History of the Hoosiers

The Indiana Hoosiers are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of Indiana University Bloomington, named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Indiana. The Hoosiers participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 24 sports and became a member of the Big Ten Conference on December 1, 1899. The school's official colors are cream and crimson.

The Indiana Hoosiers have won 24 NCAA national championships and one Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship, in addition to 145 NCAA individual national championships. Titles won by teams include eight by the Hoosiers men's soccer team, a record-setting six straight in men's swimming and diving, five by the Hoosiers men's basketball team, three in men's cross country, and one in men's track and field and one in wrestling.

The Hoosiers' athletic program is perhaps best known for its basketball program, with its five NCAA Championships tying for fourth in history. Indiana's 1976 squad remains the last undefeated NCAA men's basketball champion. A 2018 study listed Indiana as the second most valuable collegiate basketball program in the country. Additionally, Hoosiers' athletics is well known for its soccer program; by a number of indicators, it is one of the greatest college soccer programs in the history of the sport. Since the program began in 1973, Indiana owns more National Championships, more wins, has appeared in more College Cups (18), and has a higher winning percentage in both regular season and post-season play than any other school in Division I soccer.

The Indiana Hoosiers have two fight songs – "Indiana, Our Indiana" and "Indiana Fight!" – along with an alma mater song, "Hail to Old IU". Indiana's most recognized fight song, "Indiana, Our Indiana", was first performed by the IU Band in November 1912 at a football game against Northwestern. The song has since been played at every Indiana football and basketball game. Indiana's popular fight song melody is "Indiana Fight!", though the words are rarely sung at an Indiana sporting event. The crowd usually just sings "GO! IU! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Indiana, we're all for you!" at the end of the song. Indiana's official Alma Mater song, "Hail to Old IU" was first performed on March 10, 1893, in Indianapolis. J.T. Giles, who organized the IU glee club wrote the words to a Scottish song in order to give the Hoosiers a school song for a performance at a state contest. The song has been a mainstay at Indiana events since that day. An additional school song, "Chimes of Indiana," was written by alumnus Hoagy Carmichael (Class of 1925-law degree 1926), and was presented to the university in 1937 as a gift from the class of 1935.