\n
Bill Murphy has been an Indiana football season ticket holder for 66 years. He says he has rarely missed a game, despite a historic period of no-bowl breaks, 55 of which are lost seasons.<\/p>\n
One of those rare failures stands out. In the 1968 Rose Bowl, Indiana lost 14-3 to OJ Simpson and the national champion USC team. Murphy was 15 years old at the time, and his parents were against sending him to California alone. But neither Murphy nor his parents could have predicted it. bowl<\/span> The drought that followed. The Hoosiers didn’t build another bowl until 1979, and then 1986.<\/p>\nMurphy, now 77, wasn’t sure he would see this day again. So an emergency backup plan was established.<\/p>\n
“I said to my wife, son and daughter, ‘If I die before I go to the Rose Bowl again, I want you to bring my urn, buy a program, buy a seat, put the program and the urn in the seat, and I’ll go there with you all,'” he said.<\/p>\n
Murphy’s story will resonate with any lifelong Indiana football fan, but he cautions that it may not be that many. He grew up in Bloomington as a devoted supporter of Indiana’s losing football team. Bloomington was a city that rallied around a powerhouse team and a championship-winning team. basketball team<\/span>.<\/p>\nThe script was then changed slightly. Hoosiers fans have been rooting for football more often than basketball over the past season or two. A team that was once an afterthought in the community now has a new brand of devoted fans, and they have a chance to head to Pasadena for the program’s biggest game in years. Top-seeded Indiana will face Alabama on Thursday in a grand slam of them all for a chance to advance to the College Football Playoff semifinals.<\/p>\n
The program has reached new heights in the last two years under continuous efforts. AP Coach of the Year<\/span> Curt Cignetti finally relinquished the title of losing program in bowl division history, handing the unwanted honor to Northwestern earlier this year. Indiana has finished the regular season. big ten champion<\/span> He finished with a perfect 13-0 record, second only to quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner. <\/p>\nLongtime fan Kevin Harrell didn’t miss the Rose Bowl, even though it wasn’t that long ago that he last visited the stadium. When the Big Ten expanded to four teams on the West Coast in 2024, he took advantage of the opportunity to watch his team play in the iconic stadium, thinking that the mid-September matchup against UCLA might be the closest he’ll get to seeing Indiana play in the Rose Bowl this century.<\/p>\n
“This is beyond anything I could have imagined,” Harrell said, admitting it was an unfamiliar feeling to have so much faith in his team. “We’ve always expected the worst. We’re always going to find new ways to lose games. It was kind of strange how quickly we went from that mindset to expecting to win. I expect this team to win every time we take the field. I think that’s just a testament to the job that Curt Cininetti has done.”<\/p>\n
Not all fans have the same accomplishments as Harrell and Murphy. The Indiana football field is filling up. <\/p>\n
This season, Memorial Stadium has been filled with new fans. “His Mendoza” chants have become common on Saturdays this fall, and for the second year in a row all four home conference games were sold out.<\/p>\n
Airlines are making adjustments in response to high demand. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have added nonstop flights from Indianapolis to Los Angeles in the days leading up to the Rose Bowl. <\/p>\n
“People get excited because they like winners,” Murphy said. “There aren’t that many people (like me) who go and cheer for their team to win or lose. I’ve seen a lot of losses in soccer over the years.”<\/p>\n
Now, 58 years later, Murphy finally has a chance to make up for the missing game that has plagued him for decades. <\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily for me, this year I get to actually sit in and watch the game,\u201d Murphy said. “I still try to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.” <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Get voting alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 all season long. sign up here<\/span>. AP College Football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/span> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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