It looked and smelled like a college football Saturday on 17th Street — with smoke rising out of tailgating grills and into a sea of Indiana cream and crimson.
Jeremy Gray, associate athletic director for strategic communications and fan experience, cruised around the athletic complex in a golf cart. He was wearing an olive green windbreaker, khakis and neon blue sneakers. Gray’s job is to bring fans to games and make them want to come back.
He walked into Hoosier Village, a small fenced-off patch of grass by the stadium with food vendors, giant inflatables and middle-aged tailgaters drinking cans of Bud Light.
He was about to go on 105.1 FM — a last-ditch effort at getting fans to come out and watch IU take on Western Kentucky.
There were less than two hours to kickoff.
“It’s gonna be a perfect day for football,” Gray said.
He talked about how early ticket sales are strong, how he’s excited about what they’re going to see today at “the Rock,” how it’s a big game on the schedule for both teams.
He was even optimistic about the traffic.
* * *
IU has had a 42-78 record throughout the past 10 years, with its last winning season in 2007. The Hoosiers haven’t reached a bowl game since that year.
IU ranked 11th in the Big Ten in attendance at football games in 2014.
But Gray said he believes between rising interest in high school games and Indianapolis Colts football, there’s a market prepared to start enjoying college football in Indiana.
“The appetite’s there,” Gray said. “They’re ready to go.”
Gray said he goes to lengths to get students to fill the stadium.
During breaks in the game, Gray’s team purposely shoots more T-shirts at the student section. He and his team market on social media, meet with student groups and create a loyalty program that gives students better basketball seats for attending more football games.
He meets with other staff members days before the games to go minute-by-minute, discussing every kiss cam, texting contest, commemorative cup, Mario Kart promo and band number
scheduled for game day.
What Gray is trying to do in the long run isn’t so much selling a product — it’s more about creating a culture.
Gray and his team came up with the idea of raising the “victory flag” when IU wins a game — and Gray pushes that tradition and
ingrains it.
But it’s not just the victory flag. It’s Hep’s Rock, which players touch in honor of late IU Coach Terry Hoeppner, who died of cancer. It’s the Old Oaken Bucket, a decades-old tradition, awarded to the IU-Purdue game victor.
They are traditions that have to last several years and that his team has to stick to, Gray said.
“You gotta play the long game and the short game,” he said.
* * *
With about an hour to kickoff, Gray was finally ready to go into the stadium for the game — this stadium that, in many ways, serves as a sort of temple to all of his hard work. There are the graphics on the stadium walls, and DJ Unique blasts his remixes through the speakers by the field to pump up the players and fans. Flags hang around the field, made by student organizations that have come to support the Hoosiers. The feed on the video board shows fans’ pictures with #GoIU.
Before he went in, Gray asked one of the ticket scanners about the oversized “ASK ME — I’M HERE TO HELP” button on her shirt.
That idea, Gray said, was inspired by a trip to Disney World years ago. Gray’s then-toddler Zoe was exhausted after a long day. She was cranky, but the ushers at Disney can’t let patrons leave upset. So an usher handed Zoe some gold glitter — “pixie dust” — given to them by Tinkerbell and told her to sprinkle it at the foot of her bed that night so she’d have sweet dreams.
Now ushers at Memorial Stadium carry “Hoosier bucks” with them so, for example, when a kid drops his ice cream cone, the ushers can hand the kid some Hoosier bucks to get himself or herself a new cone.
Gray passed by one of the enormous painted footballs sitting in the stadium atrium. The idea being that eventually, these giant footballs will be moved around campus for students to see and take selfies with — constantly keeping IU football on their minds.
Gray said he was hyped about them, especially the one painted crimson and chrome. He stopped, handed his phone to his intern and asked her to take a picture of him with the football.
It went straight to his Instagram: “Football is big at IU! #GoIU #iufb #LetsDigIn.”
Ludwig filter, like always.
Then, it was twenty minutes to kickoff.
The stands were maybe a third full, but Gray wasn’t dismayed. He wouldn’t give his thoughts on fan turnout until the countdown clock hit zero.
A firework boomed out of the stadium, heralding the marching band and, Gray said, letting
tailgaters know it’s time to
come in.
“Getting close to showtime here,” he said.
The players were out, the smoke that once fogged their run was clearing and Gray was finally ready to assess the crowd size.
The student section was looking sparse, but the rest of the stands were pretty full, bringing the total up to about three-quarters full. A large portion of those stands would clear out at halftime, but for that moment, Gray was content.
Less than three minutes into the game, IU junior receiver Mitchell Paige returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown, quickly putting IU in the lead.
Gray did a fist-pump.
“About as good a start as we can have,” he said.
Right after the touchdown, Gray pointed out one of the ushers, an older man hopping down to the turf to do pushups with the cheerleaders counting the number of points scored.
It’s a new tradition — a “weird tradition” — that Gray said he is excited about. And he didn’t have to make this one.
* * *
On the day of the IU-Ohio State game, it was a cold October Saturday in
Bloomington.
The skies were grey, there was a light rain and an excited feeling around Memorial Stadium.
Minutes to kickoff, Gray was posted up in his spot at the north end zone looking out toward the stands, not letting his excitement show. He was wearing an uncharacteristically straight face.
He had no idea in that moment of what was going to come in the next four hours — how IU would hold the No. 1 team in the nation to just six points in the first half and lead for large parts of the game, or how Ohio State would scrape by with a 34-27 win.
What he could see, though, was finally, for the first time in five years, the stands were sold out.
