The Hawk Rap: A Tribute to Hayden Fry and the 1986 Iowa Football Team

The year was 1985. The Chicago Bears released “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” a novelty rap song and music video, midway through their dominant run to an NFL championship. The Grammy-nominated song featured Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, and the rest of the Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew strutting and rhyming weeks before they won the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Peaking at No. 41 on the Billboard charts in February 1986, the single inspired numerous imitators across the league.

Soon after that surprise hit, the Hawkeye football team adopted an anthem of its own. Two former University of Iowa music students and a local TV vampire formed the Invisible Band and concocted the “Hawk Rap” with the help of Coach Hayden Fry and his 1986 squad. Forty years after the group bragged about its beloved Hawks, “We’re mobile, mighty, mean, and lean; we got the No. 1 college team,” two of the band members revisited the making of the song. Their conversation is edited for length and clarity.

Anthem Instigator: “It Might Have Been Hayden Fry”

Ken Duncan and John Reasoner met as undergraduates in the UI School of Music in the mid-1970s and left Iowa early in 1977 to pursue music careers. Along with touring the Midwest with their band, Cabala, they created business jingles, corporate videos, and station identifications. In 2018, Cabala was inducted into the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

More importantly, Duncan and Reasoner forged a lasting relationship with fellow Cabala member Bruce Gantenbein [stage name Bruk Gant], who would become the Invisible Band’s frontman. Gantenbein was best known to many as Dr. Morbius (the vampire in the “Hawk Rap” video), a character he portrayed as the host of Saturday Nightmare, a weekly late-night horror movie special on KCRG-TV9. Duncan and Reasoner served as the backup band on the show, and soon after its debut in 1986, the trio’s Hawkeye football tribute came to life.

John Reasoner, guitarist and engineer: As for who came up with the “Hawk Rap,” it might have been Hayden [Fry], because that was the same year the Chicago Bears had their “Super Bowl Shuffle.”

Ken Duncan, drummer and producer: I think we came up with the idea not even having heard that yet. It was kind of a simultaneous thing. So, the fact that [the Bears did their song], it was like, “Oh, wow, this is timely.” Bruk was always coming up with crazy stuff, and he loved the idea of doing the rap thing. I think he came up with the lyrics before John and I did the music. I was in contact with Hayden on some things, but we approached him about the song. He was so instrumental in everything to do with the “Hawk Rap.” He was so supportive. John and I worked on it for at least a couple days until we got what we thought was a good structure.

Reasoner: And then Bruk put in those two B-sections, which are the call-and-response. That’s what really turned it around.

The complete version of the “Hawk Rap” debuted during the 1986 Iowa football season. This early demo of the song featured different lyrics and musical arrangement.

All In: “I Had Almost the Whole Football Team in the Basement of My House”

Over the song’s three and a half minutes, Gantenbein gives a brief geography lesson to those unfamiliar with the Hawkeye State; forewarns Big Ten foes who overlook his team while also stating, “you play us hard, just makes us mad;” and explains the countless ways Fry and the Hawks will demolish their opponents. Highlights range from the bouncy bass line to the “Iowa Fight Song”-inspired guitar riffs, but it’s the call-and-response that elevates the song with black-and-gold bravado and embeds it in the listener’s brain. To double down on each of Gantenbein’s rhetorical questions of who’s the fastest, strongest, prettiest (yes, you read that correctly), and baddest team, the band recruited the Iowa football players to emphatically shout, “Iowa Hawks!”

Reasoner: I had a house in Iowa City on Lucas Street at this time, and that’s where we did all the recording. It was an unfinished basement, but it had old-style bricks on the wall, and we threw carpets down. I had almost the whole football team in the basement of my house recording the shouts. That was a riot; they had a great time. They had gotten ahold of the song after we put most of it together, so they knew that part. We had them in the basement, living room, kitchen, and dining room, because these guys were huge; there’s no small person on the football team.

Duncan: That was crazy. I think it was only a one or two-take thing.

Hayden’s Help: “He Was Probably More of a Marketing Genius Than a Coach—And He Was a Fantastic Coach”

The song premiered on KCRG as a music video that featured Gantenbein—dressed in his Dr. Morbius vampire attire—prancing around an empty Kinnick Stadium. The footage was interspersed with Hawkeye football highlights and cheering crowd shots. KCRG also paid for the Invisible Band to press its first 45 record, which included the “Hawk Rap” and “Morbius Rap.” The station sold and gave out copies via on-air promotions. With the song’s growing popularity, the band pitched the local ABC affiliate on creating a 90-second musical recap for every Hawkeye football game.

Duncan: We thought, ‘Well, geez, why don’t we approach Hayden and see if we could do this as a summary type of thing for every Hawk game?’ And so I set up a meeting with him. He was probably more of a marketing genius than a coach—and he was a fantastic coach. He was the nicest person. He was so excited about this, and he made suggestions to us. We went to KCRG and proposed it to them. They immediately jumped on the bandwagon.

Postgame Recaps: “Fun for the Fans to Watch”

The 1986 Iowa football team largely delivered on Gantenbein’s “Hawk Rap” boasts, tallying a 9-3 record, winning the Holiday Bowl, and finishing No. 16 in the AP poll. For the Invisible Band’s weekly recaps, the group exchanged ideas during and immediately after every game and came to the studio on Sunday to record. Gantenbein supplied the lyrics and vocals; Reasoner served as the musical director, determining the style and guitar parts; and Duncan provided the percussive elements. Crafting the music and lyrics for victories often came easily, but setting the mood after a loss raised a difficult question.

