Behind The Scenes: Hawkeyes’ Halftime Salute to Veterans

You all know by now that I can't just sit back and watch something for what it is. I always have to pull the curtain back and reveal the wizard's secrets.

With that in mind, of course I jumped at the opportunity to see how the Hawkeyes Marching Band operates. I paid my daughter a visit last week as part of HMB's parents weekend.

Myself and other band parents got to watch their indoor practice. Last week was also the University of Iowa's salute to veterans, so part of the practice included piecing together a giant U.S. flag.

The takes thirty people to stretch out the blue star field and even more to get the red and white strips unfurled. The blue section folds up and gets packed into a huge green duffel bag, it weighs somewhere around 200 pounds. The stripes get put into clear plastic totes and are stacked up.

It's pretty mind boggling how hard it is to keep a group of people on task and on time, but they pull it off for every single home game.

Here's how they made the American flag as part of last weekend's halftime show: