NEW VIDEO: Can bonfire reverse Iowa's SI 'curse'?

With a chicken and two radio disc jockeys looking on, a woman named Spirit Wolf tried to help the Iowa Hawkeyes on Friday.

Their mission was to burn as many “Sports Illustrated” magazines featuring the Hawkeyes as possible, hoping to break an apparent “curse” against the football team.

Spirit Wolf, a metaphysicist from Cedar Rapids, joined two of her Wiccan friends to do a triquetra spell called “Reverse the Curse” at the farm of Joel and Kim Grier near Swisher.

“In the name of almighty Gods of football, and the spirits of our heroes on whose side we stand, ‘Sports Illustrated' thank you, but take back your curse, and return to the Hawkeyes the honor they demand,” Spirit Wolf chanted. “By the power of three, so mote it be.”

About 50 magazines collected by Z102.9-FM went up in flames.

The theory is that teams or athletes featured on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" have bad luck soon thereafter. The Hawkeyes were featured on a regional cover last week and promptly lost their first game of the season to Northwestern.

Spirit Wolf, who runs Spirit's Journey in Cedar Rapids, said the spell works 85 or 90 percent of the time. She tossed a buckeye in the fire for good measure.

The Hawkeyes (9-1) face the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday.

“We gather strength and energy, a dawn of this new day, to reverse the curse, end this verse, to put all the doubts away,” said Jeralynn Trujillo, of Marengo. “So to our beloved football team, put on your lucky jocks. Today the curse was lifted and no one beats the Hawks!”