IU Student Newspaper Scores on ESPN
When you’re an IU alum watching the school’s nationally televised basketball games, like Tuesday’s against North Carolina, it’s fun knowing the rest of the country is exposed to little things so familiar to Hoosiers—the Assembly Hall ad proclaiming local attorney Ken Nunn’s love of IU hoops, or Kilroy’s bar, which was briefly mentioned by one of the ESPN announcers.
But it’s even cooler when something you have a close personal connection to gets time in the limelight. Prior to the Indiana telecast, IU’s newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, was featured on ESPN during a break in the Michigan versus North Carolina State game.
Cue a geek-out from this former IDS staffer. Hey, that’s my paper! I worked there! I know those guys!
And if it was that thrilling for an alumna, imagine how cool it must have been for current IDS staff?
The paper’s cover wrap displayed a black-and-white 1984 photo of IU’s Dan Dakich being guarded by Michael Jordan of North Carolina, played up the similarities between the two teams—Zellers (Tyler and Cody, respectively), five NCAA banners—and declared the game a “clash of the college basketball titans.”
The cover was again briefly shown during the IU game, and earned a write-up on Charles Apple’s blog for the American Copy Editors Society. Dakich himself even tweeted a shout-out about the paper.
IU’s winning streak is doing more than bringing attention to the team and the state: It’s giving proud alumni like me a chance to say, “Hey, I remember that!”
