Students go the distance for stadium

I love school spirit.  There's something wonderful about being part of something bigger, and I love all the energy.  

Naturally, I love Homecoming.  Although in the past, the football team was not particularly inspirational, I'm pretty excited for this year's game.  We've had a good season, so tomorrow's game looks promising.  

 As I look forward to the game tomorrow, I'm struck by a thought:  "Holy crap, the stadium is far away!"  Rose-Hulman's stadium is smack in the middle of campus—the only other college stadium I've actually been in.  Purdue's stadium is a stone's throw away from some of the dorms if I'm remembering correctly.  Even IU's stadium is only around a mile away from the center of campus, and IU's campus is sprawled out.  I'm not sure how far away the stadium is from their dorms, but it's certainly closer that ISU's three-miles-away stadium.  So why is our stadium located so far away?

To answer this question, I turned to the history of Memorial Stadium.  The area where Memorial Stadium is located belonged to a baseball stadium before it was leased to Indiana State University.  It was home of the Terre Haute Tots, a name which sends me into fits of giggles every time I read it.  I wonder if local restaurants served tater tots instead of French fries—I would!  

Anyway, baseball died out in Terre Haute in the 1950s, and in 1966, ISU signed a 99-year lease, the Tribune Star states.  They scrapped the entire baseball stadium except for the arch and part of an outfield wall and built a brand-new football stadium instead.  This outdoor stadium was unique for a university, and in 1967, Memorial Stadium became the first collegiate stadium with AstroTurf.

While all of that is interesting, it really doesn't explain why the stadium is located so far from ISU's campus.  Nothing I found really answered that, so I suppose we'll have to conjecture.  Clearly ISU saw this as an opportunity to acquire a stadium when they signed the lease, but they tore almost the entire old stadium down just to build a new one.  I'm sure money and availability factored into it greatly, and perhaps there simply was not a viable area of land close to campus at the time.  Still, it would be neat to see a new stadium closer to campus.  While finances are clearly tight currently, I see it as a good long-term goal for the future.  

Of course, the distance of the stadium has sparked another time-honored tradition at ISU:  The Walk.  The Walk's roots can be traced back to the 1980s when students would stop at bars along Wabash Ave. on their way back from the game.  Today it is an all-day affair, with some students getting up at the crack of dawn to begin their journey from campus to the stadium.  Despite my senior status, I have never been on The Walk.  

I've never been much of a drinker, and drunken shenanigans in broad daylight seem a little silly to me.  I've heard it's one of those things you have to do before you graduate though, so maybe I'll give it a try—alcohol doesn't seem to be compulsory.  Whether you decide to participate in The Walk this weekend or not, stay safe.  

And Go Sycamores.