IOWA CITY, Iowa | Fans cheer on Friday night as an announcer introduces Dallas Clark to sing the National Anthem prior to the men's basketball game pitting Iowa against Iowa State.
Hawkeye fans are familiar with Clark, the 6-foot, 3-inch football star from Livermore, Iowa, who gains All-America status as an Iowa tight end in 2002. In 2006 he wins a Super Bowl ring as an All-Pro member of the Indianapolis Colts.
Well, that Dallas Clark isn't about to sing. Instead, it's Dallas Clark the singer, a 5-foot, 1-inch redhead from Milford, Iowa.
While the 19-year-old is a Hawkeye, she doesn't play football. She's never caught a pass from Peyton Manning.
But, oh, can this Iowa Army National Guard Specialist bring the music! Clark, a 2013 graduate of Spirit Lake High School, has 15,500 basketball fans in her grasp as she soars to hit "land of the free ..."
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How does a freshman from Dickinson County end up singing the national anthem before the state's biggest basketball clash?
"At the start of the school year I emailed the admissions office to ask who I might contact if I wanted to sing at basketball games," Clark says on Monday during a break while studying for a final exam. "They told me to come to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to audition."
Her audition before two athletic department officials takes four minutes. Clark finishes singing the song she's sung hundreds of times since learning it 16 years ago. Her evaluators say nothing initially.
"They didn't say anything and finally I asked, 'Was it basketball-worthy?'" Clark recalls.
"One of the women looked at me and said she had goosebumps," Clark remembers. "That sounded pretty good to me."
Clark was notified the following day she'd be singing the national anthem before the start of four basketball games this season, including the night of Iowa State's visit.
"That night was one of the only times I've ever been nervous singing the national anthem," says Clark, daughter of Donna Clark.
There are reasons for nerves. No. 1: It's the largest crowd she's seen. No. 2: She knows many of the students in the crowd. No. 3: She's wearing high heels and has no phone.
High heels? Sans phone?
"I'm 5-foot, 1-inch and I probably looked like an ant compared to those basketball players," Clark says. "So, I wore 4-inch heels. I kind of shake naturally when I sing and I was so afraid my ankles would buckle as I sang because my heels were too high."
Her voice, described as an alto/tenor/soprano combination, rises steadily, as it has for national anthem efforts at the UNI-Dome, the Tyson Events Center and Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa.
Her phone? It's in a bathroom stall inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Battling pregame jitters, Clark uses the restroom and leaves her phone behind. Thankfully, a fellow student finds it and returns it to her.
"When I got my phone back, I had 23 messages from people who heard me sing," she says.
While the famous football-playing Dallas Clark isn't one of her admiring texters or tweeters, he does know Dallas Clark the singer. The two sang together during a summer celebration in Livermore, Iowa, where football Dallas Clark resides with his family after retiring from the National Football League six months ago.
"I've met the other Dallas Clark several times," singer Dallas Clark says. "I opened for a band at a Livermore Days celebration. The band (Vic Ferrari) played for Dallas Clark's wedding. He showed me around town and we went 4-wheeling together."
Football Dallas Clark, she notes, is gracious with his time for singer Dallas Clark. He, like her, is a lefty. The two Dallas Clarks, she says with a laugh, boast a signature that's nearly identical.
I'm sure the recent retiree has signed "Dallas Clark" for thousands of fans through the years. My guess is this singer, whose career is just beginning, will one day scribble her share of Dallas Clark autographs as well.