Indiana University Basketball: A Legacy of Hoosier Hysteria

Indiana University's men's basketball team, known as the Hoosiers, boasts a rich and storied history, deeply intertwined with the phenomenon known as "Hoosier Hysteria." This passion for basketball, prevalent throughout the state of Indiana, has fueled the team's success and cemented its place as one of the most iconic programs in college basketball. From its humble beginnings in the early 20th century to its national championships and legendary coaches, Indiana basketball has captured the hearts of fans and left an indelible mark on the sport.

Early Years and the Rise of Hoosier Hysteria

Indiana fielded its first men's basketball team in the 1900-01 season, posting a 1-4 record under coach James H. Horne. The team's early games were played at the Men's Gymnasium, where spectators initially complained about the opaque wooden backboards. These were soon replaced with plate glass, allowing fans an unobstructed view of the action.

The birth of Indiana's passion for basketball can be traced to the game's inventor himself: Dr. James Naismith. Though he invented the sport in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, basketball’s inventor noticed how quickly the sport had caught on in Indiana. Naismith came to Indiana in 1925 to see Indiana’s popular high school tournament. While on a YMCA teaching trip in 1891, a young reverend named Nicholas McCay fell in love with the game while watching Naismith teach it to YMCA instructors. McCay brought the game back to his hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana. Within a year, young men across the state were playing basketball and became passionate about the new game.

The term "Hoosier Hysteria" originated at the turn of the 20th century as the game spread across Indiana’s big cities to its small farming towns. It's a passion for the game of basketball in the Hoosier State, starting with a heavy interest in the state’s famous high school tournament. The high school tournament, which crowned a single state champion for 86 years, became a statewide craze. In 1928, Butler University built what was the biggest basketball gym in the nation: Butler (now Hinkle) Fieldhouse. Hoosier Hysteria’s most famous story came in 1954 when tiny Milan High School won the state tournament on a last-second shot in Butler Fieldhouse. Today, the high school game that instilled basketball passion into Indiana natives lives on. Of the top 15 largest high school basketball gyms in the country, 13 are located in Indiana.

IU's first great head coach, Everett Dean, was at first a standout player who garnered IU's first All-America honors in 1921. In 1924, Dean signed on as the full-time head coach of his alma mater. Under Dean, the Hoosiers would elevate their play to new heights, winning their first-ever share of the Big Ten Conference title in 1926, defeating Wisconsin 35-20. The Hoosiers also won conference championships in 1928 and 1936. Four All-Americans helped lead the Hoosiers in this era: Jim Strickland, Branch McCracken (later coach), Vern Huffman, and Ken Gunning. Dean coached Indiana until 1938.

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Branch McCracken Era: First National Championship

McCracken's first IU team was led by All-American Ernie Andres, later a McCracken basketball assistant. In McCracken's first year, the team finished 17-3, splitting games with both Purdue and eventual NCAA runner-up Ohio State.

The 1939-40 season marked a turning point for Indiana basketball. Led by All-American Marvin Huffman, the team achieved unprecedented success, capturing the program's first NCAA title and setting a record (at the time) with 20 wins. "Coach Branch McCracken's veteran Indiana outfit used a speedy, balanced attack in crushing Valpo," reported the United Press. "All 10 Hoosiers who saw action broke into the scoring column and six of them connected for 10 or more points. The 20-3 record by that team would not be bested for another 13 years until broken again by Indiana. At their home court at The Fieldhouse, Indiana saw six perfect seasons including a 24-game unbeaten home winning streak from 1938 to 1941. Indiana won its first NCAA national championship in 1940, becoming the first team from the East Regional to win the tournament. The Hoosiers beat Kansas 60-42 in the title game, led by 12 points from Most Outstanding Player Marvin Huffman.

McCracken's tenure was briefly interrupted by World War II, but he returned to lead the Hoosiers to further success in the 1950s.

