Indiana University Reinstates the Bison as the Official Mascot of the Hoosiers The Bison is back in Bloomington. Indiana University’s official mascot – Hoosier The Bison – has returned to the IU-Bloomington campus after a nearly 60-year hiatus. The mascot’s homecoming is a result of the ‘Bring Back the Bison Act’ passed by the Indiana University Student Body Congress on Dec. 16, 2024. In response to the student government vote to re-adopt the Bison as the official IU-Bloomington mascot, IU Athletics moved forward with embracing it as a symbol of both the department and campus’ spirit, passion, tradition, unity, and success. The culmination of those efforts will be on display beginning this fall. Hoosier The Bison will make its public debut at IU Football’s 2025 Aug. 30 season opener against Old Dominion at Memorial Stadium.
Why a bison? The state of Indiana and the bison have been linked for more than two centuries. In fact, the bison has been used as an Indiana symbol longer than Indiana has been a U.S. state. The bison first appeared on official court documents signed by then Indiana Territory Governor and future U.S. President William Henry Harrison in 1801, a full 15 years before Indiana became the country’s 19th state in 1816. The Indiana Territory seal depicted a woodsman chopping trees while a bison runs in the foreground, symbolizing the country’s expansion on the Indiana frontier (at the time, the western boundary of the United States). The bison has been a part of the Indiana state seal ever since. In addition to the bison’s tradition in the state of Indiana, it also has been a part of Indiana University and the city of Bloomington’s history since the 1960s.
The Original Bison Mascot-1965-At the recommendation of the IU Student Athletic Board and confirmed by the Indiana University Student Senate, the bison mascot was officially adopted and brought to life on October 14, 1965. The original intent, though, wasn’t to have a costumed character parading around IU. Instead, student leaders advocated for the university to purchase a live bison, to be housed in nearby Brown County State Park, when the animal wasn’t on campus for gamedays and special events. State and university officials frowned on the idea and warned students about the perils of keeping a live bison. Undeterred, students moved forward with a suggestion from then IU Foundation Executive Director Bill Armstrong to have a student in a bison costume. The first bison mascot debuted just in time for the final home football game that year – the Old Oaken Bucket game on November 20, 1965.
The Authentic Bison Mascot –1966-1967- By the time the 1966 Indiana Football season kicked off, the bison had a new look. With a full offseason to explore new possibilities, the IU Student Athletic Board, with the assistance of a Los Angeles based company, created a new mascot costume. Unlike the first rendition, the new version had some staying power and not only patrolled the sidelines in 1966 but also witnessed IU Football’s exhilarating 1967 Big Ten Championship Rose Bowl season. The head-to-toe mascot costume included a very large realistic, authentic-looking bison head. Unfortunately, the mascot performer’s line-of-sight and mobility was limited due to the costume’s design and led to additional changes.
The Rose Bowl Bison Mascot – 1967-69- As Indiana Football prepared for its first ever trip to the Rose Bowl, the university parted ways with the more authentic-looking bison mascot costume, worn during the regular season (and displaying the large realistic head). Instead, a new bison costume was created with similar features but more mobility for the performer inside. The new bison mascot costume debuted just in time for the January 1, 1968, Rose Bowl matchup with USC. The updated bison costume returned for the 1968 and 1969 seasons but student and fan support for the bison mascot began to wane and ultimately led to a long hiatus from the campus.
The Bison Lives On-While Indiana University stopped utilizing the Bison mascot in an official capacity, starting in the 1970s and subsequent decades that followed, its presence, history at IU, and support from the larger university and Bloomington community were intertwined and never entirely ignored. One of Bloomington’s most popular off-campus restaurants and gameday traditions, Nick’s English Hut, embraced the Bison and still does so to this day. Founded as a sandwich shop in 1927, the nearly 100-year-old establishment began using a version of the IU Bison in its logo in the 1960s (after IU originally adopted the Bison as its official mascot). Also, the university’s heraldic coat of arms, adopted in 1962, displays a crimson bison, sun symbol, open book, and the university’s motto Lux Et Veritas. IU’s Army ROTC Bison Battalion, one of the oldest college ROTC units in the country (dating back to 1917), has displayed the Bison as its moniker-of-choice for decades including today’s campus Bison Battalion ROTC unit. Moreover, during the 1980s and 90s, under Head Coach Bill Mallory, Indiana Football teams wore helmet stickers displaying a black silhouette bison with an IU trident logo. In more recent years, a bison character mascot has also been a part of Little 500 races and College of Arts and Sciences events. This fall , the Marching Hundred will unveil new uniforms, including silver buttons engraved with the Indiana state seal depicting a bison.
