Indiana Hoosiers football

The Indiana Hoosiers football program represents Indiana University Bloomington in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football (FBS) and in the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers have played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana since 1960.

The Hoosiers have won the Big Ten Championship three times, doing it first in 1945, again in 1967, and most recently in 2025. Indiana has appeared in 17 bowl games, including the 1968 and 2026 Rose Bowl games. In 2024 they made the College Football Playoff. In 2025, the Hoosiers achieved their second-ever undefeated regular season and won their first national championship in program history. Six Indiana players have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, including Zora Clevenger, Bill Ingram, Pete Pihos, George Taliaferro, John Tavener, and Anthony Thompson, who was also National Player of the Year in 1989. The Hoosiers are currently led by head coach Curt Cignetti.

History

Early history (1887–1957)

In the fall of 1884 the Indiana student newspaper made its first reference to football by reporting that a team was being organized. In 1885 (a year later), a Yale graduate, professor Arthur B. Woodford, came to Indiana to teach political and social science and during 1886 he introduced football to the school. Indiana played one game in 1886, a 14–8 loss to Butler on October 30. Woodford coached the Hoosiers from 1887 to 1888. In the only documented game of the 1889 season, Indiana lost to Wabash College, 40–2. Evans Woollen coached the Hoosiers and the team had an 0–1 record.

By 1891 Billy Herod was head coach. He had never played football but had seen it played in the East. The Hoosiers continued to struggle to find wins, even forfeiting a game to in-state rival Purdue in the 1894 season. The first winning season came in 1895 under coach Dana Osgood, who led the team to a 4–3–1 record. There were two winning seasons in 1896 and 1897 under coach Madison G. Gonterman, who was hired away from Harvard. After coaching the Hoosiers to winning records in 1898 and 1899, coach James H. Horne and the football team joined the Western Conference (later the Big Ten Conference). Horne led Indiana to six .500-or-better records in his seven years. In 1905 coach James M. Sheldon took over and would have the longest tenure of a football coach at Indiana until Bo McMillin coached for 14 years (1934–1947). Sheldon proved to be one of the most successful coaches in Indiana football's early years, leading the Hoosiers to four winning seasons and as high as third in the Big Ten Conference rankings. In 1914 Indiana hired its first full-time coach, Clarence Childs, but continued to struggle to find success. In 1922 construction began on the original Memorial Stadium. It would seat 22,000 fans and $250,000 was raised to erect the new facility. The new stadium was built on the grounds of the golf course and replaced Jordan Field, which had been the home of Indiana football since 1887.

Bo McMillin was the first head coach to lead Indiana football to an outright Big Ten Championship. In 1945, the Hoosiers achieved their only unbeaten season (9–0–1) before 2025. The achievement earned Coach McMillan the title of Man of the Year (by the Football Writers Association) and Coach of the Year (by the Football Coaches Association). Part of the team's success in this period is attributable to George Taliaferro, an African-American who helped break down color barriers in sports and played for the Hoosiers two years before Jackie Robinson suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers. A three-time All-American, Taliaferro led the Hoosiers in rushing twice, punting in 1945 and passing in 1948. He helped lead the 1945 undefeated team. Under Coach McMillin, IU had 10 winning seasons, including a stretch of six consecutive years. His Big Ten record of 34–34–6 is the second best of any Indiana coach, as is his overall winning percentage (.562). His overall record at IU is 63–48–11. On September 23, 1946, McMillin was named Indiana's athletic director. Clyde Smith left Wisconsin La-Crosse and came to the Hoosiers as head football coach following McMillin's retirement. The Hoosiers struggled mightily under Smith, as they failed to win more than three games in a single season with Smith at the helm. Smith's final record at IU is 8–27–1. Bernie Crimmins came to Indiana from his post as an assistant under legendary coach Frank Leahy at Notre Dame and brought along high hopes that IU football prominence would be restored. However, it didn't happen. Like his predecessor, Crimmins failed to win more than three games in a single season, with yearly records of 2–7, 2–7, 3–6, 3–6 and 3–6 for a final record of 13–32 in five seasons. Crimmins was fired as head coach and returned to Notre Dame as an assistant. Bob Hicks came to Indiana from his post as an assistant at Wyoming. He took over the Hoosiers football program for one season while Phil Dickens was being investigated for alleged NCAA violations. He went 1–8 in his only season as head coach, failing to win a single Big Ten game. He returned to his post as assistant coach for the Hoosiers after Dickens was reinstated.

