Glass talks game attendance, pink accessories

Each week, the IDS talks to IU Athletic Director Fred Glass about the IU football gameday experience.

This week’s discussion hits on IU’s apparel for breast cancer awareness month and the attendance numbers for the first five games of the season.

To get your question asked next week, tweet @robbyhoward1 or email robhowar@indiana.edu by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

IDS: Big Jake sounded louder Saturday. Is it up to the volume level you want it at?

GLASS: I thought Big Jake performed similar to our Hoosiers — very, very, very well. It was very loud and I enjoyed the smoke that comes out.
I think Big Jake is in really good shape.

IDS: How will the victory flag work with IU on the road the next two weeks?

GLASS: It’s the same way as if they’re at home. Obviously when we win, we will leave it up.If we unfortunately don’t win, we’ll bring it down.

IDS: The team wore pink on their helmets and had pink accessories for Saturday’s game. How important is the pink apparel for breast cancer awareness month?

GLASS: I think it’s critically important.I think there’s not very many families in this country who haven’t been touched in some way by breast cancer in their family. I bet most of your readers have an aunt or a sister or a grandmother or someone who’s been afflicted with that disease.

While the cure rates constantly get better, we believe that they can get even better than that by more awareness, more testing, more early diagnosis, more funding for our research. We’re really happy to be a partner with those conducting breast cancer research and fighting breast cancer.

For better or worse, collegiate football reaches into a lot of homes and gets an awful lot of attention. By having the pink branding, the pink sideline wear, the pink accessories with our football team and cheerleaders, we think it’s an important statement to support that cause.

IDS: Do you know how many years IU has gone to the pink accessories in October?

GLASS: We’ve done it every year since I’ve been there, and my guess is it was done before that. This is my fifth football season and we just keep adding on to it.
One of my favorite additions was the pink flags on the goal posts that we added and got special dispensation from the Big Ten to do that.

IDS: Are there any official watch parties for the game on Saturday at Michigan State? Or was that ever discussed or considered?

GLASS: That’s a great question. I know there will be tons of informal watch parties whether you’re at Nick’s or Kilroy’s or Yogi’s or your favorite establishment in Bloomington.

I don’t know if there are any formal watch parties or not, but I’m confident if there are, they will be well publicized.

IDS: How did the attendance numbers for the game on Saturday against Penn State — IU’s Big Ten opener — compare with any projections you had coming into the season?

GLASS: I think I should first say that in total, our first five home games exceeded the projections that we had. We were really encouraged by the way Hoosier Nation turned out for our first five games.

The fifth game, the Penn State game, was right about on target. We had sales of just over 42,000 tickets.

Now the rain and the early kickoff I think kept a few ticket holders away from the stadium. But you might have noticed the people who actually came stayed and cheered lustily until the end.

I’m really, really pleased with our attendance over the first five games. I’m hopeful that given how well the team’s doing and how deserving they are of support that people continue to turn out and certainly the students turn out.

It makes a huge, huge difference when our students come and stay and cheer, and they’ve generally done a really good job of that this year so far. I hope these last three home games they come out in force.

IDS: A question from the fans: Dan Kirwan asks, with the scoreboard before the game promoting how IU Athletics is going green, how eco-friendly are the fireworks that are set off before the game?

GLASS: Dan, the man has asked a question to which I do not know the answer. But I’m confident they are as eco-friendly as possible.

They probably help disperse those vermin-carrying pigeons that like to roost around Assembly Hall. I think they’re probably a net positive for the environment.

Follow columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.