Council Bluffs households are famously split between Hawkeye gold and Husker red, and the rivalry gets personal fast on game weekends. Should loyalty follow your zip code, or does growing up watching Nebraska football override state lines?
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Add your commentI just moved here from Des Moines six months ago for a job and I genuinely did not understand how intense this was until my neighbor knocked on my door to make sure I knew I was NOT allowed to park my car with the Hawkeyes bumper sticker in front of his house on game day. Sir. We share a street.
Born and raised in CB, graduated from Thomas Jefferson in '98, and I've been a Husker fan my entire life. My dad took me to my first game at Memorial Stadium when I was six years old. You think a ZIP code is gonna undo that memory? Absolutely not. Iowa never even tried to claim me — Nebraska did.
Here's what nobody wants to admit: Council Bluffs is essentially a suburb of Omaha. The Missouri River is basically a formality at this point. The economic gravity, the media market, the job market — it all flows west. So no, rooting for the Huskers from CB makes complete geographic and cultural sense. Fight me.
To everyone saying loyalty should follow your ZIP code — do you apply that logic to everything? If I move to Green Bay do I have to burn my Chiefs jersey? That's not how human beings actually work and you know it.
my grandma lived on the bluffs her whole life and rooted for nebraska until she died at 91. anyone who calls that a betrayal can come say it to her grave and see how that feels
That's... not even close to accurate. Iowa became a state in 1846, Nebraska wasn't a state until 1867. Also what does founding dates have to do with football fandom in Council Bluffs? Please never post again.
Council Bluffs people who root for Nebraska built this community's identity long before anyone drew a firm line between the two cities. Lewis and Clark camped on BOTH sides of that river. The whole concept of a hard border here is kind of artificial when you think about the actual history of settlement in this area. Geography doesn't dictate your heart and it never has.
I moved here from Omaha three years ago and honestly the Council Bluffs Husker fans are more hardcore than half the people I knew back in Nebraska. There's something about being the outsider in enemy territory that just cranks the passion up to eleven. These people are COMMITTED.
I think people get way too worked up about this. I have a Husker flag on one side of my porch and a Hawkeyes flag on the other. My wife is from Iowa City, I'm from Lincoln. We make it work. Rivalry week is just really expensive therapy for us.
Counterpoint from a Hawkeye who has lived here 15 years: Iowa has done way more for this city than Nebraska ever has. Our state funded the highway improvements, the casino revenue stays in Iowa, the schools are Iowa schools. Root for who butters your bread. Go Hawks.
Betrayal is a strong word but like... you literally live in IOWA. You pay Iowa taxes. Your kids go to Iowa schools. At some point the geography has to mean something lol
betrayal? no. Annoying? absolutely yes. Had a coworker show up to our Iowa-heavy office in full Husker gear on game day SPECIFICALLY to get reactions. That's not fandom that's just being a pest.
the real betrayal is rooting for either of them when neither program has been consistently good in like a decade. free yourselves
Wasn't the University of Nebraska actually founded before Iowa even became a state? So technically Nebraska has seniority here and CB Husker fans are just keeping the tradition alive. Checkmate.
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