Reasoner: On the ones we didn’t win, Bruk would call me and Ken, “How bad do we want to make these guys sound?”

Duncan: Bruk would go a little bit sad on a couple of them. You tone it down a little bit, but you still want it to be fun for the fans to watch. John would come up with so many great ideas musically. We’d do something that sounded like Van Halen, then we’d do something super funky, and then something that was more dramatic. I’d walk in and John would play what he had done, and I’m going, “Oh man, that’s fun.”

Reasoner: “Let’s try this!”

Duncan: Because we’d played together for 10 years, we already knew each other—what we wanted to do together and what we could do, which was pretty much anything. John and I would lay down the drums, guitar, and bass, and whatever else we had.

Reasoner: Bruk would come in and sing it two or three times, we’d edit it down, and we were off.

Duncan: It got really efficient. We would give the audio to KCRG, and they would match the football highlights to what we were saying in the lyrics. And then they would air it on Monday on their 6 o’clock and 10 o’clock news. It was a big deal.

Network Change: “He Just Loved the Way We Were Promoting the Hawkeyes”

A new opportunity arose ahead of the 1987 season, as Rasmussen Communications Management (RCM) started the Hawkeye Sports Network. Fry, who was already in contact with RCM, which produced and syndicated his weekly show, drafted six pages of handwritten notes before he met with Duncan to advise him on how the Invisible Band could land a similar football musical recap gig with this new network for the upcoming season.

Duncan: He was connecting us with RCM and going over the best way to communicate with them, what they’d like to see in a proposal, and what kind of deal we could work out with them. He just loved the way that we were promoting the Hawkeyes, because you remember when he came in, he immediately changed the logo [to the Tigerhawk] and the uniform to look like the Steelers. He was a marketer, and boy, did that work.

Reasoner: We were his little marketers [laughs].

A New Voice: “Stepping into the Medium Big Leagues”

The Invisible Band signed a one-year contract with RCM, headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, with stations spanning the Midwest. Duncan compared it to “stepping into the medium big leagues” as RCM aired their Hawkeye football recap song throughout the week. While the trio’s timeline for creating songs remained the same, delivering the final product to the network sometimes led to an early-morning, four-hour drive for Duncan when he couldn’t mail it overnight. Meanwhile, Gantenbein’s continuing role as Dr. Morbius on KCRG’s Saturday Nightmare threw a wrinkle into the mix.

Reasoner: Because of the way the contracts were set up and what RCM wanted to do, KCRG would not let us use Bruk’s voice after we went to RCM. Bruk still wrote [the lyrics], but we had somebody else come into the studio.

Duncan: His name was Aaron Leonard (78BA), but he went by Monk Leonard. He did a lot of DJ work, which he was really good at, but he really nailed this stuff because it was in his blood already.

Career Spark: “We’re Just All-Time Rock and Rollers”

The Invisible Band was seemingly visible everywhere in Iowa City during the late ’80s. They performed during halftime of Iowa basketball games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, heard their anthem played on repeat over PA systems atop Iowa Homecoming parade floats, and even wrote a song for Vivian Stringer’s women’s basketball team.

The trio also created an anthem for Dan Gable’s men’s wrestling team called “Set the Mark” ahead of the squad’s pursuit of a 10th straight national title in Maryland’s College Park (the Invisible Band never turned down a good rhyme opportunity). Iowa finished second to rival Iowa State at the 1987 NCAA championships, but Duncan still received a glowing review from the team: “Gable told me they were playing it constantly when they were there to get all pumped up,” he says.

The Invisible Band created “Set the Mark” in 1987 for Dan Gable and the Iowa men’s wrestling team.

The music for some of the Invisible Band’s weekly Hawkeye football recaps also inspired full contemporary jazz tunes, some of which the group still plays to this day throughout the Iowa City corridor.

Reasoner: We’re just all-time rock-and-rollers now [laughs]. But what a great thing to have done with our community. And that’s how we ended up staying here and starting our own businesses. There’s a lot more to it than just making the music; there were careers that came out of this.

Duncan: We both jumped into it. John was initially primarily on the audio side, but then he moved into animation and video, and then I had an ad agency and did video production, which I still do. It just grew into those entities, and now, as we get older, we can go back to our number one career, which is music. Even though we never left it.

Rap Revival: “It’s a Riot; People Love It”

While jazz is now the Invisible Band’s calling card, they revived their breakthrough hit on the setlist in 2018, five years after Gantenbein died, and continue to play it occasionally today. Reasoner now handles the rap duties of Gantenbein, who shared his talents through many roles throughout his life, including musician, stand-up comedian, Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets mascot, and UI campus police officer. Performing the song is another way Reasoner and Duncan, who have been playing music together for more than 50 years, remember their friend fondly while bringing back a song that others may have long forgotten or never knew existed.

Duncan: It’s a riot; people love it. John does a really good job of preparing them to do the callback part. He does an instruction intro, and then we go into the song. It’s still funky. When we play it live, I think it’s a really good song, and people like it.

Reasoner: [raps the opening verse of “Hawk Rap”] “Halfway between New York and LA, there’s a place called I-OH-WAY.”