Keeler: Hayden lives on: Visitors' quarters still pretty in pink

SEAN KEELER REGISTER COLUMNISTAugust 21, 2005

Iowa City, Ia. - You wonder what Bo Schembechler would say, assuming he regained consciousness.The sole refuge is two waist-level drinking fountains, cold and silver, floating like pinballs on the head of a strawberry shake. Aside from that, the new visitors' locker room at Kinnick Stadium is Barbie's Dream House on acid, a pastel nightmare. You feel naked without a little dog in one arm and a handbag in the other.Pink walls. Pink stalls. Pink seats. Pink ceiling. Pink carpet. Pink urinals.
Pink urinals?"It's called 'Dusty Rose,' " corrected associate athletic director Jane Meyer, head conductor of Saturday morning's media tour. "That's actually a standard color (offered) by (the) Kohler (company)."Dusty Rose. If it's good enough for the Hawkeyes, it's good enough for your guest bathroom."We want to maintain the history that Hayden Fry started when he came here," Meyer said. "We decided to take it the next step."In case you don't know the legend, here's a recap: In one of his more brilliant gambits, Fry ordered the walls of the old visiting locker room at Kinnick painted pink. A psychology major, Iowa's football coach reasoned that the soothing color might placate some of the savage beasts that had pounded on the Hawkeyes for much of the 1970s.
And, heck, if that didn't work, it would at least give them something to think about - and complain about - rather than focus on the game. The old fox never missed a trick.Over the years, Big Ten coaches tried little ways to counter Fry's stratagem. Most of them didn't work. A few did. In 1989, Illinois assistants wore pink hats on the sidelines at Iowa City, and the Illini won, 31-7. In 1996, Gary Barnett had some students paint Northwestern's home locker room pink the week they practiced for the Iowa game. The Wildcats won at Kinnick for the first time in 25 years.
But the most infamous detractor was Schembechler. Michigan's coach repeatedly grumbled about Kinnick's guest room. He went so far as to order his assistants to paper the walls before he'd dare let his Wolverines enter. Out of sight, out of mind.This room would give Schembechler a heart attack. It's Bo-proofed, a gaudy Crayola explosion from the patterns on the carpet - pink speckled with brown - to the tiles on the ceiling above. Genius. Madness. Dusty Rose.
"You have to realize," Meyer said with a grin, "how many pink colors I looked at for this project."She settled on a shade - "Innocence" - roughly the same as a Hi-Liter. To call it bright would be an understatement. When Hawkeye running back Marcus Schnoor first saw it during a team tour last week, he almost had to shield his eyes.And then Schnoor tells you he's color-blind."I could tell it was different," he said. "I thought it was hilarious."
Most of the Hawkeyes, in fact, thought it a hoot. But when Ball State shows up in two weeks, you get the feeling the Cardinals will be far from tickled pink."It would probably tick me off a little bit," Iowa linebacker Abdul Hodge said. "Because it's like sending a message about how you want them to feel."Which is lousy. The Hawkeyes have won a school-record 18 consecutive games at home, and "the pink thing wasn't a huge factor in it," Schnoor said. "We've played smart football at Kinnick. That has a lot to do with it."
"But I still like the tradition," Hawkeye fan Matt Mattson, a 14-year-old from Jesup, noted proudly. "I think it's clever. No one should be able to steal the idea."Few have, oddly enough. The nearest known copycat is in Madison, Wis., where the walls of the new visitors' locker room at Camp Randall Stadium were painted baby blue. Big Ten coaches will try just about anything to ensure their season comes out smelling like a rose. So long as it's not the Dusty kind.