Lexi McCoige, an aspiring marine biologist, will graduate in just over two weeks.
McCoige likes studying fish. As graduation nears, she hopes to take a grad photo by the five bronze fish at Showalter Fountain.
But there’s one problem. Showalter Fountain, a central landmark at Indiana University Bloomington, sits fishless and dry. It’s been more than three months since IU removed the bronze fish ahead of the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Graduating students like McCoige, hoping to get final photos in front of the fountain, said they’re disappointed.
IU spokesman Mark Bode said in January that the fish were removed because of the “long history of sea creatures going on championship adventures.”
After the men’s basketball team won the 1987 NCAA national championship, one of the fish vanished, never to be seen again. The tradition of stealing the fish continued in 2000 during a protest against Coach Bob Knight’s firing, and later in 2013.
“The fish will be back soon — hopefully with a win to celebrate,” Bode said in a statement to the Indiana Daily Student on Jan. 14.
IU football did win, but the fish have not returned.
The fountain is dry. The statue of Venus stands alone below the hot sun in an empty pool outside the IU Auditorium. Bode said in an email Tuesday the fish are still being worked on.
“The fish are undergoing additional maintenance and will return to Showalter Fountain by the end of the semester,” Bode wrote.
Bode did not provide an exact return date.
Showalter Fountain sits at the center of the Fine Arts Plaza. It was created in 1952 by sculptor Robert Laurent, and its centerpiece depicts the Birth of Venus, with the goddess surrounded by five fish that spit streams of water into the basin below.
The fountain’s emptiness comes at a particularly hectic time for graduating IU students who planned to take commencement photos at the landmark.
With roughly two weeks left in the spring semester, some soon-to-be graduates say that the timeline for the fish to return may be too little, too late.
“It’s almost summer, we’re about to head out,” Kyla Williams, a graduating senior, said. “We deserve to see that for the last time, get those last memories with it.”
Williams said the fountain is one of several campus landmarks she hoped to photograph to memorialize her time at IU, calling it “such a big staple” of the university.
Both Williams and McCoige thought the university had removed the fish for too long. Williams said she understood the caution ahead of the championship but felt that it was time for the fish to return.
“We’ve won the championship, the hype is still there, we deserve it absolutely — but the hype has also died down,” Williams said. “It’s time to get serious. Finals are coming up, and everybody just wants to take pictures, want to look good and want to do our thing.”
