Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza celebrates after scoring against Miami during the second half of the College Football Playoff national championship game, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
They did it! After an undefeated season, IU’s football team put the icing on the cake, winning against Miami in the national collegiate championship game. IU’s Memorial Football Stadium is now hallowed ground. Thank you Coach Cignetti, Quarterback Fernando Mendoza and all the players who were part of this stellar IU team!
IU’s Memorial Stadium first opened in the fall of 1960, just a few months after my widowed mother moved our family to Bloomington. To my then nine-year-old eyes, that concrete behemoth on the State Road 46 bypass looked like the Roman Colosseum or an enormous battleship. It stood like a lonely sentinel. One losing football season followed another. IU’s football program was the butt of many jokes…save for that bright spot in 1968, when the IU football team made it to the Rose Bowl…only to be defeated by USC and its star Running Back, O.J. Simpson.
IU has historically been a basketball school. The “old” Assembly Hall where Coach Branch McCracken coached men’s basketball when my family lived in Bloomington, was the celebrated place to watch IU’s favorite sport. Home basketball games were sold out. Season ticket holders held on to their seats for years. Students were lucky to score tickets. On game days, that old gym crackled with electricity. The roar of the crowd was deafening. I remember being thrilled when a friend’s family invited me to an IU men’s basketball game and I got to see the Van Arsdale twins play.
In 1971, after Coach Bob Knight arrived on campus to coach men’s basketball, and the new Assembly Hall opened its doors, IU basketball ruled. Coach Knight won three National Championships, while the IU football program languished.
Memorial Stadium was rarely half full during football season. IU could scarcely give football tickets away. Tailgating was a bigger deal than the action on the field.
When I was a child, IU sponsored the Knothole Club for young football fans. As I recall, membership was free, as were game tickets. Knothole Club kids even had their own section. Can you imagine Ohio State or Alabama giving up an entire stadium section free of charge to little kids? Knothole Club kids didn’t spend much time watching games, though. We preferred running up and down the steep concrete aisles, getting treats at the concession stands, and practicing our emerging flirting skills. The games were mostly blowouts, anyway…rarely in IU’s favor.
Then, last fall, the makings of a miracle happened. The football program that had once been the laughingstock of college football year after year found a formula for success. Curt Cignetti, the team’s new no-nonsense coach, expected his players to put in the hard work to win, and above all, to be team players. Fernando Mendoza, a quarterback ignored by many powerhouse college football programs, slipped in through the portal and became the undisputed team leader. The stands were suddenly full.
Although neither Cignetti nor Mendoza are native Hoosiers, they exemplify the best of our Indiana values. Both are humble and respectful. They understand the value of hard work and they put their focus on the efforts of the whole team, not on their own star power.
In this day and age, when there’s so much divisiveness in our country, this Cinderella team has been a breath of fresh air. Every IU fan hopes this is the start of a new football era at IU. Whatever happens going forward, we’ll remember this season as the best of times, thankful to Coach Cignetti and a football team that brought IU fans of every age and political stripe together, and united them with a common purpose. Can we keep that spirit going? Hope so! “Indiana, we’re all for you!”
