Indiana Hoosiers football

The Indiana Hoosiers football program represents Indiana University Bloomington in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football and in the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers have played their home games at Memorial Stadium since 1960. The team has won the Big Ten Championship twice, once in 1945 and again in 1967. The Hoosiers have appeared in 12 bowl games, including the 1968 Rose Bowl. Six Indiana players have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, including Zora Clevinger, Bill Ingram, Pete Pihos, George Taliaferro, John Tavener, and Anthony Thompson, who was also National Player of the Year in 1989. The Hoosiers are currently led by head coach Tom Allen. History Early history (1887–1957) In the fall of 1884 the Indiana student newspaper made its first reference to football by reporting that a team was being organized. The following year, in 1885, a Yale graduate, professor Arthur B. Woodford, came to Indiana to teach political and social science and during the next year he introduced football to the school. Woodford coached the Hoosiers from 1887 to 1888. In the only documented game of the 1889 season, Indiana lost to Wabash College, 40–2. Evan Wollen led the Hoosiers to an 0–1 record. By 1891 Billy Herod was head coach. He had never played football but had seen it played in the East. The Hoosiers continued to struggle to find wins, even forfeiting a game to in-state rival Purdue in the 1894 season. The first winning season came in 1895 under coach Dana Osgood, who led the team to a 4–3–1 record. This was followed by two winning seasons in 1896 and 1897 under coach Madison G. Gonterman, who was hired away from Harvard. After coaching the Hoosiers to winning records in 1898 and 1899, coach James H. Horne and the football team joined the Western Conference (later the Big Ten Conference). Horne led Indiana to six .500-or-better records in his seven years. In 1905 coach James M. Sheldon took over and would have the longest tenure of a football coach at Indiana until Bo McMillin coached for 14 years (1934–1947). Sheldon proved to be one of the most successful coaches in Indiana football's early years, leading the Hoosiers to four winning seasons and as high as third in the Big Ten Conference rankings. In 1914 Indiana hired its first full-time coach, Clarence Childs, but continued to struggle to find success. In 1922 construction began on the original Memorial Stadium.