Cy-Hawk Trophy to be replaced

JOHNSTON - Chalk one up to the power of social media.

Officials with the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the University of Iowa and Iowa State University announced Tuesday that the Cy-Hawk Series football trophy unveiled Friday at the Iowa State Fair will be replaced.

Fans reacted to the trophy with Internet-based ire - igniting a firestorm of text, Twitter and Facebook derision that largely took aim at the Cy-Hawk Series' title sponsor, Iowa Corn. Those same fans will have considerable say in how it trophy No. 2 is designed.

“We are going to open up a process that is going to allow Iowans - the fans - to decide what that trophy should be like,” Iowa Corn CEO Craig Floss said.

An interim trophy will go to the winner of the Sept. 10 game between the Cyclones and the Hawkeyes. The new, new trophy will go on line for 2012.

“The new Cy-Hawk trophy, we trust, will be truly something the fans will embrace,” Floss said.

Iowa Associate Athletics Director Rick Klatt said Iowa Corn wrongly bore the brunt of angry fan reaction.

“You name it, there's an opinion on it,” said Klatt, who deemed the first trophy a fully collaborative effort. “But when it crosses the line with respect to a tremendous organization that's driven by great people - that includes great people - that's where I was most affected.”

Steve Malchow, senior associate athletics director at Iowa State, said that when Iowa Corn became the Cy-Hawk Series title sponsor this spring, it did not ask to change the trophy.

“Each of the schools had received considerable feedback about changing the trophy over the years,” Malchow said.

Klatt said some criticism was expected.

“You commit to an idea, you execute the idea the best you can and then you watch to see the reaction,” Klatt said. “We aspired to do something above a football trophy. We aspired to celebrate Iowans and the characteristics of Iowans and perhaps we missed the mark. We learned from that.”

The trophy, which featured sculpted figurines depicting a farm family, wrought four days of endless e-complaints - some constructive, some too profane to recount publicly.

“This is a family news conference,” Floss said.

Even Gov. Terry Branstad weighed in during a weekend event. “I think they can do better,” he said.

So they'll try again.

“People care,” Malchow said. “If they don't care, that's worse.”

Eric Chriswisser of Ames, a Cardinal member of the National Cyclone Club, said fans should have been consulted the first time around.

“Obviously, you would call the fans,” Chrisswisser said. “It's Iowa and Iowa State. It's as big as it gets in this state. ... I just think whoever was in charge of that really dropped the ball down there. At the same time, I'm grateful. It has to cost a lot of money to make a trophy. So it's a big step, and I'm almost a little amazed that they're redoing it.”

Ryan Barton, president of the Linn County I-Club, also expressed surprise about the “redo.”

“It's kind of an unfortunate situation,” Barton said. “I kind of feel bad for the guy who put it together.”

No one could say where trophy No. 1 may eventually reside.

“The one thing I can tell you for sure is it's not going to be on the sideline at the Iowa-Iowa State game Sept. 10 in Ames,” Floss said.