When Big 10 teams come into Iowa City to play at Kinnick Stadium, they have to deal with more than just rowdy fans, unpredictable weather and corn-fed linemen. They also have to deal with a pink locker room. In fact, everything is pink…even the urinals.
Iowa’s legendary former coach, Hayden Fry, was a psychology major in college and read that pink can have a calming effect on people (like certain narcotics). But it’s also possible that he just thought it was funny. Some opposing coaches, like Michigan’s Bo Schembechler, hated the pink so much that he had the walls covered when Michigan played there. Gotta love quirky coaches.
When Kinnick was renovated in 2004, the walls got even pinker. And that set off a controversy at the school where the students protested against reinforced stereotypes of women and homosexuals as weak. Then it got media attention when one particular law professor (who objected to the pink locker room) received death threats. All that over a pink locker room. We think it’s hilarious. And now it’s inducted into the Jock and Balls Sports Hall of Fame.
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