Kurt Warner speaks at UNI Homecoming

CEDAR FALLS — Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner and wife Brenda headlined Northern Iowa’s Homecoming parade Saturday morning in downtown Cedar Falls as its VIPs.

Kurt and Brenda’s return to his alma mater came alongside UNI’s week-long announcement of a $250 million capital fundraising campaign branded ‘Our Tomorrow.’

Warner, and numerous other UNI dignitaries, have helped the campaign raise $185 million of its quarter-billion dollar goal already. Saturday’s campaign announcements included a healthy amount of its capital being earmarked for UNI-Dome renovations.

“As I’ve gone through this entire journey I’ve had people ask me all the time, ‘what do you want your legacy to be?’” Warner said. “And, for a long time in my life it was ‘I want to play well on a football field and I want people to remember me for playing in Super Bowls or winning Super Bowls or whatever that may be.’ As you get a little more removed from that, you start to understand — I want to leave a legacy that impacts the next generation. I want to go beyond a football field and be able to impact the lives of people. And that, to me, is what this campaign is all about.”

Warner’s visits to Cedar Falls these days have become either formal or informal local holidays.

An informal return most recently in late January with Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning to film for the ESPN+ show “Peyton’s Places,” provoked locals who quickly spread word on social media to swarm the local Hy-Vee for a glimpse of the former Panther.

“It is always great to come back and it’s always been tough in the fall. Been asked to come back numerous times and (with) my boys playing (football) and all the stuff I’m doing in the NFL (it) never seems to work, but it’s been great and it’s worked out just perfectly with my schedule,” Warner said. “So many great people here. I’ve got so many great memories from here.”

The schedule fit for Kurt and Brenda this weekend comes with a trip less than 80 miles west to watch son Kade Warner — a wide receiver at Kansas State — take on Iowa State on Saturday night at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames .

Before leaving Cedar Falls, though, Warner made time to speak with Mark Farley’s football team.

“A couple of the big (messages) were, ‘who are you every single day?’ ‘How do you show up every day?’” Warner said. “When I was here I sat on the bench for four years and a big part of what I learned along the way was how to practice. So that was one of my messages. The other one was never let your circumstances define you. My journey, if it tells you anything, it’s that a lot of people want to tell me what I couldn’t do based on where I was or my circumstances at the time.”