The ISU football players will not be the only Cyclones running with the Cy-Hawk game ball for this weekend’s rivalry.

Around 60 ISU Army ROTC cadets plan to leave campus on foot with the game ball , making their way through campus and across the state to hand the ball off to cadets from the University of Iowa.

The cadets will run the ball up Lincoln Way, by the Campanile and around campus before heading east.

The two units will meet at the halfway point in Tama at 11 a.m.

Running the game ball from the visiting team’s stadium to the host stadium the day before kickoff has been a tradition for the two ROTC programs for many years.

“It promotes camaraderie and boosts morale,” said Lt. Col. Richard Smith. “With the rivalry of the football [game], we want to add some pageantry to it and energize the locals as well. Pep them for the game.”

The cadets will make stops in Colo, State Center and Marshalltown before arriving in Tama.

“We actually double back [to Marshalltown] once we do the handover,” said Austin Dummer, Army ROTC president. “We get to meet them and hear some of their stories and that’s always been kind of a highlight.”

Simply because the two ROTCs are friendly, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any competition. Donations will be collected along the route to benefit the Iowa Troop Pantry, a nonprofit organization that donates care packages from Iowa to soldiers deployed overseas.

“We compete with the other ROTC programs to see who can donate the most,” Smith said.

The cadets use flyers, a Facebook page and word of mouth to help solicit donations. Drop boxes are also located at the Armory and Lied Recreation Center. Pop-top canned goods, socks, toiletries and stocking caps are popular donation items.

After the game ball run, the cadets will be spending the remainder of the weekend at their Fall Field Training Exercise at Camp Dodge in Johnston.

“[The training] allows the cadets to incorporate everything they’ve learned up to this point in class,” Smith said.

Smith said a total of 165 cadets will participate in the training this weekend.

“It basically seeks to target the cadets developmental instate of the current training that they have so far in the classroom, and it provides them some confidence in their ability to conduct operations in any environment,” Smith said.