Iowa’s Mark Gronowski Fights Back Tears as Brother’s Chronic Illness Battle Leaves Him Teary-Eyed

Mark Gronowski has already lived a full quarterback life before his first Cy-Hawk week at Iowa, guiding South Dakota State to back-to-back FCS national championships in 2022 and 2023 and winning the 2023 Walter Payton Award before transferring to the Hawkeyes in January 2025. The move gave Iowa a veteran voice to steady an offense seeking answers, and his debut carried the footprint of a caretaker as he went 8-of-15 for 44 yards and a touchdown with 39 rushing yards and another score in a 34–7 win over UAlbany, a first step rather than a final word.

Ask him why he plays, and Mark Gronowski points past the huddle to his older brother, Ryan, who lives with epilepsy and an intellectual and developmental disability. The relationship that taught him patience long before any playbook did. Ryan is not only family but also a teammate in spirit, a Special Olympics flag football athlete whose effort and joy have given the Gronowskis a second home on sidelines that do not keep score the same way but still feel every victory. That is the thread that has followed Mark from Naperville to Brookings to Iowa City, shaping the way he carries himself and the way he talks about what matters when the helmets come off.

“Really kinda felt like it was me and Ryan a lot in the house together. And having special needs, it kinda made me grow up and mature a little bit sooner because I kinda had to be the older brother for him, growing up.” Mark says. It reads like simple family life, yet it is also where his game-day calm was born, in the habit of showing up and staying steady when his brother needed it most. 

“He is such a special person. Sometimes, not everybody is able to see that in somebody else around them. And for me to have somebody like that in my life. It’s real special.” The line connects to something tangible because Ryan is an athlete too, who helped bring home gold in flag football at the Special Olympics USA Games in Orlando in 2022 for Team Illinois. The Special Olympics results and local coverage captured the joy of that week and the pride that followed the family back to Illinois, the same pride that now finds a seat at Kinnick on fall Saturdays. Mark says, “I play for my brother. He is the main reason why I play.” 

So the box scores matter, and they will change by the week, but the anchor does not, and that is why Mark’s and Ryan’s story feels sturdy as Iowa leans into a season that will ask for poise and purpose in close games. The quarterback with two FCS titles and one Walter Payton Award now measures success in both first downs and family, and the strongest part of his game still answers to Ryan’s name when the helmet comes off. That is the ‘why’ that keeps a huddle together and gives a team something real to carry when the night gets long.

Mark Gronowski is finding his footing

Week 1 asked Mark Gronowski to take his first Big Ten steps with 70,000 voices around him, and the adrenaline showed in a debut that mixed charge with jitters in front of a packed Kinnick Stadium. Kirk Ferentz framed it and said, “A couple thoughts. I don’t want to say underestimate, but to me, what we saw Saturday was a guy who wants to really do well, and it was not his first game in college football, but first game at Iowa, and that means something to him. I think that’s what we all saw.” The point isn’t complicated; care can look like pressing when the moment arrives, so the immediate task is channeling that energy back into rhythm throws, steady feet, and the quiet decisions that make an offense breathe.

Ferentz even reached for a familiar touchstone from Iowa’s past to explain the temperature of the moment. “Yeah, the other quarterback who I always think about who probably played a little bit too much of the game during the day before a game started would be Drew Tate. Drew ran pretty hot, and it was a little bit easier to see with Drew. Mark hides it a little bit better.” That comparison gives Mark Gronowski useful company as a competitor whose edge never needed a microphone, and a reminder that nerves aren’t a flaw so much as fuel to be guided. 

For a veteran who has won big elsewhere, settling into Iowa’s cadence is less about reinvention and more about letting the game catch up to his feet and eyes. Now comes the first road test at Jack Trice Stadium against No. 16 Iowa State, a louder room with the same assignment: breathe, take the gimmes, and let the game come back to him.