The 1953 Championship and the Schlundt Era

The Hoosiers' 1952-53 NCAA title team - led by Bobby Leonard, Dick Farley, and three-time All-American Don Schlundt - won the Big Ten and went on to win the NCAA championship by defeating reigning champions Kansas by one point. "The Indiana Hoosiers, who matched Kansas in drive and hustle, sneaked by the Jayhawks last night, 69 to 68, to win the National Collegiate Athletic association's basketball championship," reported The Kansas City Times. "Bob Leonard's free throw with twenty-seven seconds to go was the clincher. Indiana won its second national championship at the 1953 NCAA tournament. LSU and Washington also reached the Final Four in Kansas City, Missouri. Washington's Bob Houbregs scored 139 total points to lead all players, including 45 against Seattle. Kansas' B.H. Born was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Newspaper accounts from the era paint a vivid picture of Schlundt's dominance:

"Paced by six-foot-nine sophomore Center Don Schlundt, they peppered the net for 41 points in the first period, while Michigan collected just 18," reported the United Press. "Schlundt sat out the second and fourth stanzas.
"Led by big Bob Leonard, who riddled Iowa with long shots, the Hoosiers never were headed as they raced to their second conference victory," reported the AP.
"Indiana, paced by Center Don Schlundt's 39 points, remained undefeated in Big Ten play with a 91 to 88 victory over an aroused Michigan team tonight," reported the Chicago Tribune.
"Ohio State's Paul Ebert scored 22 points to emerge victorious in his scoring duel with Indiana's son Don Schlundt, but the Buckeye's [sic] were dumped by league-leading Indiana, 88-68, in a Big Ten basketball game here last night," reported the AP.
"Don Schlundt hit five field goals and 16 of 20 free throws Monday night for almost one-third of Indiana's points in an 88-75 victory over Purdue," reported the AP. "It was the eighth straight league victory for Indiana's Big Ten leaders, rated No. 2 nationally in The Associated Press poll.
"Indiana University's basketball team, sparked by the 30-point firing of Don Schlundt, raced to a 65-50 conquest of Michigan State here last night for the Hoosiers' 11th straight Big Ten triumph," wrote The Indianapolis Star's Bob Stranahan. "Only during the first half were the Spartans really in the ball game against Branch McCracken's smooth-working outfit.
"Records fell like rain in this highest-scoring of all the traditional battles between the Hoosiers and Boilermakers," wrote The Indianapolis Star's Bob Stranahan. "Don Schlundt accounted for three of them. His 31 points brought his total to 367 for 14 games and that broke the record of Chuck Darling of Iowa for a similar number of contests.
"(Don) Schlundt's 41 points broke the former Chicago Stadium mark of 37 points by George Mikan of DePaul in 1945, 90 to 70," reported the AP. "Schlundt was a first-half terror to the Irish, counting 18 points in the opening quarter and 12 in the second period.

The Hoosiers would again win the Big Ten the following season in 1953-54. Just a few years later the team won back-to-back conference championships in 1956-57 and 1957-58 behind the leadership of two-time All-American Archie Dees.

The Lou Watson Era and the "Cardiac Kids"

Sandwiched between two iconic coaches in Branch McCracken and Bob Knight, McCracken's longtime assistant and former lead scorer Lou Watson coached Indiana from 1965 through 1971, with a leave of absence in 1970 where Jerry Oliver stepped in as acting head coach. The 1966-67 team, which won a Big Ten championship, was known as the "Cardiac Kids" because of their many heart-stopping finishes. During the 1970-1971 season the Hoosiers were led by All-American George McGinnis.

Bob Knight: A Dynasty of Dominance

Bob Knight's arrival at Indiana in 1971 ushered in an era of unparalleled success. During his 29 years as head coach, the Hoosiers won 662 games, boasting a remarkable .735 winning percentage. Knight's teams reached the NCAA tournament 24 times, winning 42 of 63 games and capturing national titles in 1975-76, 1980-81, and 1986-87.

Knight's impact extended beyond wins and losses. He instilled a culture of discipline, teamwork, and academic excellence. A total of 23 different players under Coach Knight's tutelage received All-American and All-Big Ten honors. For 10-consecutive seasons, a player made the All-American Academic and All-Big Ten Academic Teams, and a total of 18 players were so honored.

Undefeated Champions: The 1975-76 Season

The 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers remain the last undefeated team in NCAA Division I men's basketball. The team swept the entire Big Ten by an average of 22.8 points per game. However, in an 83-82 win against Purdue they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm. With May's injury keeping him to 7 minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky 92-90 in the Mideast Regional. The Hoosiers were so dominant that four starters - Scott May, Steve Green, Kent Benson and Quinn Buckner - would make the five-man All-Big Ten team. The following season, 1975-76, the Hoosiers went the entire season and 1976 NCAA tournament without a single loss, beating Michigan 86-68 in the title game.

