IU’s new mascot made a dramatic entrance by parachuting into Memorial Stadium during the August 30th football game. Was it enough to earn the approval of Bloomington natives?
This school year, 2025-26, marks the official reinstatement of Indiana University’s mascot, Hoosier the Bison.
So far, students and faculty at Bloomington South have voiced positive reactions. South junior Mira Koduri said, “it’s cool to have a mascot, rather than just calling ourselves the Hoosiers. It’s more fun to have a mascot running around.”
Spanish teacher Abby Gray said, “I think it’s made the game atmosphere even better…There is something about having a mascot that helps you identify with your team.”
Indiana has had a long struggle to define what it means to be a Hoosier, and to determine a school mascot. Various options were proposed over the years including an owl, a raccoon, and “Mr. Hoosier Pride”– a cowboy in candy stripes.
The bison was introduced as the official mascot in 1965, according to the Indiana Daily Student; however, its use was discontinued in less than a decade due to difficulties with the bison costume and a lack of consistent support.
The idea for reintroduction began to spread through the IU student body around 2020, with Professor Paul Gutjahr producing bison themed merchandise and distributing it to students for free, according to ESPN.
In 2024, the bison was used as the mascot of the Little 500, a bike race hosted annually by the Indiana University Student Foundation. It was then that university administrators saw the potential in a bison mascot campaign.
Now the bison is back, with enthusiasm of the student body and support from the Athletic Department’s social media.
Leading up to the introduction, the IU Athletics Department posted a series of videos to announce the Bison’s comeback featuring Women’s basketball player Sydney Parish, Men’s basketball Head Coach Darian Devries, and football Coach Curt Cignetti.
Gray said “they have done so much work to make it accessible to everybody and make it something everybody identifies with”.
Another recent video inspired by the 1976 movie Rocky showed Hoosier the Bison training in popular Bloomington spots featuring cameos of IU Athletics coaches. The video reached 49.1 thousand views on Instagram.
The readoption of the bison mascot is especially significant for some Bloomington natives considering how long IU had gone without a definitive meaning of a Hoosier. The university even used it as a point of pride, publishing a commercial in 2021 that said, “Wait, what even is a Hoosier? Why don’t you show us.”
Now, even with the bison as IU’s official mascot, the same authentic Hoosier spirit remains. Mira Koduri believes that Hoosier is here to stay. She said, “I think there’s a lot of support for it. Go Hoosiers!”
