With the start of the football season less than 24 hours away, 140 Hawkeye fans gathered at Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville for the 2nd Annual HawkeyeReport.com Golf Outing. This year the gathering of Iowa fans had a special purpose in mind, helping raise money for former Iowa Basketball player Kenny Arnold with his growing medical expenses.

Before I get into talking about the outing, I have to thank several people, who without their support, we would have not been able to pull off this event.

Thanks to Ty "Big Burly Bear" Fitzpatrick, who did all of the organizational work for this event. Without Ty's help, I doubt we are able to have this event each year.

Thanks to Mike Zierath and Collegiate Sports for all of their donations and helping with our gift bags.

Thanks to Curt Strait for his donation of trophies and hole prizes again this year.

Thanks to Bob Bruce of WMT Radio for his help in promoting the event on air. Bob had been tireless in helping out Kenny Arnold.

Thanks to the wonderful staff at Brown Deer for working with us this year to make this a first class event.

Thanks to Todd Brommelkamp and Voice of the Hawkeyes magazine for their prize donations again this year and his help at the event.

Thanks also goes out to the follow for their donations of prizes: Wig and Pen, GameDay Iowa, and the Iowa Football program. Also thanks to Wendy for taking pictures for all of us to enjoy. The photos are linked below.

We could not have had a better day to enjoy for our golf outing this year. It was wonderful gathering of Hawk fans who have gotten to know each other on HawkeyeReport.com and could finally put a face with a name.

While the golf was fun, all of us were moved by the spirit to help out one of our own, Kenny Arnold. While many of the golfers were probably too young to have seen Kenny ever play a minute of basketball at Iowa, but that did not stop them from opening up their hearts and their wallets.

When Kenny's teammates, Mark Gannon and Bobby Hansen first told us of the problems he was having last winter, I knew that we had to find a way to lend a hand and this golf outing was the perfect way to do it. We were happy to have Mark with us on Friday to speak about Kenny and also to accept the donation on his behalf.

After Mark was done speaking, perhaps one of the most moving moments that I have experienced happened right before our very eyes. Legend12 pulled me aside and said he would like to donate $1,000 to help Kenny and wanted to challenge us to reach into our pockets and match that donation. Within a few minutes, Todd Brommelkamp counted up the money that was being dropped right in front of us in a very George Bailey type of moment, and we had raised another $1,000 just like that. Huge props to Legend12. That moment will be one that all of us who were there will not soon forget. In total we were able to raise $5,000 for Kenny Arnold on Friday!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who participated this year. Last year we had over 100 golfers and this year we were able to add 40 more to the mix, which is about all we can handle with one shotgun start time.

Block out the Friday before the home opener next year for the 3rd Annual HawkeyeReport.com golf outing. We hope to see you there!

HawkeyeReport.com Golf Outing Photo Gallery:Photo Feature