Always a Hawk: Iowa Football Club connects former players

Always a Hawk is the motto, but to network, to mentor, to give back to the state they call home or adopted as home on fall Saturdays, that is the mission of the Iowa Football Club.

The club is made up of former Iowa football players, coaches, staff, managers and trainers and includes all-time greats like Chuck Long and Tim Dwight, as well as players like Mark Mitchell, whose mother died during the 1996 season and for whom the Hawkeyes removed their helmet logo to honor in the 1996 Alamo Bowl.

The club started as a means of supporting the current team and coaching staff, but now provides mentorship to current players and also fundraises money for the University of Iowa Children's Hospital and the Brett Greenwood Foundation, among other charities.

Their biggest fundraiser, the Legends of Iowa Football camp is Friday at Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin, and features the likes of Mark Weisman, Long, Dwight, Pat Angerer, Tyler Blum and Dominic Alvis, according to the club's website.

Founded by four-year letterwinner and former All-American Hap Peterson, now a board member, the club has taken on new life since its inception in Kirk Ferentz's third year at Iowa.

'What can we do with this thing? What can we do with this organization?' Peterson said, wondering after collecting the names and contact information for many of the former Hawkeyes.

The club started by offering a place to 'get a brat or a burger' at home football games and it took off from there.

'We started getting involved in some of the children's charities and therapies and things,' Peterson said. 'That has become very rewarding and a great and humble beginning for us.'

But for many of the members, the brotherhood offered by the club is a way to continue the bond they had during their playing days. At one time, Jory Helms, a Hawkeye football player from 1999-2003, needed a kidney transplant, and the club came to the rescue. Working with Gary Dolphin at halftime of games, as well as with Helms' friends, the club found a donor willing to give a kidney,

'Jory has a healthy kidney now, we met the individual and his family that gave up his kidney for Jory,' Peterson said.

The club has found members jobs, or at least job opportunities, and is fundraising within its membership to help fund the Brett Greenwood walk-on scholarship.

'We don't require any dues. We don't require donations to be part of the club,' Peterson said. 'If you played for the University of Iowa, you are part of the club and have access to all of the resources available.'

The club now offers its members the opportunity to do charity work in their home state, a draw for many Hawkeye football alumni.

'It's just a way to connect with past players who played five, six, seven years ago or 20, 30, 40 years ago,' Weisman said. 'Giving back to the community that's given me and everyone who played football, the best fans out there. Anything we can give back.'

Long, a board member and a name familiar to all Hawkeye fans, is a fixture at club events, and comes back for the same reason other players do.

'I'm a Hawkeye, and we have a saying, once a Hawkeye, always a Hawkeye,' Long said. 'I want to help out as much as I can.'

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