It’s been a while since someone on this blog discussed IUPUI athletics since Jaguar Guy. At least I’m doing it locally, and may even have the luxury of talking to the people who are closer to the action.
With the losses of both the mens’ and womens’ basketball programs, the history of athletics at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis has unceremoniously come to an anticlimactic end. Sure, there’s still the spring semester to contend with as far as Olympic sports and softball are concerned, but historically (unless you’re Youngstown State), the season rises and sets with basketball, and as far as things go, there will be no more IUPUI athletics to… well, look forward to isn’t exactly an operative word to cite as I’m not sure that’s a phrase that’s often rung about, even at the campus. Not even the student newspaper, the Campus Citizen, is that motivated to partake in the analytics of the program.
There is a waft of anathema that pertains throughout the athletic department, and I’m not using that vernacular just to go “Oh he use big words good.” It illustrates the issues that highlights a historically unsuccessful and unpopular program that, let’s be blunt; was added to the Horizon League purely to keep a presence in Indianapolis and remains reviled to this day. But, for all the slings and arrows thrown towards the future IU Indianapolis, someone has to stand up and take them.
That someone… is definitely not me.
I’m ultimately realistic about the reputation of the school, both within the Horizon and in the greater circle of sports fandom. You don’t become the butt of jokes overnight. It takes decades of apathy to get there. But, how did IUPUI get so bad?
Well, I have a theory.
You see, Indiana University Indianapolis isn’t a new school, but rather a revival; the school came into existence in 1891 as Indiana University wanted to establish a foothold in the state capital, after which came the first acceptance of nursing at Long Hospital in 1914, thus establishing IU as a dominant entity of medical science not just in the state, but as one of the top medical institutions in the country (I mean, we’re no Johns Hopkins, but people do come here for a reason). This early philosophy in medicine is what remains the core tenet of IU Indianapolis to this day. Meanwhile, Purdue University created their own technology-based institute in the 1940s, originally on 38th Street, but then relocated to the present-day IUPUI campus. In 1969, Mayor Richard Luger had the two campuses merge together into IUPUI.
But… neither one bothered with sports. Because, as you could guess, they were too busy fielding them at their main campuses and thought that putting another team down in Indianapolis was utter nonsense. However, now that they were both running a school together in Indianapolis, perhaps fielding an actual team would be good for that whole student morale, no?
In 1971, they fielded a hypothetical basketball program that played against other state-based schools, and predictably, the team stunk. But, they were at least happy with the results enough to field them in the NAIA, so the Metros were born. According to the IUPUI library, they were named after the proximity to downtown Indianapolis, but as far as I’m concerned, they were named purely because of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Transportation organization… or the Metro as it was often nicknamed. If one would describe IUPUI as a whole during this era, it would be “there was an attempt.”
In fairness, the jerseys weren’t that bad.
In fairness, also, the mascot they would try to field wasn’t.
You would think the internet would’ve discovered this and, I dunno, ran off with it?
An earlier draft I wrote had me discuss my alleged inferiority complex with The School on the North Side, but then I realized that complaining about Butler didn’t exactly make for good reading, so, I’ll abridge what I was trying to write; despite IUPUI having a far more massive endowment and student population than Butler, Butler’s ability to have athletics far longer than IUPUI may have played a role in them settling in and establishing themselves in the community. But it’s more than that. They also invested in the department to some degree with staff despite Hinkle being from the Eocene Epoch and the Butler Bowl being a sunken crater because all Pioneer Football League schools are too tight-fisted to give up the game and just drop football.
It also doesn’t help that that larger endowment isn’t actually financial assets and is more tied to the existence of properties like the former Wishard Hospital and the Herron School of Art. It also doesn’t help that IUPUI got big in large part due to gentrification and eminent domain at the expense of many African-American neighborhoods on the near west side of Indianapolis, which remains a very sore spot in our city’s history, so the school today is hesitant on development without consulting the community or at least figuring out how to develop while ensuring the citizens are still able to benefit the rewards.
So, that’s why IUPUI relied almost exclusively on the 1987 Pan Am Games to justify the move from the NAIA to Division II in 1990, and is why they nurture the Natatorium… while ignoring practically every other property that involves sports.
In 1997, IUPUI jumped again to Division I, albeit with no real plans to build a bigger venue for the basketball team, who were slumming it in a practice room built inside of the Natatorium. Heck, they didn’t have a cheerleading team, a fight song… none of that. Nope; just heading to the big time! And, we’re done with the Metros name because that’s old hat in the edgy 1990s! We need something fierce! Hey… didn’t the Indianapolis Zoo get some big cats recently?
Terrorizing the bottom of conference standings for over 25 years!
Frankly, even as a socially maladjusted 9-year old with autism who, at the time, likely had the brain capacity of a 2-year old, I hated it. I just heard of the Metros and thought the name Metros had sounded cool as things that weren’t conventional were neat. Jaguars don’t sound cool. Jaguars sound scary!
Well… had I known how bad the Jaguars were going to be, I would’ve been even more scared.
It also didn’t help that, today, 14 colleges use Jaguars, while nobody uses Metros. But, this isn’t me deriding them for changing the name. It’s just more that this name hasn’t really helped them much, so now that the school is crossing over into IU Indianapolis this fall, perhaps it’s time for… another reboot?
Get the stink of the Jaguars out of there and maybe get people a bit more excited about the program? It likely won’t increase the already abysmal attendance figures at games, but that’ll only be solved if they start winning games.
Barring any sudden (yet expected) coaching changes, I’ll probably chronicle IUPUI’s Division I history in my next blog post, and may go into further detail as to why they’re rather maligned.