My Maiden Voyage to Bloomington, IN

I had 2 teams left to see on the Big Ten In-Person challenge: Indiana & Michigan.  As it worked out, I would see them back to back weekends against Wisconsin to kick off November.  With the wife and my buddy Stuttering Danny (*Note, Stuttering Danny does not actually stutter... except that one time) in tow, we made our way down on Friday night.

We stayed at the Ramada near the Indianapolis Airport on Friday night to cut the drive time down on Saturday morning.  The wife and I got a room and Danny booked his own room.  Problem was, Danny apparently never learned how to tell time, dates, etc because he had booked his room for a night in December.  Scary potential-rapist hotel clerk Larry asked if he'd be back to join them in December and Danny told them no.  Thankfully it all worked out and Danny actually got a rate lower than what he booked it for.  But scary potential-rapist hotel clerk Larry managed to still ruin his night by calling his room 10 minutes after he got in to make sure there was nobody else in the room already.  You'd think you'd have that information available to you when you assigned a room.... (post-script: Danny was not raped that night by hotel clerk Larry).

Memorial Stadium in Bloomington is relatively easy to find and access.  Less than an hour's drive from Indy and only a couple short turns once you reach the city, the stadium has plenty of available parking (it helps that only 9,000 people attend games... *Note: That number may not factually correct*).  We arrived in plenty of time to put down some pre-game drinks with a few of the wife's friends.  The tailgating scene at Memorial Stadium is rather cool.  They have gravel parking lots on one side of the stadium where we saw plenty of Wisconsin fans gathering and partying it up.  On the opposite side of the stadium, where we were, there are paved parking lots and a beautiful grassy, tree-filled area where fans tailgate.  It's really pleasant, for lack of a better, less-old-ladyish word:

(Photo 1.  Nice wide-range view... but there's plenty more than what's pictured)

(Photo 2.  See, doesn't this look like something you'd like to do on a weekly basis?... I would.  And all I care about is football and booze, but this still satisfies the hunger for... something.)

Some schools you'll find have one or 2 notable alumni that people are waaaaaay too fond of.  Like, there's an unnecessary amount of love and pride towards certain people.  Like, if you're talking to someone from that school, not 10 minutes will go by without them mentioning, "Hey, did you know _______ went to _____?  Yeah, pretty cool that he's/she's one of us."

Purdue has Neil Armstrong/Drew Brees.

Northwestern has Michael Wilbon and half of the famous actors in Hollywood.

Michigan has Tom Brady (and for a few weeks in the summer of 2008, they were proud to claim Michael Phelps as their own)

Illinois has Roger Ebert.

Michigan State has Magic Johnson (or Plaxico Burress, or Charles Rogers, or Tony Mandarich, I guess).

Indiana?.... Indiana has this:

(Little ditty, 'bout Promotions & Marketing.  2 Departments ... along with Media Re-la-tions.  Promotions gonna get, the fans in the seeeeattts.  Media Relations said "that's great Promos, now go beat your meat. ..... Oh yeah, life goes ooonnn, long after the thrill of livin' is gone.)

Of course, option 2 is this goof.

Ok, he probably counts too (I still absolutely love this and would love to have it as my alarm wake-up tone).

After putting down a 12-pack in an hour and a half or so, Danny and I started our walk towards the stadium. There was this section of corporate-sponsored tailgating festivities near the area where we were hanging out.  At one point I looked over out of the corner of my eye and go "Why is there a picture of Che Guevera on top of that tent?"  As we got closer, we realized it was the Geico caveman.  But, you be the judge:

Or.....

(Anyone else see the resemblance?  I'm not fucking crazy.  And I'm not a Cuban Revolutionary...)

The actual stadium itself is pretty nice.  They had some work done on it last off-season, updating the north endzone, and it shows.  It's got a quasi-NFL-style stadium feel to it in the north endzone.  Of course, I had never been there before and have nothing to use as a reference point, but all told, it's a very well put-together and friendly stadium.

(North endzone)

(Wider angle....and that's about all the fans you'd see in that area through the course of the day)

Indiana is obviously a basketball school, so to expect the place to be sold out on a regular basis is asking a lot.  You could have 10 straight years of an Antwaan Randle El / Vaughn Dunbar combo playing at their apex and you still probably wouldn't sell out more than once or twice a year.  It's just fact.  It's law.  It's life.

As is tradition for me, I try to sample a Big Pretzel at every game I go to.  Lately I've been sluffing off, but I managed to get one at Memorial Stadium, and take a look at this:

(Huge, huge pretzel.  Totally worth the $4ish.  The size and taste were epic.  No complaints there.  But the temperature left something to be desired.  I'm pretty sure they were cooked up the night before and then just left sitting in the 60 degree sun during the morning with the idea of "eh, it'll be warm enough.  Nobody will notice.")

