A march of the Saturday’s game football from Minneapolis to Iowa City raises awareness about veterans who commit suicide.
By Katelyn Weisbrod
The Hawkeyes and the Gophers will face off next weekend with a ball marched straight from Minneapolis.
The University of Iowa’s Veterans Association organized a ruck, or a backpack, march of the game ball to raise awareness about veteran suicide. Volunteers, including veterans and their dependents, are carrying the ball.
The march began when a team of ruckers left from TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus on Sunday carrying the game ball, an American flag, and a guidon flag — used by the military to signify a group’s unit information, denoting the rucker’s association with the UI organization.
“I’m doing it because I feel like a lot of this is for the people who couldn’t be here on Veterans Day, so we’re carrying their weight,” rucker Drew Wherry said. “It’s all about awareness and showing people they’re still veterans. There’s still people who need our help. The fight doesn’t always end, so we’re helping them and carrying them with us.”
The ruckers will also be carrying 22-pound packs filled with medals, photos, and other artifacts, symbolizing the 22 veterans who commit suicide every day.
“Each one of us has our own story. Each one of us is carrying something different,” UI Military and Veteran Education Specialist Travis Arment said. “But it will all equal out to 22 pounds of things that mean something to us.”
Arment said he is carrying some artifacts from when he served in the Navy between 2004 and 2008, such as his patches and letters he received from his family when he was at sea.
“They’re things that really get you through when things are tough,” he said. “Those are things I’m carrying personally that got me through some rougher spots.”
Teams of three to six ruckers are marching in six-hour shifts over the course of the week, each group being relieved by the next.
On Saturday afternoon, the final pack will arrive on the Pentacrest, where all the ruckers will meet and march to Kinnick Stadium together right before the game. Arment said two of the ruckers will run the ball to the referees at midfield while the rest of the ruckers form a tunnel for the players to run through.
Sheena Anderson, an Army veteran and a UI student, will be one of the ruckers running the ball out to the referees.
“It’s something pretty special. I’m carrying pictures and medals from battles and stuff,” Anderson said. “We’re doing it for the 22 veterans that commit suicide a day, so this is a really cool thing to raise awareness for.”
