Title: Indiana, Our Indiana

General Information About Item:

• Verbal Lore, fight song
• Language: English
• Origin: Indiana University
• Informant: A.B.
• Date Collected: 10-23-21

Informant Data:

• A.B. is a 19-year-old male. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia but moved to Dallas, Texas when he was four years old and was raised there. He currently lives in Bloomington, India as he attends Indiana University. He is a student athlete at Indiana University who plays football and majors in media.

Contextual Data:

• A.B. attends Indiana University which was established in 1820 and has rich tradition especially surrounding football. Their fight song was written by Russell P. Harker and first played during a football game in November of 1912. The song represents the passion and pride that the players, coaches, and fans have for their school. They want to first honor God through the Lord’s prayer and then honor and show loyalty to their school by singing the fight song.

Item:

• Immediately after every game, they enter into the locker and perform the Lord’s prayer. Also, if they won, they would sing their fight song “Indiana, Our Indiana” as seen below. The song is sung three times. The first time it is sung loud and proud, the second time it is sung quietly with snapping, and the third time it is sung loud again with a lot of energy. This tradition has been going for at least 60 years as one of Andy’s coaches who was a former player over 60 years ago used to do the same thing.

Indiana, Our Indiana

Indiana, we’re all for you

We will fight for

The Cream and Crimson

For the glory of old IU

Never daunted, we cannot falter

In the battle, we’re tried and true

Indiana, our Indiana Indiana, we’re all for you!

Transcript:

• “For one, immediately after the game we come into the locker room and say the Lord’s prayer and give honor to Him first and foremost. And then after a win, we will sing our fight song which is a very cool tradition that we have. We enjoy those wins and like to give glory to the school, each other, and God. We sing our fight song three times. The first time we sing it out loud, and then we do really softly and snap our fingers, and then lastly we sing it really loud and hype.”

Informant’s Comments:

• “I’m not too sure when the tradition started. It has definitely been there for a long time, like at least 60 years. I’m not sure of the meaning behind the fight song at first but to us, its defintely something we look forward to and really enjoy a lot.”

Collector’s Comments:

• I thought it was interesting that the team will sing the song once softly while snapping thier finger and then sing it loudly at the end. It’s almost like a way to crescendo the energy from the song.

Collector’s Name: Cameron Baller

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Lore
• Football
• Locker Room Traditions
• Indiana University
• Song