From Alma Mater Vol. 1: The Midwest. Available Now!

*IU*

It’s game night in B-Town at Assembly Hall.
Everyone has their ticket,
It’s Hoosier Basketball.
No Stripes, No Glory,
17,472 strong…
21 Big Ten Championships,
Five National Banners
brought along:

1940
1953
1981
1987

The Blessed Hoosiers of ’76.

Fans from all over town stand under
The Banners of McCracken and Knight,
Some came from Indiana trails,
Others from an on-campus site.
From the Rose Well House
deep in the Dunn Woods,
The breathtaking arboretum—
With arbutuses in their books.
They stream like the Jordan River
into the raging storm of red,
They pound the Indy Limestone—
To have their Hoosiers led
by the most passionate fans in college hoops,
Indiana Basketball is in our roots.

The Hall is sold out and our voices lift,
It’s almost time for tip-off,
And when the Crimson and Cream take the court,
It’s time to blow the lid off.
They warm up in their candy-striped pants,
Then Martha cleans the floor,
Our Indiana, we’re all for you,
Now let’s finish mopping the floor.
This is our culture, We are the Hoosiers,
The opponents are just the Losers in Blue,
Over in Row 8, well, those are the Boozers,
but they’re part of our culture, too.
So are the brains from the SPEA,
And performers from the Jacobs School of Music,
Also, the informed Business Majors
are here in attendance to support The Movement.
Even fellow athletes like our champion hurlers,
And alum Will Bruin from our prestigious soccer team,
Have come through Sample Gates
to show support for Indy’s team.
And shoutout to the racers of the Little 500—
The Beta Theta Pi is in the house!
We’re all still recovering from Little 5 weekend,
Drank enough Hairy Bears to fill a frat house.
Eight months later and those times we still miss,
But if they didn’t end—we’d miss nights like this.

It’s the second half and we have the lead,
Now it’s the World’s Greatest Timeout:
Cheerleaders and William Tell Overture,
Dickie V is about to fall out.
He’s in the Basketball Nation, Baby!
And this excitement is too much to take,
Break’s over, let’s get back to work:
We’ve got many more baskets to make.

“Zeller the rebound! Hulls is open!”
#SWISH!

“Zeller…Watford sees a lane!”
#Tothebucket

“They wanna give Watford a little one-on-one…”
#Crossoverlayin
“That’s a big-time move!”

Down 72-70
5.6 seconds left…

“No timeouts for Indiana….Jones….”

“WATFORD FOR THE WIN………”

Every Hoosier in Assembly Hall, the street, and the campus,
Even students watching from Kirkwood & Indiana…
Could feel the foundations shake as Hoosiers charged the court….
17,472 strong.

And throughout Indiana and Sports Nation,
All the way to Kentucky,
You couldn’t help but
feel
The Movement.

Follow ClydeAidoo.com for sample poems from the Alma Mater and Art of Mind series. You can purchase the newly released Alma Mater Vol. 2: The Northeast, a poetic celebration of the top universities of the Northeast below.