Hoosiers unveil 2013 Big Ten championship banner

Slowly, Assembly Hall’s newest resident made its way from the bottom of the bleachers to the rafters, drawing every eye at Friday’s Hoosier Hysteria.

As the spotlight focused on the eighth banner at the north end of Assembly Hall — the newest banner in the building — the cameras started to make their way out, then the cell phones.

The dark basketball gym transitioned to a scene of paparazzi. Small beams of white light started to creep up everywhere in the audience during the banner’s two-minute rise to the top, each person looking to capture the moment of the first new banner to enter Assembly Hall since 2002.

The song that starts every IU basketball game put a close to the 2012-13 season.

As “Where the Streets Have No Name” played, IU unveiled its 2013 Big Ten champions banner in Assembly Hall.

Against solid crimson material, the cream letters stitched across the banner read “Indiana University Big Ten Basketball Champions 2013.”

“That was a moving moment. There’s no question about that,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “When you come in here every day like I have since April 2, 2008, and you look at those banners, there’s no question you want to be a part of raising one of your own — one of your own in the program.”

Before the banner made its way to the top, a video played recapping IU’s win at Michigan to seal the Big Ten championship outright.

The end of the video included the play-by-play from Don Fischer from the IU radio network as the Hoosiers scored the final basket to topple the Wolverines.

Then, the audio transitioned seamlessly into the U2 song that is synonymous with Indiana basketball.

“It felt great to be able to share it at a night like this with so many people that were here through all those days when it didn’t look like we’d get a banner,” Crean said.
“They were here to help share it, too. I just wish that all the former players that have worked over the last five years could’ve been back to see it live. But that was a really big deal.”

Before 2002, Big Ten championships did not usually earn a banner at Assembly Hall, as it was not a national achievement.

In 2002, a banner was added for these championships. Each year the team had won a Big Ten championship was stitched onto a banner that read, “Men’s Big Ten Champions.”

IU’s Big Ten championship last season was its first since 2002.

IU has now won 21 Big Ten championships. Only two of those years have their own banner in addition to the year listed on the collective banner.

The other year is 1983, a year in which former IU Coach Bob Knight promised on Senior Night that he would create a separate banner to recognize the fan support that helped lift the team after star forward Ted Kitchel went down with a knee injury in February.

Now, a 2013 banner joins the 1983 banner, recognizing a single Big Ten champion season.

“How’s that banner look?” Crean asked the fans as he took the microphone after the banner made its way to the top. “Think we can make room for that? Because we’re working every day to put another banner up over there.”

As Crean said that last sentence, he made his way toward the south end of the court, pointing toward the five national championship banners.

Assembly Hall’s newest resident spent its first night set apart from the other seven banners at the north end.

The new banner crept ever closer to the court, standing alone by itself high in the air, lined up with the back of the basket.

Something blew the back end of it, causing it to lean forward even more and sway a bit from side to side.

As fans and recruits exited Assembly Hall, a new resident stood high, front and center at the north end, waving.

Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.