IOWA CITY — Before iconic University of Iowa mascot Herky dotted Iowa City street corners, park lawns, and business fronts disguised as Superman, Marilyn Monroe, and legendary Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry, Grant Wood’s famed “American Gothic” duo wore “overalls all over” Cedar Rapids.
Via dozens of fiberglass statues, the Cedar Rapids Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2001 aspired to both unite the community and fundraise by peppering the town with various stylings of the American Gothic pair, including one dressed like Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam and another clad in prison garb.
One Cedar Rapids CVB employee behind that stunt was Josh Schamberger, who soon after made his move to the Iowa City/Coralville Area CVB — just as the UI Athletics Department was making plans for an $86.8 million renovation of Kinnick Stadium, built in 1929. As that project developed, Hawkeye Athletics began brainstorming ways to raise excitement for the upgrade.
“And I said, ‘Let’s put Herky on parade’,” Schamberger said. “And it just absolutely blew up. It was a home run.”
Of course, commissioning and then distributing 75 six-foot-tall Herky statues across Iowa City and Coralville — amounting to the largest public art project in community history — was no small feat.
“It was so much work,” Schamberger said. “And I joked, I will never do that again.”
But memory fades over a decade — leaving only the highlights top of mind — emboldening Schamberger’s team to embark on a second parade route in 2014, this time upping the list of exhibits to 84 and expanding the footprint into North Liberty.
“It was another next level,” he said of that parade’s Ironman Herky, Marching Band Herky, Herky Hasselhawk and their fiberglass feathered friends.
Fast forward to April 2024, inside a warehouse packed with rows of freshly-painted Herkys, Schamberger — aided by another decade’s distance from any challenges 2014 presented — said his team, with help from dozens of commissioned artists, again upped the ante.
“There’s home run after home run in here,” he said, scanning the third iteration of Herky on Parade, scheduled to debut at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The 20th parade anniversary features 100 statues, including a handful grouped into a “G.O.A.T series” — like one in a “22” jersey named “From the Logo Herky” and another wearing Rudis shoes labeled “Yoda.”
Distributed and wrapped late Tuesday by darkly-dressed “Herky on Parade” tactical teams of community members and dignitaries wearing eye black and bandannas — including members of the Hawkeye football team and UI Athletics Director Beth Goetz — the 2024 parade will chart an even broader course, extending beyond Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty to Solon and Tiffin.
“And then we'll continue with the one Herky that we put at The Eastern Iowa Airport,” Schamberger said.
Perspectives
Starting a 2024 Herky on Parade tour with the airport’s designated hawk celebrates the heartwarming recognition of a hard reality that backdrops every game inside Kinnick Stadium, putting the sport into perspective.
A painted UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital dominates Herky’s chest, towering over a sea of people and then football players drawn on the legs below — all looking up to wave at kids battling illness just over their shoulders. On Herky’s backside is the opposite perspective — children, comforted by Teddy bears and blankets, waving back.
Solon Strong
From the airport, head southeast to Solon for Herky’s first entree into that community — landing six Herkys from this year’s entry list, including “Solon Strong Herky.” This beefy mustached Herky boasts a Solon High School T-shirt and “Beef Days” belt buckle while lifting with one arm a hay bail.
“This is the first time the parade has expanded outside of Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty,” Schamberger said.
Night sky
Heading south into the familiar territory of North Liberty are 12 Herkys, including a purple-and-black bolt-clad “Thunder Hawk,” stationed — of course — outside Liberty High School, repping a lightning bolt mascot.
Up Dubuque Street, near Heyn’s Ice Cream, is a Herky that epitomizes the magic of those later-night treats with a “Night Sky” theme — blanketing the statue in a charming blend of animated stars connecting constellations and minute scattered pinpricks, more characteristic of the real thing.
Knee high
Catch Herky’s Tiffin debut on the way into Coralville by swinging past that city’s Fareway — where a “Knee High by the Fourth of July” Herky wears overalls to protect himself from the cornstalks climbing his pant legs. Nearby is a comic-strip-styled “Pop Art Herky” featuring “ANF” inside a jagged-edged speech bubble that might typical exclaim “POW” or “KABOOM.”
Further out of town, inside the confines of Kent Park, is a “Golden Herky” — celebrating the 1958 Hawkeye football team, which won the national championship with its domination in the Rose Bowl.
Lunch Lady
Once in Coralville, the parade picks up — with a cast of hawks in the Coral Ridge Mall. “Lunch Lady Herky,” styled after the Saturday Night Live character Chris Farley made famous in the 1990s, haunts the food court.
Nearby, “Tooth Fairy Herky” reminds passersby — with a menacing look, juxtaposed by a rainbow tutu and pink ballet slippers — to brush.
G.O.A.T.
In Coralville’s Iowa River Landing District, near Xtream Arena and the Hyatt Regency, are some of the more sports-centered Herkys — including “From the Logo Herky,” referencing the unparalleled three-point shots that have cemented Caitlin Clark’s legend status.
Clad in a “22” jersey and yellow Nike shoes, this is one of the of the parade exhibits not for sale.
“I gave it to her,” Schamberger said about Clark. “It’s not going to the auction. I told her it can go in her house someday.”
Jedi master
Another of just four Herkys not for sale — because they’ve been gifted — is “Yoda” Herky, crafted in the likeness of “jedi master” Spencer Lee.
Set up outside the new Hawkeye wrestling facility connected to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Lee’s Herky wears a split singlet — half Hawkeye black and gold and half USA blue and red — now especially prescient, with Lee recently winning the U.S. Olympic team trials at his weight.
Green jacket
Leaving the 2024 Master’s Champions Dinner in early April, Iowa City native and professional golfer Zach Johnson got a sneak peek at his Herky, clad in a Green jacket, USA attire, and Drake Bulldog socks — for his 2007 master’s win, 2023 stint captaining the United States in the Ryder Cup, and college career.
“We actually showed this one to him last night as he was leaving the champions dinner at Augusta,” he said. “And he was over the moon about it.”
The ZJ Herky will be stationed at Brown Deer Golf Club, a few miles from the “25 Years of Captain Kirk Herky” west of Kinnick Stadium — the last of the four gifted birds.
Butter bird
Now on the UI campus, students rambling past Hubbard Park by the Iowa Memorial Union — headed south toward the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center — might pass a Herky reminiscent of the Iowa State Fair.
“This one I can’t believe was never done,” Schamberger said in an ironic echo of the butter-cow-imitating “Can’t believe it’s butter Herky.”
Pride Herkys
And deeper into downtown Iowa City, Film Scene is hosting 10 metallic Herkys — each done in a different solid color by artist Jeffrey Koons in Utah. Sponsored by Iowa Cannabis, Schamberger said they had all 10 shipped to Koons to have them painted.
“We're going to use the front windows of Film Scene, and we're going to line up all 10,” he said, referencing June as Pride Month.
The Herkys will stay up all summer, coming down near the end of August. And anyone can buy a Herky for $5,000 — although between 50 and 60 percent already have been taken.
Any not sold will go to auction at a later date — with proceeds going to the Iowa City and Clear Creek Amana community school districts, in support of art education programs and camp costs for low-income students.
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
