Barta, a Hawkeye poster and calendar and an autographed picture of coach Kirk Ferentz.

To say the least, Walden is looking forward to Saturday's game.

“I'll enjoy it no matter what,” she said. “It is just going to be a thrill.”

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