Basketball is back in Bloomington, and the 2022-23 editions of Hoosier hoops have a lot of reason for optimism. Early in the season, the men’s squad sits at No. 12 in the AP Poll, while the women’s team hold an identical position on its side.
A big win might prompt the playing of an IU classic: “This is Indiana”.
If you haven’t heard the song by now, enjoy 3:48 of early 2010’s college music.
This is Indiana is an official IU basketball music video, paid for by the Indiana Memorial Union Board during the 2011-2012 basketball season. Performed by Bryce Fox and Daniel Webber, the production came at a time of student-produced songs around college athletics.
Bryce Fox talks about the initial inspiration for “This is Indiana”.
After three sub-500 men’s basketball seasons and a combined record of 28-66 over three years, Fox and Webber created “This is Indiana” ahead of the 2011-12 season.
IU won eight straight games to start the year, before welcoming then-No. 1 Kentucky to Bloomington.
A Christian Watford three pointer as time expired stunned the nation, and as the program exploded in the weeks following, so did the song.
Matt Englert talks about the celebrations after Indiana beat Kentucky on December 10, 2011.
“Follow Tom Crean, he gon’ take us back to greatness,” Fox said during the song.
A 2015-16 Big Ten regular season title earned Indiana a return to silverware, but now in 2022, the faces have changed. Crean’s reign as head coach ended in 2017, and his successor Archie Miller has also came and went. Mike Woodson is now the man in charge of the program.
Another face has changed: Fox and Webber both graduated from Indiana University and pursued careers in music. Fox flew across the country to Los Angeles, but when his music tour brought him home, he felt the song back from his past.
Fox talks about his decision to play “This is Indiana” during his concert in Indianapolis on October 13th, 2022.
Matt Englert served as the in-arena DJ for Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium between 2013 and 2018, and saw first hand the impact of the song on Indiana.
“I don’t know if [Fox and Webber] thought it was going to become such a part of the lore, or the lexicon of IU athletics,” Enlgert said. “It just did, it just found an audience. It resonated at just the right time.
When Indiana plays Arizona on December 10, 2022, it will mark 11 years since the ‘Wat Shot’ beat Kentucky, and launched “This is Indiana” into legend. To Fox, the reason why the song still is loved over a decade later is simple.
“It’s really sing-along friendly. And you know, that classic white kid rap,” Fox said. “Who doesn’t love some white kid rap?”
