CYCLONE INSIDER

'We're all Iowans': Iowa State football fans help elderly Iowa fan into Jack Trice Stadium

Aaron Young
The Des Moines Register

Tim Hulick didn't know he was famous until his daughter told him he needed to get on the internet.

Iowa State fan Tim Hulick (right), 52, of Indianola, Ia., helps Iowa fan Max Cameron, 88, of Chariton, Ia., up the stairs outside Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017, in Ames, Ia.

It's because of the photo Iowa and Iowa State fans are talking about, where Hulick and another Cyclone supporter are seen helping an elderly Hawkeye follower in a wheelchair up the stairs and through the west entrance gates of Jack Trice Stadium in Ames for Saturday's Cy-Hawk football game.

"It was just helping human beings out," Hulick, an Indianola resident, told the Register on Monday. "That was a good day."

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That older man is 88-year-old Max Cameron, the grandfather of Iowa redshirt freshman tight end T.J. Hockenson, Hockenson's mother, Teri Hockenson, told the Register.

They were trying to enter Gate 4 — where players' families go. And after Cameron and Teri Hockenson's mother parked their car in the handicapped lot of Jack Trice Stadium, they met at the gate but realized there was no ramp.

"What kind of happened is none of us are real familiar with how this all works," Teri Hockenson said. "This is our first year with travel. It's a learning curve for all of us."

The north and south gates at Jack Trice Stadium are handicapped accessible.

After contacting ISU officials, Cameron and Tod Hockenson, Teri's husband, waited for a cart to take Cameron to his seat. Hulick noticed the pair "go around in circles."

"I went up to (him) and asked him how much he weighed," Hulick explained. "I made it a mission to find someone taller and stronger or as equally strong as me."

He found a bystander — a fellow ISU fan. And for the next 40 seconds, the two rivals teamed up and got Cameron up the staircase. 

"He couldn't believe we took him up that staircase," Hulick said of Cameron.

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The photo of the kind act has picked up steam on social media. It was shared on "Hawkeye Heaven" — a Facebook fan page for Iowa athletics — late Saturday. 

As of 12:30 p.m. Monday, the post has more than 31,000 interactions, 7,000 shares and 535 comments. 

Hulick said he didn't know a photographer was at the top of the stairs, but he's glad he wore his shirt that has the biggest ISU logo on it and that both school's logos are "extremely visible" in the picture.

Teri Hockenson said she had tears in her eyes when she first saw the photo. She told her dad that he ended up going viral.

"He had no clue what viral meant," Teri Hockenson said, laughing.

And for a brief moment, the beautiful part about sports was clear as day.

"You're for Iowa or Iowa State. But at the end of the day, we're all Iowans and everyone wants to help," Teri Hockenson said.

"That's what we do in the Midwest."

Interested in trending Iowa news? Follow @AaYoung15 on Twitter.

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