January 1, 1968, ushered in probably the most chaotic and consequential years in American historical past and it’s oddly becoming that the yr started with an out-of-the-ordinary occasion going down in California. A Hailey’s Comet-like oddity that when you consider it, doesn’t make sense contemplating what got here beforehand and what got here afterwards.
The Indiana Hoosiers participated within the Rose Bowl. Sure, that actually occurred.
Indiana soccer was referred to as a historic loser properly earlier than the 1967 season and by no means got here near sniffing the Huge Ten’s postseason future of a visit to Pasadena. Starting in 1947, the Huge Ten (then Huge 9) and Pacific Coast Convention got here to an settlement to pit their respective convention champions towards one another within the Rose Bowl, bonding the 2 leagues by means of varied iterations for many years to come back. The very concept of briefly escaping the frigid winters of the Midwest for a pleasing New 12 months’s trip in sunny Southern California turned the aspirational purpose for each program within the Huge Ten and 9 applications achieved this feat by means of the primary 20 years of this custom.
You possibly can most likely already guess that the tenth program that didn’t obtain this glory was Indiana, who had failed to complete increased than sixth within the league standings throughout this two-decade stretch. The downtrodden program took a swing in 1957 by hiring profitable Wyoming coach Phil Dickens, who proceeded to instantly commit recruiting violations in such a brazen and sloppy method that the NCAA dropped the hammer on your entire athletic division within the early 1960’s. The sanctions hamstrung the struggling soccer program even additional and new head coach John Pont inherited a multitude in the course of the last decade, bottoming out with a 1-8-1 document in 1966.
After which they gained the dang convention the next yr. Wait, what?
The “Cardiac Children” Indiana group of 1967 was one thing straight out of a Disney film as Pont’s group gained seven one-score video games. A second-half comeback towards Kentucky, a pretend field-goal for a landing towards Iowa, and taking the Previous Oaken Bucket from rival Purdue had been among the many highlights of the Hoosiers’ stunning 9-1 marketing campaign that yr, forcing a uncommon three-way tie for the Huge Ten title with the Boilermakers and Minnesota. On the time, the convention had a “no repeat” rule for its Rose Bowl consultant and since Purdue had gone the yr earlier than, they had been out. And contemplating that IU had by no means made the pilgrimage out west whereas Minnesota had made two earlier within the decade, the Hoosiers received the nod for Pasadena.
That brings us again to New 12 months’s Day 1968, the place Indiana stepped into essentially the most storied venue in school soccer to battle the consensus nationwide champion USC, recent off beating UCLA in a “Recreation of the Century.” The Hoosiers’ luck ran out in a 14-3 loss to the Trojans and Heisman Trophy winner O.J. Simpson, who would in fact go on to be identified for his Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame profession and completely nothing else.
That transient second within the California solar proved to be fleeting for Indiana because it rapidly regressed again into being a proverbial doormat within the Huge Ten for a number of many years, even taking the mantle of the losingest program within the historical past of faculty soccer. However the “Cardiac Children”of that yr was an instance of the game at its finest. An extended-suffering program seeing the celebrities align to make the dream of standing on the sphere with USC within the freaking Rose Bowl a actuality. Their wildest imaginations got here true.
This yr’s Indiana Hoosiers will compete within the the 2026 Rose Bowl this afternoon as each the No. 1 group within the nation and a favourite over a historic juggernaut within the Alabama Crimson Tide. Sure, that is really occurring.
Indiana’s rise over the previous two years eerily echoes its out-of-nowhere run in 1967 as new head coach Curt Cignetti inherited a program that skilled simply 4 profitable seasons over the prior 30 years mixed. Efficient use of the switch portal, glorious participant growth, and a few simply flat out good ball coachin’ had been the elements that has allowed his Hoosier program to go from Huge Ten doormat to Huge Ten powerhouse nearly in a single day. He’s now accountable for the one two 10+ win seasons in IU historical past and because of this, Northwestern now wears the crown because the losingest program in school soccer. And in contrast to the scrappy “Cardiac Children” of ‘67, Cig’s group has completely bludgeoned opponents, coming into the postseason with an common scoring margin of 27.6 factors per recreation this yr.
But regardless of two years of proof of idea, there may be nonetheless a reluctancy to think about the Hoosiers on par and even higher than the game’s conventional powers. That was the case coming into final month’s Huge Ten Championship Recreation, the place it confronted reigning nationwide champion Ohio State in a high-stakes showdown of two applications which have lived fully completely different lives in the identical league. What resulted was the Hoosiers going blow-for-blow with the Buckeyes for your entire night in Indianapolis, triumphing 13-10 to win this system’s first outright convention title in 80 years.
On prime of their first journey to the Rose Bowl since ‘67, the college was additionally rewarded within the type of star switch quarterback Ferndando Mendoza turning into the present face of faculty soccer by profitable the Heisman Trophy and also you’re about to see his face much more because the doable No. 1 total choose within the 2026 NFL Draft. In simply 24 months, a beleaguered program noticed their wildest imaginations true and in contrast to that Hoosier group of the late ‘60’s, there could possibly be some endurance right here.
In the event you’ve observed, I haven’t talked about the time period “Faculty Soccer Playoff” till now as a result of frankly, I discover the playoff to be intrusive. We now have engineered a system that nobody is ever glad with and the answer is to maintain making tweaks that can inevitably make the issues even worse. From Notre Dame embarrassing itself after being disregarded of the dance to television analysts wanting the Group of 5 summarily executed for merely present, the fixed discourse of this event is tiring and the over-emphasis on figuring out a nationwide champion lessens the influence of issues that come earlier than it.
Take the aforementioned Huge Ten title recreation between Ohio State and Indiana. This was a No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle between the undefeated reigning nationwide champion and an undefeated upstart that was actually the face of dropping within the sport. That recreation performed out as an epic down-to-the-wire battle the place the underdog knocked off the blueblood by a subject purpose, incomes each the convention championship and a visit to Pasadena. The magnitude of that particular outcome would’ve been one thing that we talked about for many years and as a substitute, it has been rendered as simply one other recreation on the way in which to this 12-team event that we’ve concocted. No completely different than a Week 17 matchup between two playoff-bound groups within the NFL.
That irks me and is a large motive why I’ve determined to take up your time with this piece. Indiana is 13-0 and within the freaking Rose Bowl man. One thing like that’s solely presupposed to occur within the school soccer online game and but right here it’s taking part in out proper earlier than our eyes. Each fan of a “haven’t” program goals of a day the place they’ve their second within the solar. The place the combo of institutional ambition, an amazing teaching employees, and even better gamers can help you enhance your lot in life. That’s what this gloriously dumb sport is about and we shouldn’t lose sight of that.
