Hey folks,
Received this e-mail from our friend, J.D. Campbell, over at IU media relations. Boiled down to its bare bones, it's an open invitation from the IU basketball team to you to come on down to IU fans' other favorite athletic pastime, a tailgate, in this case prior to IU's spring football game on April 18.
Players and coaches will interact with fans and Crean will "publicly announce" team awards for the past season.
The deviled eggs are in the details -- as are the brats, Ruffles and those little crock pot-smoked meatballs (awful joke, I know) -- and I will therefore post them below in the form of the full release. Click on at your own peril.
MEN'S BASKETBALL TO HOLD FAN APPRECIATION TAILGATE PRIOR TO SPRING FOOTBALL GAME
Bloomington, Indiana--Indiana University men's basketball coach Tom Crean has announced his program will hold a Fan Appreciation Tailgate on Saturday April 18, at 11:30 a.m. in the Mellencamp Pavilion. The event, which is free, will be held prior to the start of the annual spring football game which begins at 2 p.m. next door at Memorial Stadium.
"I thought this would be a great way for our players and coaches to interact with our great fans in a very informal and fun setting," said Crean. "Our fans are the best in the country and we wanted the opportunity to thank them personally and to tie it in with the spring football game is another added bonus."
The first 90 minutes of the tailgate will include interaction with the players and coaches and games for the kids. At 1 p.m., Coach Crean and his staff will publicly announce their 2008-09 team awards recognizing several of the players at that time.
"Most of the time you would hand out your team awards at a formal banquet after the season, but we as a staff felt this was a unique situation," added Crean. "I think our fans and their support of the program was as important in telling the story of this team as any individual or group accomplishment this season. We are looking forward to sharing the day with so many of them and then going over together to Memorial Stadium to see Bill Lynch's 2009 Hoosiers for the first time."
In addition to the spring football game, the baseball team will host the second of a three-game series against Penn State at 1 p.m., and the softball team will host Tulsa in a twin-bill at 2:30 p.m.
