Michigan opens the 2010 Big Ten season this week at Indiana. As of now, this season has exceeded my expectations. I knew Denard was going to be fun, I had no idea he was going to become a living and breathing (and smiling) embodiment of a video game character. This week we need to continue to roll on offense and grab a road win. Doing so will be another big step towards bowl eligibility and respectability. Indiana is hungry to beat us after blowing a late lead to us last year.Historically, Michigan has simply dominated this series, we hold a 51-9 all-time series lead. We have won 16 games in a row going all the way back to Coach Bill Mallory and the 1987 Hoosiers. Here is what you need to know about the University of Indiana:
History: The 1816 Indiana state constitution gave birth to Indiana University when it required a "general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation, from township schools to a state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all."Four years later (1820) that mandated "state university" was opened as the “State Seminary”. Part of the reason for the four year delay was an ongoing battle between Indiana’s original land-grant school (Vincennes University) and this new public university. The legal battle raged for years winding its way into the US Supreme Court. Eventually it was decided that despite their best intentions, the state could not pull the original land-grant charter from Vincennes. The state legislature eventually got it’s way in 1889 when it “clarified” the mission of VU re-chartering it from a four-year university to a two-year university. Ouch.
The first buildings were built in 1822, the first professor was hired in 1823, and the first classes were offered in 1824. The first graduates received their degrees in 1830 -- establishing Indiana’s long held tradition of the “six year plan”.
When it opened the State Seminary was an all-male school. In 1828 the school was renamed Indiana College, and then in 1838 it became known as Indiana University. In 1867 Indiana became one of the first public universities in the US to admit women.Other notable events in the history of IU: In 1883, as was the case with many schools of the era, a fire destroyed the original building enabling the school to be relocated to another part of town. Indiana’s first president Andrew Wylie actually died while he was in office in 1851 after chopping off his own foot in a wood cutting accident.
Location: Bloomington, Indiana is located in south central Indiana, about 50 miles from Indianapolis. As you would expect, the actual town is dominated by the university. In 1991, Thomas Gaines, a landscape artist, published a book, The Campus As a Work of Art, in which he named Indiana's campus one of the five most beautiful in America. Most of the campus buildings, built by the WPA during the Great Depression, are made of local Indiana limestone.
The movie Breaking Away, (1979 Academy Award for best screenplay) was filmed on location in Bloomington and the IU campus. The film featured a reenactment of the annual Little 500 bicycle race filmed in the "old" Memorial Stadium on campus, which was demolished shortly after the filming of the movie. The Italian restaurant in the film is now a Thai restaurant (Siam House at 430 E. 4th St). Dave Stoller's house in the film is located at the corner of Lincoln and Dodds. Other scenes were filmed outside the TriDelt house (818 E. 3rd St).Nickname: They call themselves Hoosiers. What the heck is a Hoosier? Quite simply, it is the official demonym for a resident of the State of Indiana. Although residents of most states typically adopt a derivative of the state name, e.g., Texan or Michiganer, the citizens of Indiana never did. It is important to note, that down river in St. Louis, the word is used in a derogatory fashion (nicely translated into "white trash").
The term Hoosier originated in England to refer to someone who lived in the hills or mountains. In colonial America, the term was widely used to refer to white farmers who did not own slaves or large plantations. By the early 1800s it was widely used in Indiana to refer to the poor illiterate farmers that made up most of the population in the state. As sometimes happens, a nickname that originally had a negative connotation was adopted and used with pride by the bearers of the name. By the time of the Civil War this nickname was firmly established to proudly describe anyone from Indiana.
Mascot: Indiana does not have an official cartoon or characterized mascot. They have never attempted to put a cute costumed farmer or haystack on the sidelines to hold the attention of children and annoy people trying to watch the games. Speaking of children, I did find an children's book available for sale called I found U.Colors: Officially the Indiana colors are Cream and Crimson, but to me they just wear Red and White. I guess given the fact that we claim Maize and Blue as our colors, but really we just wear Yellow and Blue -- I should keep my mouth shut.
Interesting tidbit on IU uniform colors, the 1958 Indiana football team came out for their first home game in light blue jerseys against West Virginia. They won that game 13-12 and decide wear the blue jerseys at home for the remainder of the season. I tried, but I could not find a color picture as proof. I will keep my eyes open for a Big Ten Vault program on that season.
Logo: The traditional University of Indiana logo is a classic interlocking I and U. The university has used the same logo for a very long time, although the football team had used a block “I” on their football helmets on several different occasions. I searched and could not find any other official historic logos for IU.The Memorial Stadium football field has the interlocking IU logo in the center, but it is paired with an outline of the state of Indiana. I am a big fan of this look and suggested something like it in my B11 football helmet redesign project in January.
Helmets: For a school that has had the same classic logo since the dawn of time, they sure do redesign their helmets a lot. Indiana is yet another example of my correlation theory of football helmet designs and program success. Simply put, the more often you change your design the less successful your football is. In the Big Ten you need to look no further than Indiana, Minnesota, and Sparty for supporting data. Since 1983 Indiana has made major changes in helmet design no less than six times, including a five year dalliance with black.
They call their band The Marching Hundred, even though there are over 250 members. They won the 2007 Sudler Intercollegiate Marching Band Trophy.
Indiana, Our Indiana,
Indiana, we're all for you!
We will fight for the cream and crimson,
For the glory of old IU
Never daunted, we cannot falter
In the battle, we're tried and true
Indiana, Our Indiana,
Indiana, we're all for you!
