Tucked along Fee Lane, the Wilcox House serves as a living archive to student leadership, philanthropy and tradition. The space has been home to the Indiana University Student Foundation since the early 1980s, serving as both an office and a museum, and highlighting the lasting impact of IU student traditions.
Founded in 1950 by former IU Foundation Director Howdy Wilcox, the IUSF has a long history of student philanthropy and is responsible for creating one of IU’s most iconic traditions: the Little 500. Wilcox introduced the idea of a campus-wide cycling event to raise scholarship funds and create more opportunities for student engagement.
In 2024, the foundation launched an initiative to create an exhibit to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the IUSF, highlighting photographs from the events’ history in an immersive and interactive at the Wilcox House.
IUSF Director Emily Carrico helped advise the project and described it as a strong initiative because of its broad scope and ability to showcase the full history of the tradition.
“When I started, a lot of that history was scattered, there wasn’t a lot of continuity,” she said. “So, we had a couple of seniors in 2024 that took on this project of turning the house into this exhibit where whenever alumni or current students walk in they can see themselves and their experience on the walls.”
Visitors can walk through the house and see decades of photographs documenting student-led initiatives, campus traditions and cultural milestones, starting from the 1950s.
The exhibit is organized by decade, with each room highlighting different traditions and how they have evolved over time. Together, the rooms create a timeline of the tradition and allow visitors time to reflect on the history and legacy of the event and student life in general at IU.
Mason Schutte, a Cox Legacy Scholar and office assistant for the IUSF, assisted in organizing more than 60 photographs back in 2024 for the exhibit. He said the photographs showcase defining moments throughout the race’s history, including long-standing campus traditions from race weekend, celebrity appearances and important cultural shifts within the event.
Those changes are reflected throughout the exhibit, including photographs from the 1960s documenting campus protests against fraternity bylaws that excluded minority groups, the creation of the women’s race in 1988 and the addition of numerous teams and organizations over time.
“We highlighted just overall the tradition, the philanthropy behind the race and what it means for a lot of different groups on campus and how that history can impact future riders, alumni, and students,” Schutte said.
Carrico said she hopes that visitors take away an appreciation for the effort of all the students who have contributed their time to the exhibit, as well as a deeper understanding of the foundation itself.
“If we look back over the last 75 years of the race, it's not just about the Little 500. There is so much that has happened around it for the student foundations over the decades,” Carrico said. “I think for our students to see all the fun things that have happened over the years, the way the organization has grown and changed it adds a lot of meaning to the work they do in the present day.”
This story was originally published in the Indiana Daily Student's spring 2026 Little 500 Guide.
