Hawkeye fans were puttin’ on the Ritz in a highfalutin Huddle in Dallas

T-shirt-wearing Iowa fans stuffed a Ritz-Carlton ballroom five hours before their women’s basketball team’s Final Four game Friday

Mike Hlas

Mar. 31, 2023 4:53 pm, Updated: Mar. 31, 2023 5:28 pm

The 5-star Ritz-Carlton, Dallas probably hasn’t hosted too many events as “informal” as Friday afternoon’s Hawkeye Huddle.

The chain describes itself as one of the most-prestigious luxury hotels, with refined ambience. Enter hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of people wearing RAYGUN T-shirts and forming their usual long lines at stations selling alcoholic beverages.

Many, many an Iowa fan came to downtown Dallas several hours before the Hawkeyes’ 8:30 p.m. Final Four semifinal against mighty, mighty South Carolina at American Airlines Center. There was no putting on the Ritz, so to speak. Attire was casual, fandom was rabid.

How did they all get here? Some flew, of course. But many more drove the 12 hours or so, passing each other along the way through Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. How many Final Fours does your team see?

At 4:45 p.m., Friday, I checked to see if any rooms were available at the Ritz-Carlton for the night. The deluxe queen rooms with two queen beds for $1,039 plus taxes and fees were snapped up.

So, one suspects, was all the beer that was made available to Hawkeye fans in that stuffed ballroom.

Look, I could have quoted some people talking about how great it was to be there and all that jazz, but of course they thought that. It was a Final Four, for crying out loud.

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