'Wave to the Brave' Song Inspired by Hawkeye Football Tradition at Stead Family Children's Hospital

One of the most famous traditions in college football is “the Wave” at Kinnick Stadium at the end of the first quarter. A song written for a contest held by the University of Iowa athletics department brought together two old high school friends turned Quad Cities songwriters. Brad Nye and Todd Malcolm spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom to discuss songwriting and how the children at Stead Children’s Hospital inspired their song, “Wave to the Brave.”

“I’ve been in the music business for years,” Nye said. “Todd and I had been good friends since high school. We can remember riding in the car together, listening to Bob Seger or the Marshall Tucker Band. There’s a lot of good music in the 70s. Todd, he’s creative, he’s a jeweler. He will send me poetry, lyrics and other things. Todd doesn’t really play any instruments, but he has a very musical mind and is very easy to work with.”

“We both enjoy the written word and we exchange each other, sharing poems, stories and songs,” agreed Malcolm. “We try to be cheerleaders for each other so we can keep chasing our dreams.”

“I had seen that the University of Iowa athletics department had a composition contest,” Malcolm said. “I knew Brad was writing songs and making jingles, so I contacted him by phone. I said, ‘Hey, they’re writing a song for one of the biggest new traditions in all of college football at the University of Iowa for Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Brad had heard this before, ‘Wave on Wave’, by Mr. Green, who he knew personally. He touched the computer. We saw some songs and thought ‘they’re 45 seconds long and a minute and 15 long’. He said, ‘Todd, why don’t you write some lyrics and send them to me?’ Over the next few days I wrote some lyrics and I think I sent him four verses and a chorus. Then Brad got to work and worked his magic in consolidating it and bringing all of our ideas together and creating the song.”

Malcolm attended the University of Iowa for a few years, as did his sister, and his uncle was a past president of the I Club. The family ran a jewelry store in Iowa City for years. Nye’s sister also attended Iowa.

The writing process happened piece by piece, with help from musicians across the country, including Davenport, Nye said. “I would text Todd different versions of his lyrics and we consolidated them. It all happened quickly and we both agreed, ‘Man, let’s record this and send it to the kids, because it’s an amazing tradition in sports. I live here in Naples, Florida, now full time, my wife and I. I work with a great young guitarist called Mason Williams, who has a home studio. I just laid out the basic guitar and vocal with a click track, just a metronome. We sent it to Mark DeKalb in Davenport. He’s a huge Hawkeye fan and is a great drummer. He plays in Rolling Thunder, the AC/DC tribute band in the Quad Cities, and he used to play with Lynn Allen and is a big influence on me. We had to send it to him, he had to play in it.”

“I have a band in Nashville called Hubcap Moses with great musicians there and I asked Joanna Janae to sing with me on the chorus,” he said. “She is a professional singer, sings for Amy Wilson, Faith Hill and LeAnn Rimes. They all understood, they knew the tradition, and they all just donated their time, and we put it together and shipped it.”

“I think a lot of people participated in the contest because it’s a great thing for the kids and the university,” Malcolm said. “It just sends shivers down your spine, because everyone stops for a moment, both sides, opponents, managers, everyone stops to wave at these children. Brad and I really enjoy the kids, the community, and the people. We like meeting people. And this is the best of all three.”

The song hasn’t played to Kinnick fans yet, but it’s being shared with Hawkeye supporters in other ways. “There’s a woman, Kimberly Stevens, who’s in Orlando, Florida, at the children’s hospital there, and she interprets,” Nye said. “There’s a large contingent of Hawkeye down there, apparently. And she’s been great. So the kids love it there, and Todd and I thought, hey, if the University of Iowa wanted to use it, because they could, it would be cool if the tradition actually had a song that everyone knew, you know, that was part of the tradition. ”

The contest rules changed a bit after the song was submitted, says Malcolm. “They would select eight songs, and then they would narrow it down to four songs, and then the general public would vote. But they changed the decision a little bit on that and changed the rules. We ended up not being among the top 10 songs. But that doesn’t mean kids can’t select it. They’re letting the Kid Captains select the song of the week, which happens on Wednesday, and that’s the song they use to play.”

They were happy to offer the song to the Hawkeyes after the contest, Nye said. “We truly offer the school and the world what can be used for good. That’s what we wrote for.”

“We want people to feel the sparkle of the music and have fun, and we hope it touches them like it touched us,” Malcolm said. “I really admired how Brad consolidated this and brought it all together with musicians from all over the country. That makes it even more special, because I actually don’t think I would change anything about the song. I thought we captured what we tried to do.”

“One time when Brad and I were going back and forth on a piece of paper, I had written ‘cheer’ or ‘anthem,’ and we were talking, and he said, ‘Todd, we need to make this an anthem,’” he said . “I started laughing and saying, ‘yes, you got it right.’ So hopefully we can do more collaborations in the future on songwriting. We like to help each other, exchange ideas and support each other, because that’s what creativity and art are all about.”

Nye has a special message for the kids who are waving back. “Just keep fighting. You children. You brave children. There’s an entire Hawkeye Nation behind you and we love you.”

Click here to watch the video for “Wave to the Brave”.

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