Hawks play integral role in Super Bowl fan experience
University of Iowa students (from left) Ryanne Rausch, Michael Markla, Amy Knoebl, Takayla Al-Amin, Daniel Crooks, and Ana Jacobson pose for a photo outside SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the site of Super Bowl LVI. They, along with fellow students Danita Brown and Michael Upton and faculty member Anna Jensen, worked for a company contracted by the National Football League to run the fan transportation system.
Many of the 70,000-plus fans who watched the Los Angeles Rams rally for a late touchdown to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI made it to and from SoFi Stadium smoothly thanks in part to nine Hawkeyes.
Eight University of Iowa sport and recreation management students and their instructor worked for a company contracted by the National Football League to run the fan transportation system.
“Not many people can say they worked the Super Bowl, especially at age 22,” says Ryanne Rausch, who graduated in December 2021 with an MA in sport and recreation management.
In summer 2021, 13 Iowa students worked for SP+ at the Major League Baseball game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. Anna Jensen, lecturer and director of the Office of Field Experience in the sport and recreation management program, says the company was highly impressed with the students’ professionalism and engagement and reached back out over Thanksgiving seeking help at the Super Bowl.
Students with a degree in sport and recreation management can find a variety of career opportunities including community recreation, intercollegiate athletic departments, high school programs, the commercial fitness business sector, and minor and major league sport teams.
Jensen received 37 applications for four student spots. She asked if she could bring more; SP+ said they’d take eight, plus Jensen.
“Whittling down those names was so hard,” Jensen says. “But I knew that we would go and do a good job, just like we did at the Field of Dreams. And the Super Bowl happens every year, so hopefully this won’t be a one-time thing.”
Two students headed out to L.A. the Wednesday before the Super Bowl to receive extra training to work in an offsite parking lot. The rest of the group, which worked just outside the stadium, went Thursday.
Jensen and the students worked in a variety of roles, including directing traffic, staging buses, providing directions, helping the mobility assistance group, and more.
“It was great for them to see a production like that, where literally every minute is planned and there are a lot of little pieces that have to interface and work with one another for everything to run smoothly,” Jensen says. “There is a global audience watching this event, and there really isn’t a dry run. Our bus drivers arrived and some had never driven the route. So, it was a matter of overplanning and being ready to make adjustments—and having fun while you’re doing it.”
Rausch, who is from Newton, Iowa, and is now an event management assistant for the Iowa Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, says she has worked many big collegiate championship events, but she was still surprised by the number of people needed to put on an event like the Super Bowl.
“There were probably more than 500 people on our team alone, and we were just in charge of the fan transportation system. That’s not including anyone working inside the stadium,” Rausch says. “I understand what happens during collegiate events, and I wanted to take that next step, and this opportunity has definitely helped further prepare me to be a leader in another aspect of event management.”
“I’ve gotten a lot of experience in two years. But to actually work the Super Bowl, one of the biggest events in the sports world, was pretty exciting. I couldn’t believe it. These experiences boost my chances of finding a great job. Not a lot of students at other universities get experiences like we get at the University of Iowa. And the faculty get all the credit. They’ll do anything to help me get the technical skills needed to succeed in the real world.”
Daniel Crooks, who will graduate in May with a BS in sport and recreation management, says he particularly enjoyed meeting so many new people.
“I was working with people from all over the country and it was great to see and learn how they work and problem solve,” Crooks says. “Picking up on those skills was pretty cool.”
The West Burlington, Iowa, native transferred to Iowa after attending community college and has participated in practicums in San Diego and with the Chicago Blackhawks and Cedar Rapids Kernels, worked at the Field of Dreams game, and currently has an internship with the Iowa Heartlanders, a professional minor-league hockey team.
While in Los Angeles, the group of nine Hawkeyes got to see the glamorous and not-so-glamorous side of the Super Bowl.
Ryanne Rausch, who graduated in December 2021 with an MA in sport and recreation management, says her favorite part of the weekend was spotting celebrities.
“Obviously I knew they would be there, but seeing them in person was kind of wild to me,” Rausch.
“In some instances, those folks wanted to go somewhere that their credentials didn’t allow and we’d have to tell them no,” says Anna Jensen, lecturer and director of the Office of Field Experience in the sport and recreation management program. “It was really interesting for students to have that kind of experience.”
A less glamorous part of the weekend came when a call went out for help after portable toilets were delivered to the wrong side of the parking lot.
“It was certainly an unexpected request but I immediately said we’ll be there to help,” Jensen says. “We talk about the things that bring us together and this is one of those stories that come from experiences. And we hope that these stories—maybe not this particular one—but these stories of our experiences together become traditions in our program.”
“I’ve gotten a lot of experience in two years,” Crooks says. “But to actually work the Super Bowl, one of the biggest events in the sports world, was pretty exciting. I couldn’t believe it. These experiences boost my chances of finding a great job. Not a lot of students at other universities get experiences like we get at the University of Iowa. And the faculty get all the credit. They’ll do anything to help me get the technical skills needed to succeed in the real world.”
Ana Jacobson says when she started at Iowa as a sport and recreation management major, she hoped to get opportunities to work at sports events, but never dreamed one of those would be the Super Bowl.
“I’m really grateful for the focus that the sport and recreation management program at Iowa puts on experiential learning,” says the fourth-year student from Coralville, Iowa, who will graduate in May. “They make sure their students are put in the thick of it and prepared to handle every single aspect of running an event.”
The students all agreed they returned with more of one thing: confidence.
“I became more confident in my abilities,” Jacobson says. “And I learned I can be a little bit more assertive—even in a polite manner—when warning fans from across a parking lot that this is not an exit or dealing with unruly fans who didn’t like the rules. It made me a stronger, more confident person.”
Jensen says watching her students gain confidence in their skills was one of her favorite parts of the trip.
“They were deep in the action and on the radio making calls themselves. They were having to navigate situations such as an ambulance needs to come through and we need to get everyone else out of the way,” Jensen says. “I knew that they could do those things, but to see them internalize that confidence was really awesome.”
Jensen says she loves giving students opportunities to work in a field they love—whether it’s on the Iowa campus or elsewhere.
“Working events like these is exhilarating,” Jensen says. “Exhausting, too. But knowing that you have an opportunity to help someone make a memory is an honor. It’s special. And that’s true when it’s Kinnick Stadium or Carver-Hawkeye Arena or the Super Bowl.”
