I AM NOT an Indiana University sports activities fan. I by no means have been and thought I by no means could be.
But proper now, like many different non-IU followers, I really feel like I need to root for the Hoosiers as a result of what number of instances does an Indiana faculty have a soccer crew this good with a coach this personable? At this level within the season, it’s in regards to the state’s fame and winning the Big Ten.
I’ve all the time loathed all issues sports activities at IU, particularly when it got here to soccer and basketball. The nice rivalry between Bobby Knight and Gene Keady throughout basketball season fueled the hate. And Purdue followers have been solely sometimes fearful about IU soccer … that’s till now.
Don’t get me fallacious, I really like Bloomington: Kirkwood Avenue and Kilroy’s Sports Bar, The Bluebird, the limestone, the quarries. I spent many weekends in Bloomington with associates and all the time had fun.
I lived in Bloomington with my first spouse, a Purdue grad like me who labored as a pharmacist on the Bloomington hospital proper after her commencement. We have been married behind the 16th inexperienced in entrance of our rented rental on the The Golf Club at Eagle Pointe, and I commuted to downtown Indianapolis for work day by day from there.
I’m a journalist, so I’ve had the pleasure of working with many IU grads over time and loved each minute. We all know the fame of The Media School and the Indiana Daily Student newspaper and the standard work from positive journalists that Indiana continues to provide.
There have been solely 9 days a yr when tensions amongst my colleagues could be heightened, and people included the day earlier than a Purdue vs. IU sport, the day of the sport, and the day after. Depending on the outcomes, it was both a pleasure to go to work or a day of impending doom.
But this season is completely different. IU soccer coach Curt Cignetti and college management have positioned this system in a really favorable, practically unfathomable place of success. Nobody may have predicted the turnaround that has occurred within the final three years. But right here we’re because the Hoosiers defeated the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes for the primary time within the final 30 conferences for the Big Ten, popping out because the No. 1 seed and favourite to win the College Football Championship.
So how can I root towards the Hoosiers, a crew I’ve opposed for the previous 45 years? I used to say that I’m a fan of Purdue and whomever performs IU. I really like watching the basketball crew lose. The soccer crew was so unhealthy for therefore lengthy all of us turned numb to its ineffective play week after week.
With this Cignetti crew, I’ve discovered I’m not a purist anymore. Maybe it’s my age of enlightenment that permits me to search out frequent floor to place away my previous hostilities to cheer for the Hoosiers.
This motion doesn’t set a precedent for me. I grew up in Ohio and spent my youth as a Buckeyes fan within the days of Woody Hayes, Rex Kern, John Brockington, Archie Griffin, and the like. But after I attended Purdue, that allegiance fell by the wayside and I used to be—and nonetheless am—all in for Purdue. I all the time allowed myself to secretly cheer for the Bucks in large sport conditions however by no means towards the Boilers.
I absolutely anticipate IU to win the Rose Bowl as a result of that’s what Cignetti groups do—they only win. Instead of treating this crew because the enemy, I’m going to take pleasure in this journey and flip the swap from anguish to pleasure as I watch the upcoming playoffs. But don’t anticipate me to purchase IU gear or put on purple. That is taking it too far.