Lang
6/8/20
Volunteers worked together with professional cleaners on Sunday to scrub graffiti spray-painted on and around Kinnick Stadium by protesters the previous night.
The stadium became a target after several former Iowa football players took to Twitter Friday night to claim racial biases among the coaching staff. Some players specifically mentioned strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle, citing instances where he allegedly made racist comments to them.
Doyle was put on administrative Saturday night. Later that night, protesters marched from the Pentacrest across the newly-reopened Burlington Street Bridge and made their way to Kinnick Stadium. There, they spray-painted words and symbols on the side of the stadium, on the surrounding sidewalks, and on the statue of Nile Kinnick.
As images of the damage spread across social media, many local residents asked how they could help. Many just showed up at the stadium the next day, ready to clean. They joined with members of SERVPRO, and the combination of professional and volunteer cleaners had scrubbed the area of all signs of graffiti by Sunday afternoon.
One volunteer later took to Twitter to say the experience was better than when she was a City High student and cleaned the stadium after home football games. She said those stadium cleaning experiences included finding “vomit, beer, and MOUNTAINS of trash”.