The Bison Returns-In the fall of 2024, the bison mascot returned to IU in much the same way it debuted nearly 60-years earlier. On December 16, 2024, the Indiana University Student Government reaffirmed the bison as Indiana University’s official mascot. In doing so, Student Government leaders requested that IU Athletics take the lead in creating, unveiling, and ultimately reintroducing the bison mascot on behalf of the campus. Hoosier the Bison will officially be unveiled at the first home football game this year on August 30. While Hoosier The Bison has returned as IU-Bloomington’s official mascot, IU-Bloomington’s official nickname remains ‘The Hoosiers.’ IU Athletics will have additional updates later this summer regarding Hoosier The Bison, including official IU Athletics Bison apparel and appearance opportunities. In the meantime, you can follow Hoosier The Bison on its official social media channels on X and Instagram.
Teri Moren and Team USA Cruise at the FIBA U-19 Women’s World Cup The United States cruised to a 114-40 win over Israel Tuesday at the FIBA U-19 Women’s World Cup in Brno Czechia. The United States finished Group A with a 3-0 record face China tomorrow in the Round of 16. China finished 0-3 in the bottom of Group B and were blown out by Canada 115-52 on Tuesday. The other two games were a five-point loss to Nigeria 93-88 and a 23-point loss to Portugal 75-52. Team USA led 60-21 at halftime and outscored Israel 54-19 in the second half. Jasmine Davidson who is headed to USC this fall scored 24 points; Sanyiah Hall who will play her final year of High School in Ohio added 20 points. Sienna Betts recorded her second double-double of the tournament with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Kate Harping added 13 points as all 12 Americans played and 11 scored. Sydney Douglas did not score in 8 minutes and 49 seconds of action and was the only player that played less than Ten Minutes.
Indiana University Sophomore Zania Socka-Nugemen scored 4 points, 7 rebounds along with a steal and a block in 12 minutes and 58 seconds off the bench for her College Head Coach Teri Moren. Socka-Nugemen went 1-2 from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line. In three games the 6-3 Forward from Sliver Spring Maryland has scored 16 points, 14 rebounds, a steal and a block in 31 minutes of action. Socka-Nugemen is 5-7 from the field, 1-1 from three-point range and 5-6 from the free throw line. Team USA scored a tournament record 134 points in their first game against Korea then beat Hungary 79-49 in their second game before scoring 114 in their game today against Israel. The United States had eight of the top 10 all-time highest scoring single games in tournament history.
Canada scored 113 points against Nigeria on Sunday and 115 Points against China on Tuesday. Which means the United States hold the Top five spots with the Soviet Union sixth scoring 117 against Cuba in 1989. The United States scored 116 against Puerto Rico in 2005 for seventh. Canada moves into eight with their game against China. Russia who scored 114 against Egypt in 2017 and the United States 114-point effort against Israel are tied for 10th. Canada 113 points against Nigeria are tied with the United States for 11th scoring 113 points against Korea in 2007 and Lithuania in 2013. Meaning that 9 of the Top 13 highest single game scoring outputs belong to the United States and Canada has two with Russia and the Soviet Union one each. The United States and Canada are on the opposite sides of the bracket and could meet in the final if they both win out.
Indiana’s Korbyn Dickerson Selected by the Seattle Mariners in the Fifth Round in the MLB Draft Perhaps no Big Ten player saw their draft stock rise higher during the 2025 season more than Indiana redshirt sophomore outfielder Korbyn Dickerson. The decision to come to Bloomington, and the hard work that came with it, paid off on Monday afternoon. Dickerson, a native of Jeffersonville, Indiana, was selected 152nd overall in the fifth round by the Seattle Mariners during the 2025 MLB First Year Player draft. He and junior outfielder Devin Taylor (2-48) give the program back-to-back years with outfielders selected in the top five rounds. In 2024, Nick Mitchell (4-C) and Carter Mathison (5) were each picked inside the top 165 overall picks.
After playing sparingly at Louisville during his first two seasons of college baseball, Dickerson transferred to Indiana for the 2025 campaign and enjoyed one of the best breakout years that the program has ever seen. He hit .314 with 19 home runs and 77 RBIs while scoring 57 times. He’s just the fifth player in program history, and first since Josh Phegley in 2008, with more than 75 RBIs in a season. The center fielder was honored by Baseball America as a Third Team All-American and was a First Team All-Big Ten and All-Big Ten Defensive Team selection. He was a prolific defender in the middle of the outfield, playing to a .985 fielding percentage while starting all 56 games. Dickerson was one of two IU players (Jake Hanley) to start all 56 games during the 2025 campaign.