Phil Dickens era (1958–1964)

Coach Phil Dickens, formerly head football coach at Wyoming, guided Indiana to a fifth-place finish in the Big Ten and a 3–2–1 overall record in 1958, his first season at the helm (he sat out the 1957 season while under investigation by the NCAA). That same year construction began on the new Memorial Stadium, which is still the home of the football team today. In the fall of 1960 the Indiana football program was hit with devastating NCAA sanctions. The sanctions resulted from violations that included the offering of free plane tickets to several athletes along with financial stipends, according to an NCAA report, while other recruits were delivered envelopes filled with cash. Indiana denied the charges, arguing that possible recruiting violations were just the work of overzealous alumni. The NCAA, however, didn't buy the claims and saddled Indiana with four years of probation. During this time all Hoosier varsity sports were barred from postseason play. The NCAA also disallowed any Indiana win during the 1960 Big Ten season because of Indiana's improper recruiting practices. The sanctions were a stain on Indiana's notoriously clean record and undermined the ability to convince talented athletes to come to Bloomington. However, Dickens was not held responsible for the sanctions and remained on the Hoosier sidelines for another five years until 1964. Dickens' contract was not renewed after seven seasons.

John Pont era (1965–1972)

John Pont, who came to IU from Yale, took over just as the IU sanctions expired. In 1966 the team achieved only a 1–8–1 record. But the following season, in 1967, Indiana surprisingly had a 9–2 record and shared the Big Ten title with Minnesota and Purdue. The team was invited to and accepted the invitation to play in the 1968 Rose Bowl (Indiana's first appearance; their second would come 58 years later in 2026), but lost to Southern California, the team which would be named national champions. Pont was named unanimous national coach of the year and head coach of the East team in the 1968 Coaches All-America game. With sophomore stars Harry Gonzo, John Isenbarger and Jade Butcher returning for two more years, the Hoosiers were ranked in the preseason top 10 nationally in 1968. Unfortunately, due to injuries and to the return to prominence of programs at Ohio State, Michigan and Purdue, the Hoosiers finished 6–4 in 1968 and 4–6 in 1969 (also partially due to a 14-player African American team boycott). Pont, after only winning five or more games in a single season twice after the Rose Bowl season (never more than six wins), was asked to resign after eight seasons.

Lee Corso era (1973–1982)

Lee Corso left Louisville and took over as IU head football coach in 1973, leading the Hoosiers to two winning seasons in 1979 and 1980. The 1979 regular season ended with 7–4 record and earned a trip to the 1979 Holiday Bowl; there the Hoosiers would beat the previously unbeaten BYU. Indiana's victory over the Cougars propelled the team to 16th in the UPI poll, the Hoosiers' first top-20 ranking since 1967. During one game in the 1976 season, Corso called a time out after his team scored a touchdown early in the 2nd quarter. The entire team huddled together for a photograph with the scoreboard filling the background. It read: Indiana 7, Ohio State 6. It was the first time in 25 years that the Hoosiers had led the Buckeyes in a football game. Corso's record was 41–68–2 over his ten years at Indiana. Corso was fired after ten seasons in which, other than the Holiday Bowl season, the Hoosiers only had one winning season, a 6–5 1980 season.

Sam Wyche era (1983)

For one season, Sam Wyche, formerly an assistant with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, led the Indiana Hoosiers football program. Wyche's Hoosiers struggled to a 3–8 record in his only season at the helm of the Hoosiers. He left IU to accept an offer to become head coach of the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals.