Hoeppner hopes fans can cultivate football aura

IU has won 23 NCAA Championships and 158 Big Ten Championships in more than a century of collegiate athletics, but Hoosier football tradition might be best known for losing seasons, fired coaches and tailgating.\nFirst-year football coach Terry Hoeppner wants you to know this fall's football ride at "The Rock" will shake, rattle and roll IU football fans into rabid supporters who cheer the team onward to victory. And with each win, Hoeppner hopes the ghosts of 71 losing seasons past are put to rest in favor of a winning tradition that last led IU to an undefeated season in 1945 and their only Rose Bowl appearance in 1967. \n"There is a football tradition at Indiana University and Coach Hep is focused on creating a winning atmosphere," said Pete Rhoda, IU director of athletic media relations. "The groundwork is laid, and there's a good foundation. We are trying to create a great environment that is fan-friendly, fun and safe. It's a collective effort to wake up the echoes a little bit."\nNew to this year's Hoosier football scene are various rituals coach Hep has installed like "The Walk," which is similar to Notre Dame's "Victory March," in the hope of reviving a team that hasn't experienced a winning season in more than a decade. IU fans should note a winning football tradition takes time, as shown by other teams.\nJohn Heisler, associate athletics and sports information director for Notre Dame, said a winning Fighting Irish football tradition took 80 to 90 years to develop, dating back to the passing attack of Hall of Fame coach Knute Rockne.\n"When you win, that does as much as anything to create interest and get people into the games," he said. "Everybody at our institution takes the attitude and philosophy that fans should walk away from the weekend thinking our (football festivities) were pretty neat."\nMark Riordan, assistant athletics director for marketing at the University of Michigan, said the Wolverines' winning tradition has resulted from something other than winning football games, although the on-field accomplishments like the current longest streak of bowl game appearances in the country certainly helps.\n"Our winning definitely plays into filling the stadium, but winning isn't everything because it is the experience, entertainment and value of our football product that sells more than 100,000 tickets for each home game," he said. "Coach Hep should be able to turn it around for Indiana. Fans need to be patient and the program needs a few very good winning seasons in a row. Imagine an 11-0 season and IU playing in the national championship game. They would be beating people away at the gates."\nSocial Psychologist Ed Hirt, an associate professor for the IU department of psychology, said an exciting football product and a committed fan base form a reciprocal relationship toward a winning tradition. Humans tend to want to associate with winners, Hirt said.\n"One of the things about sports fans that is studied is called 'basking in reflected glory.'" he said. "When a team is successful, people who are linked to the team in some way -- fans -- can derive an esteem boost. They wear identifying clothing and connect with the team by saying 'we' won. When a team isn't successful, fans will use 'them' or 'they' to avoid connections with the program."\nAn energetic and vibrant stadium atmosphere does more than benefit the fans, it also helps the team, Hirt said.\n"Coaches can motivate, but the fact you have your classmates there and all these people are screaming is part of what we know of home field advantage," Hirt said. "If fans support the team and stay engaged in the game, you hear athletes say they feed off that and play at a peak level because they don't want to let the fans down."\nRiordan said it took the Wolverines more than four decades to instill a winning football tradition in Ann Arbor, Mich., which now includes an entire day of home game events, including the marching band as a prominent form of entertainment and tailgating students who tend to arrive late to their seats, but in mass.\n"We want everybody who comes here thinking that game day was the greatest time they've ever had," he said. "Winning can happen over night ... A winning tradition takes a longer time. Students tend to go with the wind and a couple of 8-3 seasons in a row can take care of that"