Speaking of the weather, it was near 70 degrees during the day.  November 7.  In the Midwest.  It's a littttttle warmer than I like my weather (60, overcast, crisp 5-10mph wind = Hoigaard weather), but I'll take it.  Mother Nature, you are a wonderful, sassy tart.

Another cool thing about Memorial Stadium is a mini-football field in the South endzone where they just let kids run amuck during the game.  There are so many opportunities for balls flying on the field (they did), and stuff like this to happen.

(This was early in the game.  From mid-way through the first quarter until the end of regulation there were about 200 kids on the field at any given time.  Mass hysteria.  Lots of crying.  2 guns were confiscated.  A knife fight broke out at midfield)

(Before I forget, this is the infamous "Rock" that you hear Bill Lynch reference in these commercials)

Danny's pops hooked us up with some seats through the alumni association, so it was nice to be surrounded by Badger fans.  You don't often get that vibe at an away game.  In the section right next to us there was a group of college kids there on a drunken bus trip.  Which is great.  I encourage this.  College revelry and road-tripping, awesome.  But, when you're spending the entire 2nd half of a 3-pt game singing techno songs and dancing and not having any idea of what's going on, then you need to re-assess.  I mean, you can get retarded drunk at home.  Why spend the time and money to go to Bloomington to do it and then not pay any attention to the game?  Maybe I'm just old and crusty now.  Whatever.  I like to think you can balance complete belligerent booze consumption and basic understanding of game status.  Maybe I'm wrong and maybe the kids these days can only handle one at a time.  Eh, whatever.

Speaking of traveling to the game.  This group really puts my whole "See every Big Ten team this fall" thing to shame:

(Tip of the cap.  Well played)

Memorial Stadium also has a pretty good scoreboard, comparatively to the rest of the places I've seen.  They've got a replay board, all the pertinent information, and an up-to-the-second yardage breakdown, which I always like.  The only negative?  No out of town scoreboard.  People in positions of power at Universities, how many times do I have to say this?... In this day and age, there is no reason for a school to not have an out of town scoreboard.  Christ, even Northwestern has one, and they can only allow 20 people in the stadium to use the restroom at any given time.  All it takes is a small ribbon-board, put it above the top row of one of the endzones or corners, and then hire some over-eager student to plug scores in.  Not hard.  Real simple.  Do it.

(Said scoreboard)

Bucky looked good for a half.  The first half was utter domination.  UW had 300+ yards in the first 30 minutes and it looked like we'd all be back in the parking lot by mid-way through the 4th.  But the John Clay injury seemed to really mess with the UW gameplan in the 2nd half (yes Montee Ball played like a stud, but it was a different feel to the game in the 2nd, especially defensively), and IU chipped away and ended up with over 300 yards passing on their own, only losing by 3.  A couple players that really had me impressed when it was over were Chris Borland for UW (not the first time I've nodded my head in approval for him) and Tandon Doss for IU.  I can see Borland morphing into an Andy Katzenmoyer-type collegiate style player when all is said and done (say what you want about Katz's pro career, but he was the most feared college player in universe in his glory days at that shitty school which I will not mention).  Borland should be a pre-season All-Big Ten pick next season and then the sky's the limit from there.  He had an interception in this game that was giggle-worthy.  Very athletic play.  And Doss is just a sick receiver.  I've seen him on TV a couple times already, but seeing him live is really impressive.  He's got wheels, he's got great hands, seems to always be open (leads me to believe he's a good route-runner as well).  He's what A.Benn should be @ Illinois if anyone could throw him the ball.  See, you can be a productive WR on a shitty team.  You just need a QB who can throw half-respectably and a playbook that has more than Play 1: Deep Pass, Play 2: QB Scramble.  Indiana may struggle for the forseeable future, but damn if their offense isn't entertaining to watch when they're clicking.  Which is weird, because coming into the season, their defense (and D-Line especially) was supposed to be their money-maker, and their offense was a question mark after the dismissal of Kellen Lewis (QB).  But they've acclimated themselves quite well throughout the year and have become "a mediocre team with occasional upset-potential" rather than the anticipated "pure drivel."

And with that, I think the cheerleaders sum it up best:

(Beer!)

Next up, a potential triple-header this weekend: Maple Leafs @ Blackhawks Friday night (my first time seeing my Leafs in-person.  Yes, they suck, but I'm as excited as a pig in shit), Michigan @ Wisconsin football Saturday morning, and then Alaska-Anchorage @ Wisconsin Men's hockey Saturday night.  I may be in line for a 20,000-word post after a weekend full of travel and little sleep.  I'm terrified.