Amazing Fun Facts About Indiana University Hoosiers Football
The Indiana Hoosiers have won the Big Ten championship twice — in 1945 and 1967. They have been to nine bowl games, including the 1968 Rose Bowl which unfortunately they lost to the USC Trojans.
Guess who was player of the game? That’s right: O.J. Simpson.
They lost 14 to 3, but the school has produced a number of College Football Hall of Famers including Zora Clevenger who was an outstanding halfback for the team from 1900 to 1903.
Now check this out: Zora Clevenger was 5 feet 7 inches tall and 145 pounds. In contrast, possibly the best running back in Indiana University history, Tevin Coleman, who recently graduated and is now with the Atlanta Falcons, is listed at 6 feet one inch tall and 201 pounds on the Falcons website.
So in a little over 100 years, the running back position gained 56 pounds and six inches! And that’s just the running back, which on a position basis is not the biggest player on the team.
To give you an idea, here are some of the players on the current Hoosier roster. Jake Reed is 300 pounds, DeVondre Love is 305 pounds and Tim Gardner is also 305 pounds. These guys probably eat more in one day than a player in 1903 did in a month!
“Yeah, give me 200 pancakes, 400 eggs — 200 scrambled and 200 over easy, 80 pieces of toast, and, uh, a side of beef. No, the whole side. No, don’t cut it up. Cook the whole side, and give it to me. And, uh, a couple coffee.”
Another Indiana graduate admitted to the College Football Hall of Fame was Pete Pihos. He not only got into the College Football Hall of Fame, he was an outstanding player for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1940s and the 1950s. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1970.
But that’s not all. He served under Patton during the D-Day invasion in World War II. He won the Bronze Star and the Silver Star for bravery, and was lauded by his troops as being a true leader in the field.
This guy was the real deal. He was a football star in college and pro, and a war hero. But the most impressive thing about him was that when he got out of Indiana University and went to law school, he was one semester short of graduation he decided to quit.
See, originally he wanted to become a lawyer, but thank you sir for quitting, because if you had become a lawyer, we would not have all the great memories of your accomplishments on the gridiron. And God knows the world does not need any more lawyers.
Q: “Hey you know it’s really cold outside?”
A: “A lawyer has his hands in his own pockets.”
