Imagine being a lifelong fan of Indiana football, hoping your team will finally rise to national prominence — but feeling a twinge of hesitation at the thought of such success. It’s a strange mix of pride and apprehension, and that’s what makes this story worth telling. But here’s where it gets interesting: I might be rooting for Indiana to become national champions, yet I can’t shake a certain discomfort about it.
Let me take you back to my very first Indiana Hoosiers football game. I remember paying only five dollars for the ticket, which was quite affordable even back then. It was September 2005, a time when college football games typically involved more effort to attend, especially at Indiana. Unlike the more popular basketball games at Assembly Hall, the university really pushed to get students involved in football by offering attractively cheap tickets and incentives. Many students would arrive early for tailgating parties, only to end up hanging out in parking lots, rather than actually catching the game.
My initial experience was eye-opening, primarily because of the opposing team — Nicholls State, a small school from beyond New Orleans. That game happened just days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, leading to widespread destruction and suffering. Most of Nicholls State’s players and their families had become homeless due to the storm. Their campus and community were devastated; they lacked basic necessities like running water, and their team uniforms had been washed away in the floodwaters. As a result, the Nicholls State players had to wear their practice gear during the game.
And remarkably, Indiana almost lost that match. It was a nail-biter that only ended with a last-minute rally, resulting in a 35-31 victory for the Hoosiers. By that point, the crowd — which once numbered in the hundreds — had dwindled down to just a handful of students, including myself. Many of us actually found ourselves rooting for Nicholls State to pull off what would have been a touching upset, a feel-good story amid the tragedy they were enduring.
That game perfectly encapsulates a strange twist of emotions for me as a fan: hope for success mixed with empathy for the underdog and those facing adversity. And this is the part most fans might overlook — the complex, sometimes uncomfortable feelings that come with supporting a team through highs that can feel almost surreal, especially when you realize how much context and hardship lies behind those victories.
