Hunter
9/19/19
We still don’t know officially what happened Saturday at the Iowa-Iowa State football game to the UI band, but at least ISU Jamie Pollard has been contacted by the Hawkeyes regarding the incident.
Both Athletic Directors, Gary Barta of Iowa and ISU’s Pollard issued a joint statement Wednesday about the environment at the CyHawk Series football games.
The statement reads in part, “Both the University of Iowa and Iowa State University are committed to providing a safe environment for everyone attending events on their respective campuses. This includes members of the school’s marching bands. Unfortunately, both bands have been the target of unacceptable behavior in recent years. Some of the conduct directed at the students in our respective marching bands recently has been rude, vulgar, and in some cases, violent….each of our athletics departments is committed to doing whatever is necessary to improve the environment for visiting school marching bands in the future.”
The ADs finished the statement by insisting that both sets of fans show more respect when hosting the game. Barta and Pollard said, “We owe it to these hardworking performers to have a safe stage on which they can showcase their spirit and talent.”
Earlier in the week, Barta released a statement inferring that some inappropriate behavior was directed at the Hawkeye band at some point during their time in Ames. Pollard stated that neither he nor anyone at ISU had been contacted about the behavior and added that four law enforcement officers were with the band at all times and none were contacted about such an incident.
There’s no official statement about an investigation or the type of specific behavior that caused the uproar.