Dickerson is the fourth different player to be selected by the Mariners in program history. It’s the first IU player the organization has selected since former third baseman Cole Barr was picked by the team in 2021. Barr was actually selected twice by Seattle but elected to come back to school after the 2019 season. The Indiana native is the 28th unique player from IU selected in the MLB Draft under head coach Jeff Mercer. Since 2019, he’s the seventh IU outfielder to be picked. Since 2022, the Hoosiers have produced seven selections inside the top five rounds.
Incoming Indiana University Men’s Basketball Freshman Aleksa Ristic Scores 22 Points to lead Serbia past France at the FIBA U20 European Championships Aleksa Ristic scored 22 points and dished out 8 assists Monday as Serbia beat France 84-65 at the FIBA U20 European Championships in Heraklion, Greece. Serbia finished Group D Play with a 3-0 record and will Face Ukraine this morning at 8:30 AM Eastern Time in Round of 16. Ukraine finished at the bottom of Group C with a 0-3 record. Ristic leads the team with 29.7 Minutes Played and 6.3 assists per game. Ristic will join the Hoosiers once this tournament is completed and is expected to be available for the Hoosiers Trip to Puerto Rico in August.
Ristic has started all three games, and this was the best game he has played so far. Ristic played 32 minutes and 43 seconds going 8-13 from the field along with perfect 6-6 inside the arc. Ristic went 2-7 from three-point range and 4-5 from the Free Throw Line. The 6-3 Point Guard dished out 8 assists along with a rebound. Ristic picked up 3 fouls and committed three turnovers. In the tournament Ristic has played 89 Minutes and scored 41 points. He has dished out 19 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals while committing 4 fouls along with 6 turnovers. Ristic is 15-35 from the field for 43%, 2-17 from three-point range for 11% and 9-11 from the free throw line for 81%.
IU Pitchers Ben Grable and Cole Gilley Along with Signees Matthew Fisher and Alex Barr Selected in the MLB Draft Veteran pitchers Cole Gilley and Ben Grable were selected in the 10th and 11th rounds respectively on Monday afternoon to wrap up the 2025 MLB Draft. In total, four Hoosiers and two Indiana signees were selected among the 615 overall picks in this year’s proceedings. Gilley, one of the best pitchers in the Big Ten, was selected in the 10th round by the Philadelphia Phillies. Including teammates Devin Taylor and Korbyn Dickerson, Gilley gives IU 17 top 10 round selections under head coach Jeff Mercer in the last seven seasons.
In his one season in Bloomington, Gilley was a revelation for pitching coach Dustin Glant and the Hoosiers. The Second Team All-Big Ten selection was one of two Big Ten pitchers to win 10 games this season and maintained a 3.54 earned run average on the year. The Indiana native racked up 75 strikeouts to just 20 walks. He allowed just 27 earned runs in a team-best 68.2 innings on the mound. He led the team with 12 starts and produced three-straight quality starts to end his senior season in 2025.
His veteran counterpart, Grable, was selected 344th overall in the 11th round by the New York Yankees. He’s the fourth player in program history picked by the Yankees and the first since Grant Richardson (17-513) in 2021. After recovering from season-ending surgery in 2024, Grable became a big part of the IU staff in his final season of college baseball. He worked a 4.31 earned run average across 17 appearances and 56.1 innings of action. He thrived in pounding the zone with 65 strikeouts to just 17 walks.
Over the last two seasons, IU has had 10 players selected in the MLB Draft. It’s the first time the program has had at least four draft picks in consecutive seasons since 2018 and 2019. In the history of the draft, the Hoosiers have now had 117 unique players selected. 30 of those have come in the Jeff Mercer era (since 2019). Among the selected players in this year’s draft included IU high school signees Matthew Fisher and Alex Barr. Fisher was a consensus top 100 national prep prospect and was picked in the seventh round by the Philadelphia Phillies. Barr was taken in the 12th round by the Athletics.
Taylor University’s Gabel Pentecost Drafted by the Houston Astros in the Sixth Round of the 2025 MLB Draft Taylor University’s Gabel Pentecost was selected in the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft by the Houston Astros on Monday afternoon. The Taylor ace and NAIA All-American was taken in the sixth round with the 186th overall pick. Pentecost was the first NAIA player to hear his name called in the 2025 draft, becoming the fourth player in the history of the Taylor baseball program to be drafted. Pentecost followed Josh DeGraaf (2015, Round 31), Taylor Kinzer (2009, Round 24) and Randy Mohler (1969, Round 4) in being drafted out of the Trojan program.
