Glass talks Bucket Game, victory flag during offseason, non-conference schedule for 2014

Because of Thanksgiving break, this will be the final Q&A with IU Athletic Director Fred Glass. Today we discuss the IU football gameday experience, and we look ahead to IU’s final home matchup: a Nov. 30 battle with Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket.

IDS You mentioned last week something about the dorms being opened early for Purdue. What’s the plan for that?

GLASS With the support of President McRobbie and Provost Lauren Robel, the residence halls will be open on the Saturday of the Bucket Game.

I don’t know exactly when they open, but hopefully fairly early so students can come back from their week’s vacation and do whatever they do on the pregame, and then come to the game and cheer the Hoosiers on to beat the Boilermakers and be able to go home to their dorms and go nighty-night after that.

IDS Was this something you had looked into doing in years past and you were just finally able to get it done this year? Or was this just something you had thought of this year?

GLASS We have been wanting to do that in years past when the Bucket Game has fallen on Thanksgiving weekend, and we’ve been in conversations with the residence halls folks and with their cooperation and the support of the president and the provost.
We were able to get that all put together this year.

IDS How do you expect that to affect attendance?

GLASS I’m hopeful that it will really increase the students coming.

I think after a week being gone in the fall, I think the kids may be eager to get back on to campus and have some fun Saturday and Saturday night in Bloomington.

I’m very optimistic that people will make the decision to maybe come back a day before they might otherwise do that and enjoy the last football game of the season, which is great given that it’s against Purdue.

IDS Because the Bucket Game does fall on Thanksgiving, and I think during the last four years it has, had you had any complaints about that? Or is this seen as any sort of solution or compromise with the student body to accommodate them a little bit?

GLASS We haven’t really had complaints I would say, but I do think since the schedule has shifted in recent years and pushed the game into Thanksgiving weekend. It just makes it harder sometimes for families to go to the game when maybe they have other plans.

It makes it particularly hard on the students when they’re on vacation. My hope is that not only the dorms being open but the fact that Thanksgiving vacation is an entire week may make the students more ready to come back than they may have otherwise been if they were only off on Thursday and Friday, as I believe was the case in previous years.

IDS What’s your personal favorite memory of the Bucket Game? Is there any one game or moment that sticks out to you?

GLASS That’s a great question. I’ve been going to Bucket Games since I was a little kid. I remember going to games where it was so cold people were buying coffee and pouring it into their shoes to keep their feet warm, which was kind of a short-term benefit, long-term probably not so smart. I remember snow being there. I just have a lot of generally positive memories about the bucket.

My favorite memory is the last time we beat them at West Lafayette, where we won the bucket three years ago. I’m very optimistic that our fellows will rise to the occasion and bring the bucket back and get the victory flag back up on the pole where it belongs.

IDS When IU did win the bucket in 2010, was their a special place you kept it? Where is the bucket kept if it is in Bloomington?

GLASS That’s a great question. I don’t know where we keep the bucket. There’s a special box, kind of like a suitcase thing that it’s in, and I’m going to make sure that the Boilermakers bring the bucket down, so when we beat them we can run across the field and grab it and hoist it over our heads because I don’t want to be waiting for it on Tuesday or something like that.

I’m hoping the Boilers bring the bucket, I’m hoping the bucket stays in Bloomington.
We’ll decide where to exhibit it, maybe in our trophy case in Memorial Stadium.

When I was a kid, when I was a student at Bloomington, they used to keep it in the case in the Memorial Union in the hotel lobby there so all the kids could see it. Maybe we’ll move it around a little bit and let the fans get a good gander at it.

IDS I don’t know if you’ve thought about this yet, but should IU win against Purdue, how long do you keep the victory flag up?

GLASS We have thought about that, and the victory flag stays up until we don’t win. If we beat Purdue and it is the last game of the season, the victory flag will stay up until we’re defeated next football season. If we make it into a bowl game, then whatever the outcome of the bowl is will dictate whether the victory flag stays up until the next season. We have thought about that, and that’s the plan.

IDS It could, hypothetically, stay up the entire offseason then?

GLASS Exactly. That’s the way we want it to be. It increases the stakes of the last game of the year. Hopefully that’ll be a bowl game. But if it’s not a bowl game, it’ll be the Bucket Game.

IDS We got a Twitter question this week. The IU Quarry, the IU student section, wants to know, with Navy off the schedule next year, who replaces them in the non-conference season?

GLASS We have four non-conference games next year. Those are Bowling Green on the road, Missouri on the road, North Texas at home and Indiana State at home, not in that order.

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