Wednesday, October 19, 2005

David Wallace / The Gazette Officials at the University of Iowa believe there could be a link between pink and the mood of visiting football teams.

Wolverines in the pink for Iowa

Visitors' locker room is awash in that color as the Hawkeyes seek a psychological advantage.

By Angelique S. Chengelis / The Detroit News

Tickled pink Iowa has painted its locker room for visiting teams pink in the past; now they've added more furnishings in a color usually reserved for Barbies. What's your take? It's immature It's clever Insulting to the visiting teams Insulting to the color pink Get results and comments Related links  NCAA football scores and stats Big Ten Talk Big Ten Weblog U-M schedule U-M roster U-M stats Big Ten schedule Big Ten standings Big Ten stats AP Top-25 poll USA Today / ESPN Top-25 poll Sports Challenge: Pick the college winners weekly, win prizes Game photo galleries U-M 33, N. Illinois 17 Notre Dame 17, U-M 10 U-M 55, EMU 0 Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

ANN ARBOR -- The urinals are a color called "Dusty Rose." The walls, shower floors, showers, ceiling and sinks are painted a shade of pink called "Innocence." All of the carpeting is in pink and brown.

Welcome to the visitors' locker room at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium, where pink is the color of choice to weaken and debilitate opposing football players.

Michigan will be the next team to use the locker room when the teams meet Saturday and Iowa tries to extend its 22-game home winning streak.

Former Iowa coach Hayden Fry, a psychology major, first painted the locker-room walls pink in the late 1970s after reading the color has a calming and passive effect on people.

Indeed, studies by psychologists have shown that prisoners in pink cells said they felt calmer.

But during a recent $88 million renovation of the stadium, Iowa officials decided not to limit pink to the walls, as Fry had, but wanted the color everywhere.

"It would probably tick me off a little bit, because it's like sending a message about how you want them to feel," Iowa linebacker Abdul Hodge told reporters.

There was controversy in Iowa City earlier this season when several professors at Iowa said the color demeans women and homosexuals.

The Wolverines said they don't care what color is used in locker rooms.

"You could paint the locker room pink, you could paint it red, you could paint it white ... a locker room is a locker room," Michigan receiver Carl Tabb said.

"You're not in the locker room when you play. Just because I'm in a locker room that's pink doesn't mean I'm going on the field in a pink jersey.

"If you go into the locker room and you're like, 'Oh, I'm in a pink locker room, I feel like a girl now,' of course it's going to have an adverse effect on the team. But no one is going to let the locker room affect how they play."

Said offensive tackle Rueben Riley: "It's nothing -- it's pink walls. You can try to make an issue of it and tell yourself it calms you before a game, but you know, pink walls ... it has no issue or anything with the game."

U-M coach Lloyd Carr said he has never considered doing anything to the visitors' locker room at Michigan Stadium.

"I wouldn't do that to the other school," Carr said. "That's just me. I wouldn't do that."

Some teams, including Michigan, have taken measures to conquer the pink beast.

Illinois assistants wore pink hats on the sideline at Iowa during a 1989 game that the Illini won, 31-7.

In 1996, then-Northwestern coach Gary Barnett had the Wildcats' home lockers painted pink the week they practiced for Iowa. Northwestern won.

Then there was former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, who had his assistants paper the pink walls before the players entered.

You can reach Angelique S. Chengelis at angelique.chengelis@detnews.com.