My family is originally from out of state but moved to eastern Iowa in the mid-80s. My dad had no use for college athletics and my mom hated sports altogether, so with no influences from my parents and considering the environment I grew up in, I naturally became an Iowa fan. Actually, when I was going to school in Davenport at that time, being an Iowa fan wasn't all that popular of a thing - there were a lot more fairweather Michigan, Notre Dame, and Miami fans (funny how all those people are now Iowa fans). Probably why I hate all of those schools to this day.
When it came time to apply for college, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be an architect or an engineer. Iowa had only an engineering program, Iowa State had both (and a better engineering program at that). I didn't even apply for any other school other than Iowa State, and by the time the Iowa-ISU basketball game rolled around in the fall of 1996 I had fully converted to being a Cyclone.