Learning to Chant ‘Hoo, Hoo, Hoosiers!’

by admin | January 23, 2026 7:42 am

I bleed burnt orange most days. The University of Texas at Austin and I have a long, at times complicated, history. I earned a master’s degree from UT, my two oldest daughters graduated from UT as did my middle brother, Scott, and several of my still-close friends. I also worked there for a time. Hence, the complicated history.

But for the past few weeks, since the College Football Playoffs began, I have proudly been wearing red-and-white. Hoosier colors. Indiana University. Their football team, if you have been stuck in a cave since last summer, are national champions as of last Monday, when they beat Miami, 27-21, to go 16-0. IU once had the losingest football team in the country, the first to record 700 losses. No more. Northwestern now holds that unwelcome title.

I would have rooted for IU regardless, but there is a personal connection, a reason our house by gametime Monday was festooned in red-and-white. My Beautiful Mystery Companion earned her doctorate from IU a quarter-century ago, years before we met. She confessed that while living there she only attended one football game and did not make it through a quarter before leaving. Not long after we met in 2008 and quickly became a couple, I half-jokingly asked, “Does IU have a football team?” I am lucky she did not pimp slap me.

The university has been renowned for its basketball team, especially under the mercurial Bobby Knight, he of chair-chunking and player-choking fame. The Hoosiers won three NCAA championships during his 30-years as their coach. Meanwhile, the football team, frankly, stunk most seasons.

We visited Bloomington, Indiana, our first summer as a couple. Daughter Abbie was not quite 11. My BMC still had connections and got us an apartment on campus in which to stay inexpensively. The city, with a population of about 80,000, is the same size as Longview, but it has a distinctive college town atmosphere. IU now has more than 48,000 students, which is a major chunk of the city’s population. The campus is beautiful, the city charming. I would love to return someday.

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In these troubled, perilous times, I cling to sports as an escape. Only two football games remain on my viewing schedule: the New England Patriots face the Denver Broncos for the AFC[1] championship on Sunday. Like IU, their comeback has been remarkable. The team that went 4-13 in the last two seasons is now 16-3. A win on Sunday puts the Patriots in their 12^th Super Bowl, the most of any team. I always watch the Super Bowl, even when the Patriots are not in it.

I have been a Patriots fan since I was a kid in New Hampshire, before there was a Super Bowl. (The first was in 1967. This year’s game is Super Bowl LX — No. 60 for those who never learned how to read Roman numerals.) My godparents’ son was a team physician for a time in the 1960s. He would score me autographed photos from team members on occasion. Sometimes my dad would take me to the grand opening of a new filling station where a (then) Boston Patriot player would make an appearance for extra spending money, so I could get another autograph. I wish I still had those faded photos.

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Curt Cignetti and Fernando Mendoza are now household names, at least for folks who follow college football. The no-nonsense Cignetti was hired in 2024 and promptly took the team, with Mendoza as quarterback, to an 11-2 record and into the CFP for the first time. They lost to Notre Dame.

This season, the highly likable Mendoza won a well-deserved Heisman, and the Hoosiers are national champions. My BMC is over the moon happy. I am thrilled as well. IU fans will celebrate in Bloomington on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. I wish we could go. Even if it were feasible, the weather is not going to cooperate. We need to stay home and make sure all our critters are warm and safe.

The student newspaper reported other events include showing off the gold-plated trophy at the South College Mall Road Kroger, then another trophy appearance at Walmart. Mendoza signed autographs at Dick’s Sporting Goods a couple days ago.

Those Midwesterners know how to throw a party. As they say (I learned this season) Hoo, Hoo, Hoosiers!

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