IU soccer followers stay passionate about program's storied legacy

They’ve seen it all.

They’ve watched the building of a legacy. Thirty-one years later, they saw the retirement of one of the greatest Division I coaches in college soccer. Then, they examined the successor whom IU Athletics Director Fred Glass didn’t think was the right fit.

Now, they’re watching the son of the legacy have his shot at rebuilding the storied program of IU men’s soccer.

Hoosier soccer fans fell in love with the team, its tradition of excellence and its motto of a soccer family.

Except, it’s not just a motto. It’s so much more.

Nancy Hayworth
IU soccer fan Nancy Hayworth has seen those nights that Indiana loses from its own mistakes.

In the 31 years she’s been attending games, Hayworth watched the action at all but five home games.

But those mistakes are something Hayworth said should be changing with IU coach Todd Yeagley in his first season with the Hoosiers.

“You can feel the difference,” Hayworth said. “It’s not the wins and losses. It’s the heart and passion of the game that I haven’t seen for a couple years. I can see it now, and I can feel it. It’s still not quite there, but it’s getting there, and I have faith that it will be again what it once was.”

What it once was made Hayworth cry. In 2003, at the halfway point in the season, the men’s soccer team sat at 2-3-4.

It was then-coach Jerry Yeagley’s, the man who had brought men’s soccer to Indiana, last year as a coach.

“It looked like it was going to be a down year for his last year,“ Hayworth remembered.
Then, in a game against Michigan, IU took the Wolverines into overtime and eventually won the game, 2-1. From that point on, the Hoosiers did not lose another game.

In the national title game in Columbus, Ohio, Hayworth sat in the bleachers on the cold day that sent many of the fans to watch the game from the restroom where it was warmer.

“I just sat there in the stands and I looked at the scoreboard and it said 2-0, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to actually do this.’ I started to cry, and I cried through the whole second half of the game,” Hayworth laughed, recounting the story. “All of the national titles are special in a different way, but that one to me, those kids just played with heart. It was one of those almost impossible dreams that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Hayworth has watched the team hoist a national title trophy five times — the first two happened before she was a fan. She remains a fan today because, as she said, IU soccer is a family.

“I don’t think that exists in a lot of other sports or even in a lot of other soccer programs,” Hayworth said. “I feel like the other nine months of the year that I’m just hiding. I don’t come out until IU soccer starts.”

Chronic Hoosier
The hill on the south side of Bill Armstrong Stadium, which now has the press box and thousands of bleacher seats sitting atop it, was once just grass.
 
A 35-year-old fan remembers the days he spent on that hill with his father.

That fan is the son of a former IU athlete who everyone calls the Chronic Hoosier, a name he goes by on his blog and Twitter account.

Chronic, who was born in Bloomington, began playing soccer when he was 3.
His dad wasn’t a soccer player for IU, so coming to Hoosier games was a way for the two of them to bond and learn the game together.

“It was as close as you could get,” Chronic said about his seat on the hill. “You got to hear everything. And those grandstands, whenever IU had an attack or an opportunity, people would stamp their feet on the aluminum and it would give this unique sound. The place would just rumble. That was the old school.”

The old IU soccer was also one in which fans attended games.

They didn’t turn their back on their soccer family, regardless of whether it was 40 degrees on a Wednesday or if Sunday Night Football was on.

The stands, which now often have sections that remain empty, were once full.
Bill Armstrong Stadium, with a capacity of 6,500, is one that www.goal.com proclaimed as the “second-best place to watch a soccer match in the United States,” and was often full.

People used to hang from the trees that used to grow along the St. Paul Catholic Newman Center parking lot just to catch a glimpse of the team.

Chronic also said he missed the taunting that fans gave to the opposing goalie.

“Whenever IU scored a goal, the whole crowd would cheer ‘Goalie, goalie, goalie, YOU SUCK,’” Chronic said, laughing. “Without fail, the goalie would kind of hang his head.”

The 1994 IU graduate also said he missed how often he used to have to buy IU gear. He said it seemed like every time he bought a new IU soccer shirt, another star would be added to the logo, and he’d have to go and buy a new one.

Although he didn’t see every National Championship game, he saw a game in each of the seven of the seasons IU won the national title.

“Where it is now I think is promising,” Chronic said of the state of the IU team. “Where it’s been. ... you know. You have a coach come in who is following a legend, whose persona is so ingrained in the program, they are seemingly inseparable. The guy that follows that man always falls on his face.”

Yet Chronic said in the case of the former IU coach, Mike Freitag didn’t really fall on his face, but his success came early in his tenure.

“He was a phenomenal coach,” Chronic said. “It just didn’t work out because under what IU soccer knows, the expectation wasn’t met under his watch. Regardless, Mike Freitag has probably forgotten more about college soccer than most Division I coaches have ever known.

“However, I wouldn’t be surprised if we brought home another star in the next five years,” Chronic said about the program’s new lead with legendary coach Jerry Yeagley’s son, Todd Yeagley. “More often than not, most nights Indiana is the only team that is going to beat itself.”

Charles Teeple
Charles Teeple started his career as a sports writer, so he was never able to hibernate
from sports.

Although he graduated with a B.A. in journalism in 1950, Teeple never wrote about IU men’s soccer. He switched careers, from newspaper to corporate, in 1960 before the birth of IU soccer.

When he retired 18 years ago from Humana as the man in charge of investor relations, Teeple decided he needed a hobby.

Never had Teeple played soccer, but he decided his hobby would be his alma mater’s soccer team.

In his 18 years of Hoosier fandom, Teeple and his wife, Nancy have traveled from Bloomington to as far as Seattle.

They witnessed the last five national titles and went to 89 consecutive soccer games in the 1990s. The Teeples’ love of IU Athletics doesn’t stop at soccer.

During the 2007-08 school year, Teeple attended 82 games, with 32 of them at the baseball complex alone. But in his retirement, Teeple said soccer remains his primary interest.

“This is the sport at Indiana that’s capable of producing national champions,” Teeple said. “They have and they continue to do so.”

Why cheer on IU soccer?
Fans have grown up knowing that Indiana soccer, like Indiana basketball, is a storied program.

They were able to talk a little smack and boast their new national banner when they were young, but Chronic believes it’s something they really need to experience.

“When I was young, you got to go to school the next day and brag to your friends, and that was for a whole year,” Chronic said. “Because your team won, that meant that whole year you owned those Purdue bitches. We still do for that matter because they don’t have anything to boast.

“With that being said, it was one of those things that in hindsight you take for it for granted — the excellence. At IU, excellence is the norm. That’s totally an unreal standpoint, but that’s the stance that’s been established at IU. That’s the expectation.”

So for now, the IU soccer family will continue to cheer on the team in hopes that the 24th straight NCAA Tournament appearance will result in an eighth star being added to the logo.

They wait because they have an expectation that they know can be reached.

They wait because they know the strength of their family members.

They wait because they know that with time, their family will kick its way back to glory.