Over the holiday break from school, a few Kennedy students traveled south to cheer on the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football team in the Outback Bowl.

The University of Iowa Hawkeyes took on the Louisiana State University Tigers in the Outback Bowl that was held in Tampa Bay Florida on January 1, 2014. The game was played at Raymond James Stadium before a crowd of 51,296 fans.

The LSU Tigers won the game 21-14 but not without a fight. Even though the Hawkeyes didn’t pull out the victory, the fans sure did. The University of Iowa sold 95 percent of their allotted ticket sales. This was more than any other college in a bowl game.

During the week of the bowl game there were many activities and bowl game traditions in order to get the teams and fans pumped up for the game.

Matt Stevens, sr., and his family enjoyed many of these Iowa bowl game traditions.

Stevens has been to six bowl games in his life, “I don’t really remember much of the other ones because I was young, but this one was pretty fun,” Stevens said.

There was the Outback Bowl Beach Party at Clearwater beach where there was a battle of the bands and cheerleaders from both schools.

“We watched the tug of war with the cheerleaders and the pie eating contests, and we got to meet some of the players,” Stevens said, “the guy from Iowa ate thirteen pies. It was great.”

There was also a New Year’s Eve Parade and Pep Rally. The parade had fifteen marching bands including the Hawkeyes and LSU bands.

Also the University of Iowa hosted an event called the “Hawkeye Huddle”, which was held on New Year’s Eve and featured a party for Iowa fans and had many televisions set up for fans to watch the Iowa Men’s Basketball team play.

“It was pretty cool to be there and hang out with my family and friends,” Stevens said.