Touchdown Hoosiers!
Whenever you hear those words over the loudspeaker during an IU football game, take a quick glance at your surroundings. If you’re sitting near the south endzone of Memorial Stadium, you might want to cover your ears.
An ROTC Cadet will yell, “Ready … Fire!”
Then a flash of light and a loud bang, as the military-style cannon located behind the goalpost fires a blank charge.
This tradition isn’t only for the end of big touchdown drives. The cannon fire a charge to celebrate each Indiana score, including kick returns, field goals and even safeties.
While the cannon, named Big Jake, receives much of the recognition, it’s the group of ROTC cadets referred to as The Cannon Crew who are responsible for the cannon before, during and after each celebration.
“This program, the ROTC program, is essentially a cadet-run program,” said Military Science Professor SFC Joseph LeRoy. “We’re teaching leadership, and with that, we’re letting these young leaders branch out and learn themselves what leadership means and how they can build their skills. “
Captained in 2019 by Cadet Andrew Aldridge, the Cannon Crew features a group of cadets who rotate responsibilities for each game. Some members of the Crew load and fire the cannon, some members are responsible for the netting that catches the ball after a kick, and others act as security to protect people from the blast.
One responsibility is shared by every crew member throughout the game: push-ups. After each score, the cadets line up and perform one push-up per IU point on the scoreboard. This is simple enough in low-scoring affairs, like when the Hoosiers scored just 10 points in a loss to Ohio State. The unit did three push-ups after an IU field goal, then 10 more once the Hoosiers got there on the scoreboard. In a blowout win against Eastern Illinois, the Cannon Crew totaled 248 push-ups during the game as the Indiana football team dropped 52 points on the day.
Even though IU doesn’t have a mascot pumping up the crowd during football games, the Cannon Crew is able to shoulder that responsibility and engage the fan base in its own way. While games against teams like Eastern Illinois can be exhausting, the cadets view the push-ups as a sense of pride.
“We’re representing the United States Army. Being physically fit is one of the top priorities of a soldier,” LeRoy said. “Yes, we don’t have a mascot cranking those things out, but we’ve got some strong-willed cadets that can take care of that job. It’s very motivating.”
The tradition of firing off the cannon during IU games has been around longer than the current cadets can remember, becoming a staple of Hoosier football inside Memorial Stadium. The IU ROTC program received the cannon as a donation from the university and named it after the school’s first professor of military science, First Lieutenant Jacob Ammen, who came to Indiana in 1840. No matter how old the history, celebrating a score with the cannon never gets old in the eyes of the Cannon Crew.
“It really just changes the atmosphere, and fans want to hear it blow as much as we do because it’s a lot of fun,” Aldridge said. “It’s an honor showing everyone who we are as a university and as a program itself.”
Although various other universities have similar Cannon Crew programs like James Madison University and Utah State University, Indiana’s Big Jake is by far the most prominent in the hearts of Hoosier fans.