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The 1980s: Thomas and Alford Lead the Way

Behind the play of Mike Woodson Indiana won the 1979 NIT championship. The 1979-80 Hoosiers, led by Woodson and Isiah Thomas, won the Big Ten championship and advanced to the 1980 Sweet Sixteen. The following season, in 1980-81, Thomas and the Hoosiers once again won a conference title and won the 1981 NCAA tournament, the school's fourth national title.

In 1982-1983, with the strong play of Uwe Blab and All-Americans Ted Kitchel and Randy Wittman, the No. 1 ranked Hoosiers were favorites to win another national championship. However, with an injury to Kitchel mid-season, the Hoosiers' prospects were grim. Knight asked for fan support to rally around the team and, when the team ultimately won the Big Ten title, he ordered that a banner be hung for the team in Assembly Hall as a tribute to the fans, who he credited with inspiring the team to win its final three home games.

The 1985-86 Hoosiers were profiled in a best-selling book A Season on the Brink. To write it Knight granted author John Feinstein almost unprecedented access to the Indiana basketball program, as well as insights into Knight's private life. The following season, in 1986-87, the Hoosiers were led by All-American Steve Alford and captured a share of the Big Ten title, securing Knight's third and final national championship.

The Early 1990s: Continued Success

From 1990 to 1991 through 1992-93, the Hoosiers posted 87 victories, the most by any Big Ten team in a three-year span, breaking the mark of 86 set by Knight's Indiana teams of 1974-76. Teams from these three seasons spent all but two of the 53 poll weeks in the top 10, and 38 of them in the top 5. They captured two Big Ten crowns in 1990-91 and 1992-93, and during the 1991-92 season reached the Final Four. During the 1992-93 season, the 31-4 Hoosiers finished the season at the top of the AP Poll, but were defeated by Kansas in the Elite Eight.

Throughout the mid and late 1990s Knight and the Hoosiers continued to experience success with superior play from All-Americans Brian Evans and A. J. Guyton. The Hoosiers won a minimum of 19 games and played in the NCAA tournament each year. However, 1993 would be Knight's last conference championship and 1994 would be his last trip to the Sweet Sixteen.

Knight's tenure at Indiana came to an end in 2000, leaving behind a legacy of unparalleled success and a lasting impact on the program and the sport. Moreover, his aggressive and combative actions and communication often brought as much controversy to the school as success.

Post-Knight Era: Challenges and Rebuilding

Following Bob Knight's tumultuous exit from Indiana, assistant Mike Davis took over as interim head coach in the fall of 2000. In his first season, Davis led a team featuring All-Americans Kirk Haston and Jared Jeffries to a 21-13 record. The following year, in the 2001-02 season, Davis was named the permanent coach. That year the Hoosiers captured a share of the Big Ten championship and made an unexpected trip to the 2002 NCAA championship game. But after the Hoosiers lost in 2002 and failed to make the NCAA tournament in 2004 and 2005 (for the first time since 1985), criticism of Davis grew. Following months of speculation, he announced his resignation in February 2006, saying the basketball program needed to move on with a new coach.

On March 28, 2006, Oklahoma head coach Kelvin Sampson was named coach of the Hoosiers, despite a history of violating NCAA rules and sanctions imposed on him. Sampson fielded competitive teams and scored a major recruiting victory by persuading in-state star Eric Gordon to sign with Indiana. The Hoosiers, with Gordon and forward D.J. White, were considered one of the better teams during the 2007-2008 season. However, in October 2007 Sampson was found to have violated rules again, this time by engaging in a 3-way phone conversation with a recruit. In early February 2008 the NCAA informed Indiana that Sampson had "knowingly violated telephone recruiting restrictions and then lied about it." After launching another internal investigation, Indiana officials announced just 14 days later that Sampson accepted a $750,000 buyout of his contract and resigned as the men's basketball coach.

Former player and assistant coach Dan Dakich was named interim coach for the remainder of the season. Under Dakich's guidance, the Hoosiers went 3-4 and 3-2 in conference. A number of college basketball pundits believed that Sampson's tenure at Indiana had effectively ended once the allegations broke. Sports Illustrated college basketball columnist Seth Davis noted that the NCAA had given Indiana 90 days to respond to the notice of allegations. Indiana officials said their internal investigation would only take a week, leading Davis to believe that they had already decided Sampson was guilty. ESPN's Mark Schlabach suggested that the only reason Indiana did not fire Sampson right away was because his contract did not allow the school to suspend him immediately.

