'The Wave' at Iowa brings sense of community, pride

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Nine-year-old Maddox Smith can no longer play football, not after being treated for a golf ball-sized brain tumor and a rare genetic disorder that caused tumors to grow on his nerve cells.

Maddox has spent many, many days in the hospital. Like dozens of other children slogging through long weeks of recovery, he also has been part of college football's newest and most heartwarming tradition.

"The Wave" has become a national sensation, with nearly everyone in 70,585-seat Kinnick Stadium turning to wave to the pediatric patients watching from University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital — a 12-story building that sits right across the street — at the end of the first quarter.