Springsteen, '76 and sports

Homecoming generally triggers instant nostalgia, but it's not every year the theme sends alumni down memory lane. This year's "Glory Days" does just that.\nAll alumni have different college experiences and remember different events as their best IU moments, from ball games to nights at the bars. \nLisa Williams, class of 1976, recalls the Hoosiers winning the 1976 NCAA men's basketball championship as a fond memory from her glory days at IU.\n"On the night of the championship game, friends and I stayed downtown until about 3 in the morning, dancing on the sidewalks and being deluged with suds and kissed by strangers," Williams said. "I lived two miles from downtown, and even there you could hear the celebratory sounds from downtown almost until dawn."\nDebbie Sibbitt, a 1977 graduate and director of Hoosiers for Higher Education, agreed that the Hoosiers' 1976 victory was the highlight of her time in Bloomington.\n"People were hanging on the tops of traffic lights, standing on top of cars, honking horns, singing the fight song and hugging anyone that walked by," Sibbitt said.\nMichael Mann, class of 1991, also said sports have a lot to do with his definition of the theme noting some memorable football games.\n"My freshman year, we beat Michigan at home in the pouring rain and Ohio State on the road -- the 'darkest day in Ohio State football history,'" he said. "I think it was a rarity at the time and a rarity since."\nMann, the marketing manager at T.I.S. Bookstore and president of the Monroe County Chapter of the IU Alumni Association, is also a season ticket holder for both football and men's basketball.\nElizabeth Cook, class of 2006, said she remembers her freshman-year experiences at McNutt Quad as her glory days.\n"The floor I lived on freshman year was by far the most unique group of people I had ever met," said Cook, who now works in consumer and market knowledge for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati.\nThough she has maintained many of those friendships, Cook said her most glorious moment occurred after the Hoosiers beat the University of Maryland in the 2002 regular-season "rematch" of the NCAA men's basketball championship game the season before.\n"The entire floor was jumping up and down," she said. "We all migrated to the Showalter Fountain where we climbed in and waved IU flags and chanted 'IU' for probably half an hour. I remember the sense of overwhelming pride everyone had for IU in that moment."\nThough many of Williams' fondest college memories came from sporting events, she was quick to point out other Bloomington places she includes on trips down memory lane. \n"Lots of memories of kicking back on Kirkwood Avenue (are special to me)," she said. "It was an easy walk for me, as I lived next door to the present-day La Casa (on Seventh Street). Nick's (English Hut), of course, was where I went for my 21st birthday. And ... the best part of Kirkwood, in many ways, is the dear departed Von Lee (movie theater). So many great filmmakers, like (Ingmar) Bergman and (Federico) Fellini, I first came to know in that theater in many ways."\nThis year's homecoming theme came from a new IU alumnus while he was enjoying his last days on campus. Kirk Walda, a 2006 graduate and last year's Student Alumni Association president, submitted the idea as part of SAA's tradition of letting students choose the theme.\n"One morning of the spring 2006 semester, I woke up to my radio alarm clock playing 'Glory Days' by Bruce Springsteen," Walda said. "The song's lyrics comment on how quickly some great experiences in life go by, and as a senior, those thoughts resonated with me because graduation was right around the corner."\nWalda said he hopes current students enjoy the theme as much as alumni.\n"Countless alumni consider college to have been some of the best years of their life," he said. "I hope that students past and present take a moment to simply appreciate how great it is to be a part of IU"