The six-foot, three-inch, 200-pound righty hurler from Fremont, Indiana repeated as the Crossroads League Pitcher of the Year in 2025, closing his junior campaign on the mound ranked sixth in the NAIA with 116 strikeouts and sixth with 12 wins. Pentecost set Taylor’s single-season records for wins and strikeouts with those totals and finished his 2025 season with a 12-2 record, a 3.04 earned-run average, a 1.05 WHIP, 116 strikeouts and 21 walks in his 80.0 innings of work. During his time in Upland, Pentecost has racked up a 26-9 record on the bump with four saves, 276 strikeouts and just 70 walks in 226.1 innings of work. Those numbers stack Pentecost favorably in TU’s all-time program records, ranking him second in strikeouts, third in wins and seventh in innings pitched in just three seasons with the Trojans.
Pentecost, who could return to Taylor for his senior season, will have until 5:00 pm (ET) on Monday, July 28 to reach an agreement on a contract with the Houston Astros. If an agreement is reached, Pentecost would likely be assigned to one of the Astros’ minor league organizations to begin his professional career. Those minor league destinations include the FCL Astros (Rookie League) in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (Single-A) in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the Asheville Tourists (High-A) in Asheville, North Carolina, the Corpus Christi Hooks (Double-A) in Corpus Christi, Texas and the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Triple-A) in Sugar Land, Texas.
Indiana Pacers Drop Their Second Game in the Las Vegas Summer League In a Summer League matchup between Central Division foes, the Chicago Bulls dropped the Indiana Pacers 114-105 on Monday in Las Vegas. After leading by four points after three quarters, the Bulls (1-2) scored 29 points in the final frame to hold off any chance of a Pacers (1-2) comeback at Cox Pavilion. All five Pacers starters scored in double figures in the loss. Pacers guard RayJ Dennis finished with 20 points and five assists, forward Enrique Freeman posted 17 points and 10 rebounds, rookie Kam Jones logged a personal-best 18 points and six assists, Phillip Wheeler chipped in 16 points, and Johnny Furphy recorded 15 points and six rebounds.
Chicago forward Matas Buzelis, an All-Rookie Second Team member last season, scored 28 points, while 6-foot-10 French rookie Noa Essengue added 21 points, Javon Freeman-Liberty scored 18 points, and Yuki Kawamura recorded 15 points and 10 assists off the bench. Both teams shot 50 percent overall, with Indiana making 11 3-pointers to Chicago’s 10, but the Bulls finished 30-for-34 at the free-throw line while the Pacers made 22-of-25 at the stripe. “We play hard, we play together, we play unselfish … we just (haven’t put together) 40 minutes yet,” Pacers Summer League Coach Isaac Yacob said. “We shot 50/40/90 and scored enough points to win, we just can’t give up 110 every night.”
There were eight lead changes and six ties in the game, but the largest Pacers’ largest lead was just two points. Chicago attacked the rim early and often to build a 57-53 halftime lead. Indiana outshot Chicago 53.1 to 45.9 percent in the first half, but the Bulls shot 19-for-21 from the free throw line while the Pacers went 12-for-13. Rookies took over the game early, as Jones and Essengue scored 13 points each in the first half. Essengue struck first, scoring 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting in the first quarter to help the Bulls to a 32-18 lead. The Bulls built an early 16-8 lead on a 9-0 scoring spree before Furphy hit a 3-pointer and threw down a one-handed dunk to spark a 8-2 Pacers run and make it a one-possession game. Following a Chicago timeout, with 2:57 on the clock, the Bulls bolted to a 14-0 run thanks to seven points by Essengue before Indiana rookie Taelon Peter ended the streak with a layup. Jones then scored 11 points of his own in the second quarter to help the Pacers narrow the halftime margin to four points. A trio of 3-pointers by the Pacers, including back-to-back triples from Jones, made it 38-31 before an 11-0 Pacers run – where Jones hit his third three of the quarter and Furphy slammed home a poster dunk over Essengue – tied the score at 44 with 3:21 left in the half.
“Kam is getting better every day, every game,” Yacob said. “Trending in the right direction. Just keeps chipping away.” A Jahmir Young 3-pointer out of a timeout got the Bulls back on track, however, and Chicago didn’t relinquish the lead the rest of the half. The score stayed within two possessions in the third quarter until a 11-2 Chicago run from 3:30 to 1:49, featuring five points by Buzelis, pushed the Bulls ahead 83-73. Four straight points by Peter concluded the frame, but the Pacers trailed 85-81 heading into the final 10 minutes. Emanuel Miller opened the fourth quarter with an and-one before Freeman-Liberty added five straight points to give the Bulls a 93-83 lead, and the Pacers never got closer than five points the rest of the game. The Pacers will continue Summer League action on Thursday when they take on the New York Knicks at 4:30 PM ET.