US Today ranked Bloomington, Indiana, the main campus of Indiana University, as one of the top ten most student friendly towns. Home of the Hoosiers, Indiana University's official colors are cream and crimson. Rivals of the Hoosiers include Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan State, but the biggest rival is Purdue.
Indiana University began its sports tradition in 1867 with its baseball team. Since then, Indiana has acquired 24 varsity teams and one of the best overall records in the country. Joining the Big Ten conference in the late 1800s, Indiana's athletic teams have won a total of 25 national titles won. Men's swimming has won six consecutive titles, men's soccer has won seven, and men's basketball won five. In addition, the men's swimming team has won 20 consecutive Big Ten conference titles and women's tennis has won 16 Big Ten titles across a 21 year span. After the success of the 1971's men's swim team, a Sports Illustrated writer in the 70s dubbed them as quite possibly the best college team ever in any sport.
Hoosier football started in 1884. The team plays in Memorial Stadium which has undergone several renovations since it was erected in 1960. Most recently in 2003, the natural grass field was replaced with AstroPlay artificial turf. Indiana's football team has made 9 bowl appearances between 1967 and 2007, winning the 1979 Holiday Bowl, the 1988 Liberty Bowl, and the 1991 Copper Bowl. Indian tickets for the 1991 Copper Bowl were pretty easy to find. After all, the less popular bowls have tickets to spare.
Indiana's men's basketball team plays at the Branch McCracken Court. Basketball has won five championships which ties them with North Carolina for having won the third most championships in NCAA history. The Hoosiers 1975-1976 basketball team is the last team to have made it to the NCAA tournament without having lost a game during its regular season.
In addition to their success in the Big Ten conference and NCAA championships, Indiana athletes also have a rich tradition in the Olympics. Hoosier athletes have participated in every Olympics since the 1932 Los Angeles Games. Well renowned Olympic gold medalist swimmer Mark Spitz began as a swimmer for Indiana.
Many former Hoosiers currently play in the NFL. Antwaan Randle El of the Washington Redskins, Adewale Ogunleye of the Chicago Bears , Chris Lewinski of the Arizona Cardinals , Aaron Halterman of the Houston Texans, and Victor Adeyanju of the St. Louis Rams are among the NFL players who also played for Indiana.
