Dog of fallen Navy SEAL to lead Iowa onto the field in opener?
Posted by John Taylor on August 26, 2011, 1:55 PM EDT
There are a lot of really cool entrances in college football, from Michigan players running onto the field and high-fiving a “Go Blue” banner to Clemson players touching Howard’s Rock before racing down The Hill to many, many others.
If the following comes to fruition, however, it would easily trump those traditions on the chill-factor scale and go down as one of the most emotional and memorable entrances in recent memory.
Earlier this month, Navy SEAL and lifelong Iowa fan Jon Tumilson was one of 31 members of the United States military — including 21 of his fellow SEALS — killed when their helicopter was shot down following a mission inside of Afghanistan. Tumilson’s funeral was earlier this week and a photo of his beloved dog laying in front of the casket throughout the entire service made headlines and caused many a room across the world to suddenly get extremely dusty.
After watching videos and seeing pictures of the poignant scene, former Hawkeyes football player Jon Lazar had an utterly brilliant idea: allow Tumilson’s dog — aptly named Hawkeye — to lead the Iowa football team onto the field before the season opener. Lazar told Pat Harty of the Iowa Press-Citizen that he has already broached the subject with Iowa officials and requested they make this happen
