During the 2025-2026 football season, Indiana University achieved two historical milestones: winning the College Football Playoff National Championship and more notably, bringing back the bison as its mascot.
After disappearing from IU’s athletics scene since 1969, Hoosier the Bison made a return on Aug. 30, 2025. The bison parachuted into Memorial Stadium for IU’s first home football game of the season and has made many appearances across campus since.
Here’s how Hoosier the Bison came to be.
Throughout the 20th century, IU experimented with many short-lived mascots, including a bulldog named “Mr. Hoosier Pride” among others, but none were as famous as the bison. While less common today, bison used to roam freely across Indiana, carving a migratory path.
Indiana’s Buffalo Trace Trail was created by bison traveling through southern Indiana and used by Native Americas and early pioneers. Besides creating paths, the bison has been on the Indiana state seal since 1801, representing Indiana’s “wild frontier.”
According to university archives, the bison was first proposed as IU’s official mascot in 1946. The plan involved bringing a real bison on the field, but Indiana officials rejected the idea, preventing IU from purchasing one.
It wasn’t until 1965 that the bison was officially declared IU’s mascot for the first time, thanks to the efforts of the IU Student Athletic Board and IU Student Senate.
After a suggestion from then IU Foundation Executive Director Bill Armstrong to use a bison costume, the first bison mascot costume debuted for the IU vs. Purdue football game on Nov. 20, 1965.
By the next season, the costume got a $1,400 upgrade designed by a Disney firm, according to IU Bloomington archives. Due to the difficulty of seeing through the nostrils, the mascot was often seen being led by a cheerleader on a leash.
For the 1968 Rose Bowl, IU introduced an updated costume with improved mobility for whoever wore it. The mascot stayed for the 1968 and 1969 seasons before fading from official IU use.
Although the bison’s official appearances dwindled, its imagery can still be seen throughout Bloomington. Nick’s English Hut, one of the community’s most popular sports bars, used the bison as its logo in the 1960s, and still features it today.
For almost 60 years, the bison was absent from many of the minds of IU — until 2021 when English professor Paul Gutjahr launched the “Bring Back the Bison” campaign. Gutjahr created bison merchandise and costumes, and the movement quickly gained momentum.
By December 2024, the “Bring Back the Bison Act” passed in IU Student Government, officially readopting the bison as IU’s mascot.
By August, after decades of waiting, Hoosier the Bison flew into Memorial Stadium, cheered on by a new generation of fans. After the mascot’s first season back, IU alumna Abbey Armstrong was revealed as one of the first members of the IU Bison Alumni.
Armstrong is now headed to law school at the University of Cincinnati this fall. That leaves a question fans are already asking: who will wear the horns next?
This story was originally published in the Indiana Daily Student's Fall/Winter 2026 Source Campus Visitor's Guide.