Academics: According to the latest version of the U. S. News Ranking of America's Best Colleges, Indiana is now the 75th best nation university in the country. Last year they were ranked at #71. This year they are tied with BYU, Marquette, and Delaware. On the bright side, they are no longer ranked last in the Big Ten Conference, as Michigan State has fallen to the 79th position on the list.
The Jacobs School of Music is the largest of its kind in the US and has been ranked as one of the best in the country along with Juilliard and Eastman School of Music. Indiana leads the Big Ten public universities in the number of endowed faculty positions, with 333 chairs, professorships, and curators.Alfred C. Kinsey was an acclaimed zoologist at Indiana University when in 1938 he turned his research interest to human sexuality. The findings of Kinsey and his small team of researchers first appeared in the 1948 publication Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. His story was brought to the popular conscience in the 2004 biographical film named Kinsey.
Football program: Indiana isn’t what you would call a football powerhouse. They started playing football in 1884, but they did not win their first game until 1891. They became a member of the Big Ten conference in 1899 and in subsequent 110 years they have won exactly two conference championships (1945 and 1967). They have never had a football coach that has won more Big Ten games than he has lost.The best football coach in the history of the school (in terms of wins) was (Doug and Mike’s dad) Bill Mallory. He finished with a career record of 69-77-3. Not many people remember, but Lee Corso was the head football coach at Indiana for 10 years, leading them to their first bowl win (1979 Holiday Bowl) and he finished with a .378 winning percentage. Corso can currently be seen sitting next to Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit on ESPN's College Gameday making an ass out himself every Saturday.
Like most teams in the Big Ten Conference, Indiana has a couple of "trophy games" every year:
The Old Brass Spittoon has been awarded to the winner of the Indiana-Michigan State football game since the trophy’s inception in 1950. The spittoon is said to come from one of Michigan’s earliest trading posts and is believed to be over 100 years old. Legend holds that the spittoon was around when both institutions were founded (IU - 1820, MSU- 1855). This trophy was the flimsy reason Sparty and Indiana were selected as a protected rivalry in the 2011 B10 divisional split. Sparty leads this "rivalry" 40-15-2.They also have a fierce in-state rivalry with Purdue and have competed for the Old Oaken Bucket since 1925. The first game for the bucket ended in a 0-0 tie. Since then, it really isn’t much of a rivalry as Purdue leads the series 70-36-6.
They have produced six College Football Hall of Famers highlighted by former running back Anthony Thomas and one Pro Football Hall of Famer. The great Jim Thorpe was an assistant coach in 1914.
Other sports: When most people think about Indiana, the first thing that comes to mind is basketball. The basketball Hoosiers have won a total of five national championships (the last in 1987). This number is the third most in the NCAA. They’ve also made eight Final Fours (7th all time) and have made the tournament 32 times (5th all time).The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers were last college basketball team to go undefeated, finishing the perfect 32-0 season by beating Phil Hubbard and Rickey Green's Michigan team in the Finals. Legendary
But Indiana isn’t just a basketball school. The soccer team has won seven national titles, including the 2004 championship. The swimming and diving team has six national titles and has produced an incredible 79 individual NCAA titles. They were so dominate in the 1970’s that a writer from Sports Illustrated once said “a good case can be made for the 1971 Indiana swimming team being the best college team ever--in any sport." That team was led by Olympic superstar Mark Spitz.
The Hoosiers have never won a women’s NCAA team title.
Famous alums: Indiana has an impressive list of notable non-sports alumni, particularly in the entertainment area. Emmy award winning sports announcers Joe Buck and Dick Enberg, Oscar award winning actor Kevin Klein, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ernie Pyle and TV host Jane Pauley are all Hoosier alums. The Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors spent some time on the Indiana football team before he was asked to leave following a fight in a fraternity house.Business leaders include Cisco CEO John Chambers, Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, sports rating system guru Jeff Sagarin, and long time baseball union head Donald Fehr. Most people have never heard of Scott A. Jones, but he was the guy that invented voicemail. Jared Fogle, the famous Subway fat guy turned skinny was going to school at Indiana while he lost all that weight. John Thompson did some work on a bunch of military weapons and invented the famous Thompson machine gun used in WWII. And finally, cult leader and mass murderer Jim Jones went to school there, but did not graduate.
For those of you keeping score, Indiana has produced one astronaut, a NASA doctor named David Wolf. They don’t have any US presidents, but they have had at least two presidential candidates: Wendell Willkie, Republican in 1940, and Michael Badnarik, Libertarian, 2004.
The Game: The fine folks at Indiana have had this game circled on their schedules since last September. They feel pretty strongly they got screwed by the officials and replay crew on Donovan Warren's late game interception. I will admit it was a close and difficult call, but the call on the field was made because Warren came out of the tug-o-war with the ball in his hands -- and the replay did not absolutely show the IU wideout ever caught the ball. On the bright side, coach Bill Lynch did catch the eye of major league baseball scouts with the impressive velocity on his gum throw. If you are going to the game in Bloomington, don't sit behind the bench or risk getting pegged.Also, if you are a betting type, TAKE THE OVER.
This game is going to be a shoot out. This morning I woke up from a nightmare based on what an experienced QB, a set of good receivers, and a bruising running back will do to our defense. Indiana has all of these. Then I remembered and laughed at the prospect of Denard shredding their defense in a way that Tate could only accomplish in his dreams. In the end, it will come down to the team that can make the most 3rd down stops and can force a couple of turnovers. I also think we are going to return a kick or a punt for a TD. Something has to go right with our special teams. Right?Color me arrogant, I just can't see this team losing to Indiana. It won't be easy, but in the end, we will win. I think.
Michigan 38
Indiana 28
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