Last night, Bob and I drove onto campus, into a free parking lot with our generously gifted season tickets from our homeowners, to take in an Indiana University women’s basketball game. They played conference rivals Illinois. Sadly, although they rallied late in the third period, they lost the game 68-54.
On the other hand, we had a great time exploring the arena and experiencing some of the IU traditions.
we passed the IU football stadium.
in various sports
While we were there to attend a women’s basketball game, the men’s teams have been more recognized nationally, and there were multiple displays on site to honor some of the important individuals in the history of their men’s program.
known as the Father of Indiana Basketball.
He was the first player to earn All American honors (1921),
and as coach he led the Hoosiers
to their first Big Ten Championship in 1926.
to play in the Big 10 Conference.
Jim Crews, and Tom Abernathy.
The video below is a snippet of what was played about 5 minutes before the game, and it was announced as an Indiana tradition. It is even listed in the program as Martha the Mop. It is a video of a woman with a mop singing a school song. Students even wave life size cardboard figures of her with a mop.
The school website indicates that beginning in 1971, the Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance was the sole sponsor of IU basketball games and began running commercials immediately before the games which featured Martha Webster, an opera singer, dressed as a cleaning lady, singin the Indiana fight song. It ran during the the time when IU won three national titles. It was brought back in 2010 on the video board rather than a TV commercial.
I think I lied. Not sure this one had any fewer words than the last one.
Peckish Travels 