Faithful Hoosiers

Hoosier fans, if you’re like me, you live, breathe, sleep and foam at the mouth at practically everything IU. My ringtone is “Indiana, Our Indiana.” My text tones are “IU Fight.” Every time I’m driving down the road outside of Bloomington and see an IU license plate I shout, “Go Hoosiers!” I learned the fight song during Welcome Week freshman year at “Traditions and Spirit of IU.” However, there’s this one issue that has bothered me since I’ve arrived to IU. Why do IU students wear our rivals’ clothing, lacking any shame and conscience?\nSince freshman year, I have seen 31 (yes, I am counting) students wearing Purdue clothing. This is absolute, downright blasphemy! The week of the Old Oaken Bucket Game this year I saw a student walking on campus wearing a Purdue sweatshirt. My blood was boiling! This irks me to no end! Yes, I understand you may be from a rival’s hometown, but it is time to embrace your Hoosier pride!\nI am from South Bend, home of Notre Dame, and this is where I identify myself from, and this is what I grew up around, but come on! Wear Indiana apparel. How can anyone pay money to go to this school, get a degree from this school, often go to athletic events and not support Indiana? I just don’t understand. I don’t so much get upset about students wearing school’s clothing outside of the Big Ten, but when you are a rival in some of the main sports here at IU, you’ve got to realize that you shouldn’t be wearing this without some heckling, at least from me.\nI’m a Hoosier through and through. I bleed cream and crimson, and I think you should, too. So, here’s what should be the unwritten laws of wearing other schools’ clothing: \n1) If it’s a regular season game in the Big Ten, puh-lease don’t wear the clothing the week of or after the game.\n2) Don’t wear other Big Ten clothing unless it’s tournament time and you’re supporting the conference. \n3) If IU plays a team and loses, it’s a rivalry.\n4) You shouldn’t wear these schools for obvious reasons: Kentucky, Duke, Oklahoma State, Xavier, Connecticut, Maryland, Kansas and UCLA, just to name a few.\nThe other week I was working out at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and I saw a guy wearing a “2002 Maryland Terapins NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions” t-shirt. Do you know who Maryland beat in the championship game? Indiana! How can you honestly wear a shirt like that?! Even at the UConn game just the other week there were many IU students wearing UConn jerseys. What is that? And a student the following week on campus was wearing a UConn sweatshirt. You can’t do that! Start bleeding your cream and crimson, Hoosiers, and get a little more passionate about Indiana. Embrace your Hoosier pride and forget about those other schools! \nThe next time you’re walking on campus wearing that Illinois or Duke or Kentucky or, God forbid, Purdue shirt, expect nothing less than a heckling from me. Remember, I warned you.