In the Stands at Kinnick, a Fan Lives His Fatherhood Dream

PHOTO: SETH DIEHL Eleven-year-old Kinnick Dall and his father, Bruce, bond over their shared love for Hawkeye sports.

Last fall, Bruce Dall and his son, Kinnick, went to their first Hawkeye football night game.

Though they had been to Kinnick Stadium before to cheer on the Hawks, Dall says, “There’s something special about night games at Iowa.”

Dall asked a fellow fan to take a photo of him and his son during Iowa’s victory over Penn State. The next morning, he woke up reflecting on the game and the picture.

“It brought me back to where we were earlier in our lives,” says Dall, a head girls basketball coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School who previously won five state titles and a national coach of the year honor.

Dall and his wife, Billie, struggled for years to become parents. They suffered miscarriages and a failed adoption. They were about to give up, days before Kinnick came into their life.

Posting his game-day picture on the social media platform X, Bruce wrote, “My wife and I had four miscarriages. I didn’t think I would ever be able to share a moment like this with a son or daughter. Then, in 2015, our baby boy came to us. We named him Kinnick. I thank God for this gift. Last night was a magical night we got to experience together.”

The post resonated immediately; it has been viewed more than 28 million times on X, and their story appeared on SportsCenter and Sports Illustrated.

PHOTO: SETH DIEHL Hawkeye fan Kinnick Dall

Dall also received an offer from StubHub to go to another Hawkeye football game; they enjoyed VIP seating for Iowa’s matchup against Minnesota. Now father and son have a goal to attend a football game at every Big Ten stadium.

Since that viral post, Dall has posted more updates on his son, who he regularly refers to as “2034 Iowa commit Kinnick Dall.” The posts show signed memorabilia Kinnick has collected from former Hawkeye athletes such as Caitlin Clark (24BBA), T.J. Hockenson, and Tyler Linderbaum (21BA), as well as a handwritten note from coach Kirk Ferentz.

For so long, Dall and his wife wanted to be parents. A decade later, Dall is still overcome with emotion as he revels in the good fortune of becoming a dad.

“You want to have these experiences as a parent with a child,” he says. “When you’ve experienced what my wife and I have, there’s a tremendous amount of scarring that happens. ... When you take a picture like that, and you are in a moment of gratitude in your mind, all those feelings that you buried come back.”

Hawkeye athletics—and Kinnick Stadium—continue to be a cherished part of Dall and Kinnick’s relationship. After all, it inspired Kinnick’s name.

“I wanted to give him the name of a great person,” says Dall. “I’m not even talking about the athlete—a great person who was a scholar and served in World War II. I thought it was a real strong name for him.”