Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Oct 31, 2026; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes punter Boston Everitt (49) interacts with fans as he leaves the field with teammates before the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Kinnick Stadium.
The FAA’s sudden and surprising ground stop on Friday night brought the entire country to a halt, including several college football programs.
Almost all of those college football programs found a way to make it to their intended destination in time to play on Saturday. That is, except for one.
The Ole Miss Rebels and Oklahoma Sooners will now play on Sunday rather than Saturday after the Rebels insisted they could not safely make it to Norman in time to play on Saturday. Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny called BS. But the SEC made the final call.
Despite all of Ole Miss’s vast resources, there was simply no way.
And yet, Peter Everitt, a 6-foot-8 Aussie Rules football legend and the father of Iowa punter Boston Everitt, somehow made it from Denver to Iowa City without issue.
No flight, no problem: Ground stoppage doesn’t prevent Aussie football legend from making 40-hour odyssey to Iowa to watch son punt
https://t.co/jdgofHdUTm
— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) November 14, 2026
Iowa Punter’s Father Makes Insane Drive To Watch Him Play Against Purdue
The first two legs of Peter’s trip, first from Brisbane to San Francisco and then from San Francisco to Denver, went off without a hitch.
That’s when things got dicey, as Scott Dochterman of The Athletic reports.
When Peter got to Denver, he learned of the ground stop. He first thought about driving 13 hours from Denver to Iowa City, but his wife, Sheree, didn’t want him making such a long overnight drive on foreign roads with no sleep.
So Sheree got creative. She took to social media and asked if anyone was interested in “a nice night drive to Iowa City, look me up.”
As it turns out, a person she had met at a previous tailgate reached out, saying some friends of friends knew two women who rented a car and were planning to make the drive.
“I just ring (Peter), ‘You just need to get off at Hertz. There’s a lady in the car park,’” Sheree said. “He’s like, ‘Who?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’”
And so the trip began.
Peter met up with Danielle Chickenn and Lacy Hawkins, two sisters from Burlington, Iowa, about 70 miles southeast of Iowa City.
Peter tucked his 6-foot-8 frame into the back seat, and they drove. After a brief misadventurenture followed by a stop for salami, licorice, and energy drinks at a gas station, they made it to Des Moines by 5 a.m.
That’s where Peter met another friend, who drove him the final 110 miles to Iowa City.
“It was epic,” Peter said. “It was planes, trains, automobiles, a bus, and two girls from Burlington in a tiny Hertz rental car.”
Peter made it in plenty of time ahead of Iowa’s 6:30 pm. CT kickoff with Purdue. But sure, Ole Miss, there’s just no way you could’ve made it work…