Hawkeye Trio Preparing for Wedding Days
Graves, Hurkett, Jones Getting Hitched
IOWA CITY, Iowa – It’s summer. The sun is shining. Birds are chirping. Love is in the air and inside the Iowa Football complex.
Three Hawkeyes are scheduled to marry their fiancees during the next three weekends. Aaron Graves is up first. Ethan Hurkett and Logan Jones will follow.
They’ve been training for the 2025 season since early June. The nuptials were scheduled during the break between summer conditioning and the start of training camp. For the guys, preparations for their big days haven’t been too hectic.
“I mean, I don’t think any of us has been too involved, to be honest,” a laughing Graves said on Wednesday. “You’d have to ask our fiancees.”
Graves will marry Aubrey Hahn at 4 p.m Saturday in Wisconsin. A week later, Hurkett and Megan Callahan will get hitched in Hiawatha. On July 12 in Sioux City, Jones and Amber Aesoph will tie the knot.
The youngest of the three Hawkeye teammates, Graves turns 22 on July 14. Hurkett and Jones will be 24 during the season. According to theknot.com, 32 is the average age people get married in the U.S.
“I come from an area (Dayton, Iowa) where a lot of people get married young, so it wasn’t that new to me,” said Graves, an honorable mention All-Big Ten defensive lineman last season.
“I think when you know, you know. There was no point in me waiting. After we’d been dating like a year and a half, I kind of knew I’d be marring her.”
That doesn’t keep teammates and others from acting surprised when they find out.
“I know a lot of guys that are like, ‘you guys are getting married? You’re still like 21, 22,” Graves said.
The Hawkeye trio has a guidance counselor at the ready. Their former teammate, Logan Lee, married Tori Verbeck on July 3, 2022.
“He kind of set the precedent for the rest of us,” Graves said.
Lee hasn’t discussed the experience of juggling college football and being a newlywed yet with Graves. He focused on their families growing together.
“He was really excited for me when I got engaged. He wants all of us to get married and start having kids young,” Graves said.
Lee showed them they could schedule summer weddings despite having a busy training schedule and the season being a few months away. Graves even found time to squeeze in the honeymoon with the team getting next week off for the July 4th holiday.
“It kind of lined up perfect. We’re going to St. Lucia for that whole week. So our flight’s leaving, like, Sunday morning, right from the wedding. So, it worked out pretty well.”
Having three weddings in a row means other Hawkeyes are making plans to support them.
“I’ll be at Aaron’s this weekend. So, that will be fun,” fellow defensive tackle Jeremiah Pittman said.
Pittman can’t make the other two ceremonies but thinks it’s cool that his fellow seniors will be getting married three weeks in a row.
“They’ll be able to joke with each other on that, and we’ll be able to hear them. But it’s cool. I mean, being married when you’re young, some people have their opinions on it. But I think the world of these guys, so it’ll be fun to see,” Pittman said.
The newly married couples will be presented with plenty of useful items for their lives. Gift ideas remain on their registries, however. If you’re so inclined, you can feed the Hawkeye love that’s in the air.
