INTERNATIONAL STUDENT GUIDE

Insurance ads included this iconic Martha the Mop Lady campaign. It ran prior to the [Indiana] games on local television channel WTTV-4. When broadcasts expanded to national networks, Martha was displaced for roughly 20 years. It was not until 2010 when Martha reappeared; this time, it was on the video board inside Assembly Hall prior to tip-off.”

Though football and basketball largely attract the Hoosier fanbase, plenty of other Indiana sports are worth checking out. The Indiana men’s soccer team has won eight national championships and have reached 22 College Cups. This past season, the Hoosiers reached the national championship match in North Carolina, though lost in penalty kicks.

The team plays midweek night matches at Bill Armstrong Stadium in the fall semester, which is the perfect setting to destress or relax on cool nights with friends. Plus, fans can stand directly next to the pitch on the far side and collectively smack the boards. This section is where the Hoosier Army, the group of devoted Indiana men’s soccer fans, watches matches.

Indiana’s volleyball team plays matches inside Wilkinson Hall, next to Assembly Hall, and this past season beat two ranked teams on the road for the first time in program history. You’ll find students acting berserk in the stands at volleyball matches. Perhaps the sound reverberates better indoors.

The Indiana men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams always seem to be churning out Olympians. In the spring, evening baseball and softball games are the perfect time to unwind.

This past season, the baseball team made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, while the softball team achieved the same feat for the first time since 2011 — winning 23 consecutive games at one point during the season.

Then, there’s the Little 500 — the largest collegiate bike race in the United States held annually in April — which began in 1951. Modeled after the Indianapolis 500, four-person men’s and women’s teams comprised of the school’s fraternities, sororities and more race laps around the quartermile track that circles the outside of the soccer field.

The men’s race is 200 laps and the women’s is half that. Deemed “The World’s Greatest College Weekend,” there are plenty of festivities in Bloomington the week leading up to the race. Cutters, an independent team, boast the most wins in the men’s race. The women’s race began in 1988. The Kappa Alpha Theta sorority has the most victories.

Students must purchase tickets to attend the Little 500, football and men’s basketball games. Admission to all regular season home games for baseball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, volleyball, women’s basketball and wrestling, however, is free upon showing your student ID at the entry gates.

With many of Indiana’s 24 sports teams having great success this past sports season, the environments of sporting events at Indiana also offer many opportunities for students. From all-day tailgates and shouting at football and basketball games, to methodically-paced soccer, baseball and softball, not only is attending most sporting events free, but they provide a well-rounded fan adventure year-round.