"The visiting locker room at Kinnick Stadium is one of those things you hear about before you actually see it because you don't really understand it until you actually walk into it. Everything is pink. The walls, the lockers, the stalls, the urinals. There's no subtle version of it. It's just full commitment. This goes back to Hayden Fry who took over Iowa in 1979. He was known for doing things a little bit different and he had a background in psychology which shaped how he thought about competition and finding edges. See one of the things that he believed was the color could influence the mood. See he read research that said pink can have a calming effect. So he had the entire visiting locker room painted pink. The idea wasn't about really making headlines. It was really just him finding any small advantage to get an edge before the game even started. Over time it became one of those quirks that Iowa is still known for. People still talk about it, debate about it, and laugh about it when they see it for the first time. Whether it changed anything for the opposing team is kind of besides the point at this stage. What it really said about Hayden Fry is he wasn't afraid to do something unconventional if he thought it could help the team. Even if it didn't fit what everybody else in the sport was even doing. And that's why the pink has stuck around for so long. Boom baby."