love the college football...

In case you don't know the legend, here's a recap: In one of his more brilliant gambits, Fry ordered the walls of the old visiting locker room at Kinnick painted pink. A psychology major, Iowa's football coach reasoned that the soothing color might placate some of the savage beasts that had pounded on the Hawkeyes for much of the 1970s.

And, heck, if that didn't work, it would at least give them something to think about - and complain about - rather than focus on the game. The old fox never missed a trick.

Over the years, Big Ten coaches tried little ways to counter Fry's stratagem. Most of them didn't work. A few did. In 1989, Illinois assistants wore pink hats on the sidelines at Iowa City, and the Illini won, 31-7. In 1996, Gary Barnett had some students paint Northwestern's home locker room pink the week they practiced for the Iowa game. The Wildcats won at Kinnick for the first time in 25 years.

But the most infamous detractor was Schembechler. Michigan's coach repeatedly grumbled about Kinnick's guest room. He went so far as to order his assistants to paper the walls before he'd dare let his Wolverines enter. Out of sight, out of mind.

This room would give Schembechler a heart attack. It's Bo-proofed, a gaudy Crayola explosion from the patterns on the carpet - pink speckled with brown - to the tiles on the ceiling above. Genius. Madness. Dusty Rose.

"You have to realize," Meyer said with a grin, "how many pink colors I looked at for this project."

She settled on a shade - "Innocence" - roughly the same as a Hi-Liter. To call it bright would be an understatement. When Hawkeye running back Marcus Schnoor first saw it during a team tour last week, he almost had to shield his eyes.

And then Schnoor tells you he's color-blind.

"I could tell it was different," he said. "I thought it was hilarious."