On September 2, 2022, I tweeted a selfie of me in an IU football jersey with the caption- "I am ready to get hurt again." I tend to love my sports teams really hard. The Cardinals, the Blues, the Colts, and IU basketball and football. But out of all these teams, the last one has never loved me back. Despite me coming back season after season, IUFB consistently found new ways to disappoint me, and success was very relative.
All of that pain was preparing me for the highest of highs a sports fan can experience. On January 19, 2026, the Football Hoosiers pulled off one of the unlikeliest runs of all time, becoming the first team to go a perfect 16-0 and winning a national championship. If you haven't followed Indiana football, or especially if you haven't followed college football in general, it will be hard to really process what a big deal this is. Stuff like this does not happen in college football, the ultimate sport of Haves and Have-nots. This impossible run has made me reflective of my entire fandom, and I'd like to take you on a journey through my relationship with IU football, in the hope that just maybe you can feel a fraction of what this championship means to me. Hell, it's just as much to help me process it. I thought about chunking this into all one post, but I fear there is no reader alive with the attention span to read this all at once. So we'll do it in parts, and we'll start at the beginning.
In the year 2000, I started to get serious about my sports fandom, and my sports fandom was centered around IU basketball. I started to connect the names and numbers of players, recognize their skill sets on the court, and pay attention to each game. I was enamored with star players like A.J. Guyton and Kirk Haston. My dad, from whom I inherited my Indiana fandom, would take me to the occasional game, which just fueled my passion even more. In early September, my dad suggested we go to an IU football game for the first time.
I'll be honest; to that point, it had not occurred to my 8-year-old brain that IU even had a football team. Naturally, I had some questions.
"Are they any good?" I asked my old man.
"Well...no, they're not very good," he replied.
"Have they ever been good?".
"Oh a few times, but usually not. They have a really good quarterback, though. His name is Antwaan Randle El."
I tried to wrap my developing mind around such a name. Randle El? I became fixated with the player leading up to my time with the game. Something else I learned in the weeks prior to our game was that IU football had its own logo and color scheme. Instead of the classic "trident" logo of a superimposed block "I" and "U", IU football wore a red oval on their helmets.
On September 30, 2000, IU hosted the Iowa Hawkeyes at Memorial Stadium. I didn't really know it at the time, as I had little to compare it to, but the stadium was pretty humble for a Big 10 school. With two large sets of bleachers on either side of the field, the ends were open at both end zones. The stands were probably half full, at best.
I remember two things specifically about that game. First, the new basketball coach, Mike Davis, and a few of the basketball players were sitting just a few rows in front of us. Dad recognized them, and I considered going down to ask for an autograph; ultimately I couldn't muster up the courage. The second thing I remember...is Antwaan.
Wearing number 11, Antwaan Randle El stole the show every time he stepped onto a football field. A decent passer, he was known for his electric running style and versatile, athletic skill set. He frequently had games where he scored touchdowns as not only a passer and runner, but as a receiver as well. Sometimes he would do all 3 in one game. At one point late in our game against Iowa, Antwaan scrambled for a 60+ yard TD run that ultimately sealed the game. I remember I was watching the play develop with binoculars, and I couldn't keep up with the speedy QB.
IU won that game, their second of the season. That year, they would go on to win one more to finish with a 3-8 record, fairly typical for the program at that time. Antwaan would go on to be drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he played Wide Receiver and returned punts. He would go on to win Super Bowl XL, a game where he threw a touchdown pass on a trick play. He finished his career at Washington, and now is the Wide Receiver Coach for the Chicago Bears. I followed his pro career enthusiastically, and he was the first football player I ever really idolized (yes, even before Peyton). Among the many IU football jerseys I own, I have a custom jersey with my last name on it. The number? Antwaan's 11. I will always associate him as the godfather of IU football, and without him, it's doubtful my fandom would have progressed much further.
Upcoming: Part 2 - Coach Hep
