People Are Super Touched By This Football Team's New Gameday Tradition To Honor Sick Kids

"I'm a staff nurse and I couldn't believe how amazing this turned out."

The University of Iowa football team started an incredible new tradition during Saturday's opener against Wyoming. At the end of the first quarter, the team and fans turned and waved at kids watching from a hospital overlooking the stadium.

The hospital, the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, recently built the building overlooking the stadium, and Saturday was the first time it was open during a game. Many patients and their families gathered to watch.

New Iowa football tradition - waving to the kids watching the game @UIchildrens after the first quarter. Pretty coo… https://t.co/rcFvhZX0s2

So fans decided to give them a shout-out. At the end of the first quarter, all the fans in the stadium turned to the kids and gave them a wave.

Hawkeye fans turn and wave to the Children's Hospital at the end of the first quarter. New tradition this year. I… https://t.co/jSJUryWdAO

The kids, of course, waved back!

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"I'm a staff nurse and I couldn't believe how amazing this turned out," one woman wrote.

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The wave started as an idea from the team's fans, Levi Thompson, who runs an Iowa football fan page called Hawkeye Heaven, told HawkeyeNation.com.

Thompson said a woman emailed him asking him if he could try to use his page to do something cool for the hospital.

“I wanted it to be something the fans could accomplish without getting the University or any kind of money backing it," he said. "That’s when we thought about waving to the hospital after the end of the first quarter would be the perfect thing.”

So, in June, Thompson wrote about the idea on his page. The fans totally delivered, and agreed to do the wave.

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People online were totally blown away by the gesture.

Waving at the kids in the U of I children's hospital today during the Iowa game and seeing them wave back fills my heart with so much joy 💕

They said it makes their "heart so happy."

Ok, the new Kinnick Tradition of waving to the kids at the University of Iowa Stead Family Hospital makes my heart so happy.

Fans who attended the game also praised the special moment.

Go Hawks! Love the new Iowa wave to the kids at Stead Family Children's Hospital! #fightforiowa #fightforthekids

Even people who didn't like the Hawkeyes were into it.

I may dislike the Hawkeyes, but the new tradition of waving to the Children's Hospital is incredible. Well done Iowa.

"This is why I'm proud to be a Hawkeye fan," one person concluded. "This is what it's all about."

This is why I'm proud to be a Hawkeye fan. This is what it's all about:

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