The Tom Crean Era: Rebuilding and Return to Prominence

On April 1, 2008, Marquette head coach Tom Crean was hired as head coach and inherited a thoroughly depleted team. Between Crean's hiring and the start of the 2008-09 season, freshman Eric Gordon opted to leave early for the NBA and star forward DJ White graduated. Two other players transferred, one player was dismissed from the team and two others previously dismissed by Dakich were not allowed to return.

The 2011-2012 season was a watershed one for Crean and the program. The arrival of Indiana Mr. Basketball Cody Zeller brought higher expectations for year four. The team earned wins over the #1 ranked Kentucky, the #2 ranked Ohio State, and #5 ranked Michigan State. This made Indiana the first Big 10 program to knock off the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the same season since 1991 and the first IU squad ever to defeat three programs ranked in the top five in the regular season. The Hoosiers finished the season with a 27-9 record, 5th in the Big Ten. The fifteen game win improvement in 2011-2012 was the largest single turnaround in the NCAA that season. Crean's guidance of the program to success from "unthinkable depths" was regarded as one of the most remarkable rebuilding projects in NCAA basketball history. The Hoosiers advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2012 NCAA tournament before losing a rematch game to Kentucky, who would go on to win the national championship.

Following the surprise run to the Sweet Sixteen, the 2012-2013 Hoosiers spent 10 weeks ranked No. 1 in the country, and all but two weeks in the top 5. The experience of Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford, alongside the talent of Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller and freshman point guard Yogi Ferrell, led this team to a finish of outright Big Ten regular season champions for the first time since 2002. They again advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, the first time since the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons that the Hoosiers advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in back-to-back seasons.

After a rough start, the 2015-2016 Hoosiers finished the season 27-8 overall and 15-3 in the Big Ten to win the Big Ten regular season title outright. They received the #1 seed in the 2016 Big Ten men's basketball tournament, where they made an early quarterfinals exit.

Recent Years

Indiana has a glorious history in the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers finished their season with a 19-14 record and won't be getting an invitation to the Big Dance. They've been there 42 times before though, including twice in the past three years under coach Mike Woodson. Woodson also played in the tournament while at Indiana, in 1978 and 1980.

Tradition and Symbols

The Indiana Hoosiers basketball program is steeped in tradition, with several iconic symbols that represent the team and its history:

Candy Stripe Pants: Indiana players wear warm-up pants that are striped red and white, like the stripes of a candy cane. They were first worn by the team in the 1970s under head coach Bob Knight. At the time they were in keeping with the fashion trends of the 1970s, and a tribute to the Harlem Globetrotters who started the trend, but despite changing styles they have since become an iconic part of playing for Indiana. IU star guard Steve Alford said, "As you watch television and you watch the IU games, that's the first thing you saw, was the team run out in the candy stripes. So when you finally got to put those on, those are pretty special." Rusty Stillions, Director of Indiana's Equipment Operations, said the pants were originally available only for team members.
Nameless Jerseys: The team is widely noted for its simple game jerseys. Unlike most schools, Indiana does not have players' names on the back of jerseys that players wear on the court. The notion behind the nameless jerseys is that players play for the team name on the front, not the individual's name on the back. In keeping with Indiana's longstanding principle of putting team over player, the Hoosiers have never retired any jersey numbers. When coach Mike Davis succeeded Bob Knight, he suggested adding names to the jerseys. However, the Hoosiers' minimalist look had become such a part of the program's brand that the proposal was dropped after considerable backlash from fans. Despite the long tradition behind the jerseys, they have undergone some slight changes over the years. The school's colors are cream and crimson, but in the 1970s Knight and football coach Lee Corso started using uniforms that were more scarlet or bright red. During the same time, cream gave way almost universally to white.
"Martha the Mop Lady": In 1971, Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance became the sole sponsor of Indiana and Purdue games on WTTV. During the mid-1970s, the ad featured Martha Webster, an Indianapolis-area opera singer, portraying a janitor sweeping the floors of Assembly Hall while whistling and singing the school's fight song, "Indiana, Our Indiana." "Martha the Mop Lady" introduced Indiana basketball broadcasts for 30 years. Upon Indiana's firing of Bob Knight, Farm Bureau pulled the ad. In 2009 new coach Tom Crean resurrected the tradition and had "Martha" appear at the "Midnight Madness" festivities to begin the season. Because Webster was unavailable, singer Sheila Stephen stepped in as the new Martha.

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