Iowa State Track Alum Flies Over Iowa-Iowa State Game

A long standing ritual done at the Iowa-Iowa State games continued this weekend as the game was kicked off when four Iowa Air National Guard F-16 fighter jets flew over. What makes this special is that each of the pilots of the jets were Iowa State graduates. Piloting the four jets who flew 1,000 feet above the stadium traveling at a speed of 400 mph were Major Brian Egger (‘88, Aerospace Engineering), Captain Jeremy Rhyan (‘98 Aerospace Engineering), Lieutenant Colonel Jim Fredregill (‘91, Management Information Systems) and Captain Tom Dunham (‘94, Pre-Veterinary Medicine). Although all the Alums had a special allegiance to the college, among them Captain Tom Durham has an even greater alliance with Iowa State Athletics. Tom, a native of Melbourne, IA, was an ISU Letterwinner in Track & Field. He jumped 6-10 3/4 in the high jump and placed 3rd in the Big 8 high jump. During his time in school, he always wanted to be a fighter pilot and actually took a job as a "bush pilot" in Alaska to get enough flight hours to be considered for the program. In his nine year career in the Air National Guard, he has done tour of duties in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and flown cover over New York City after 9/11. This honor though may be one of his most exciting because to Durham, "Personally, this is something I always wanted to do. I have been to many Iowa State-Iowa games and marveled at the fly overs. This is the Super Bowl of Iowa and everyone in the state is watching. We are honored to get the invitation and it is a great way for us to get involved into the spirit of this outstanding event.”