You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. All right, folks, welcome back to Crimson Cats got here with you. I'm joined as always by Galen and we have a very special guest if we're watching on video, you know, if you're listening, you won't know for a couple more minutes, but very excited about this one. This one's going to be awesome. Galen How you doing, my man? Doing. Great, You know, still recovering from that Pacers game
in person last night. That was wild. It was a great day in Indiana sports history as we get an all time game out of Tyrese Halliburton and we get the re establishment of an iconic figure within the IU or the Indiana sports landscape. So it's good day all the way around. It was I I had the moment at the game where I'm looking down like I'm like, that looks like Jelly roll. And it's like, no, that is Jelly
roll. It's like it's one of those where like if that was a normal regular season game against the Kings, like that's not, it's just a guy with face tattoos. But you get to the Eastern Conference finals and it's like, Oh, no, that's actually who I think it is. Yeah, He was he was popular, $0.50 was there. It was it was big times. Yeah.
But before we get going, let's let's reach out to our sponsors, Home Field Apparel, who has been a proud sponsor of Crimson Cast and the Back Home Network for years. You can catch out all their great stuff.
Even though the race is over, they still have tons of great racing gear you can pull up. And, you know, it all started for for us. Our Home Field Apparel journey started when Galen and I went to a Pacers game and Galen was wearing this hoodie, this Bison hoodie which will come in a little bit in our discussion today. And he's like, this is the most comfortable hoodie I've ever owned. And I was like OK and it also looks good, but it's comfort is great.
So I bought one it's awesome and that's where it all started. Unfortunately we didn't have the promo code home 23 at the time, but you do for your first purchase. You can get 15% off your first purchase using the promo code home 23. They have tons of great stuff and probably like your your best. Stop for the Bison hoodie I would say. Absolutely. Also don't forget we are on YouTube. What were we at 8000 subscribers
now? 85. 100 your project 8000 by the end of June, so let's make it happen. Let's keep going, people. If you tell a friend and have them tell a friend and have them tell their parents and get them to subscribe to YouTube. We're also on sub stack, substack.crimsoncast.com where you get VIP videos, but also just get a nice little e-mail reminder every time something Crimson Cast is posting. I think I think that's it. So I did my job. Good job.
Thank you very much. Well, we are excited to have on again Jeremy Gray, the Indiana senior associate athletic director. That's a mouthful. It's a long business card, but it's nice. We had Jeremy on earlier in the year in October where he and I talked about the, the history of the, the rally towels that we're going on at Memorial Stadium, which is fun. And so I got to ask the question. Now you have something, some great stuff coming out.
But I'll, I'll start with this, Jeremy, are we going to get a Bison rally towel for the, the upcoming season this year? You know, we have not designed the towels for next year, but I find it an impossibility that one of the seven will not be a bison themed towel. We are leaning into it and I can just tell you that that would be fast track approved by Coach Signetti. He is.
He is Team Bison all the way. So we wanted to have you like this is something Galen has been talking about for years, bring back the Bison. But if you don't know, you know what kind of spurred this? This podcast is there was just an absolutely awesome video just released by IU Athletics kind of letting us know that the Bison is coming back with some great aerial shots of IU student government.
But I thought we'd start here, Jeremy, if you could give us a little bit of the history of like the Bison and Indiana University athletics. It's not just I would love to say it's just Galen started this and just started saying bring back the Bison. It it's not there is a longer history of Bison and IU connections. Yeah, it there are several tracks to this. So one, it goes all the way back to the founding of the university where, you know, it's, it's part of the state
seal. There are things like, you know, our ROTC regiment, that's the Bison Battalion. They're the Bison Battalion cadets. You will find imagery of the Bison in obscure places located around campus. And then there's been athletics involvement in it. Most famously, from 1965 to 69, the Bison was a mascot here at IU. It failed for a couple of reasons. One, the suit was especially cumbersome. The head was gigantic, it was difficult to see out of, and it
was just poorly executed. And a cheerleader had to actually walk that bison onto the field with a leash so it wouldn't trip and fall over itself. And if you if. You take the Rose. Bowl out of it, which is a massive moment, of course, in the history of IUIU athletics. Actually, the mid to late 60s were a pretty rough time for Indiana athletically. You know, there, there there were some things that were going on coming off of probation. Basketball at that point in time
had waned a little bit. Yes, there was the Rose Bowl year and the great dock Councilman teams. But there there was a lot of faltering otherwise. And so with all of that, it just kind of disappeared in 1969. But it remained as a staple of the branding of, you know, Nick's English Hut. It remained on various T-shirts that have been produced over the over the years. And it was something that just remained a low hum for a long, long time. And then about 10-15 years ago.
Fred Glass, go ahead. Real quick, so you said just want to go back one second. So in the 60's, the the mascot, the person wearing the costume had to be like a leash. It wasn't a live bison. It was like an actual person had to be walked around with a leash. Yes, and they had it had a giant head, it could not see out of it and so it literally had to have a cheerleader.
Like all the photos you see of it, there's a cheerleader with a rope and the cheerleader standing no further than 3 inches away from it at all times because it might trip and fall at any time. So it's just poorly executed. And it and it died. And then they they tried Mr. Hoosier Pride, which failed kind of every test of mascot hood possible. It had terrible eyes, so it terrified children. It did not accentuate the brand of the school and actually harmed it in some ways.
It was totally associated with losing. So it went away as well and then? Galen, When Galen and I were going to school, they had like the inflatable. Just people, just like an inflatable guy who was an IU fan. That was a late 90s thing that will have that will always be difficult to explain to people in future generations. It'll be up there with Zuba's pants and the appeal of MC
Hammer, but. I feel like, I feel like the further we get away from the 90's the harder they are to explain to anybody, like they make no sense. Yeah, no question. Yeah, like that, that the baggy corduroy pants, like all of it was just totally impractical. But it went away there and then Fred Glass. And I think he deserves more credit than than what he is going to get through this process.
Fred Glass like the idea of having a mascot and there were some videos that preceded IU football games about 10-15 years ago that included some bison imagery. They were computer generated animation and they've actually kind of endured in the memory of the fan base and I think some key ways. And then and you have one of the central characters in the drama Co hosting with you here today.
But there is the bring back the Bison campaign on campus and we'll we'll get to their involvement actually in one of the five videos in a bit. And while we all love Galen, I think doctor Gautier is is really kind of the George Washington of that enterprise and and fought the good fight in a lot of ways, really summoning up energy behind the idea, creating things that actually got cease and desist letters, you know, over time. But that kind of kind of spurred
it on for a bit. And then various student groups over the last three or four years have really picked up momentum behind the idea. And then all of the stars really aligned in the last 12 months or so to to to make it possible. Yeah, That was a long answer, no. No, that's great. I'll, I'll chip a couple other
things in there. First of all, that hoodie you're wearing that you mentioned in the intro, I was texting with Connor Hitchcock from home Field and he reminded me, 'cause I asked him, I was like, when did that come out? And he said it was 2017 and it was actually before home field became home field, it was still a company called Hoosier Proud, which if you listen to assembly call, you know, the Hoosier Proud banner moment. That's where that comes from.
But I, I'll always credit that hoodie kind of on the heels of the, the Pat Kraft LED Bison video that popped up in whatever that was 2010. I think that I think put the bison back in the minds of a lot of people. And I know for me, you know, we've had talks on and off about, oh, you know, the bison that used to be the mascot, but I don't feel it got serious. I would agree that that I think was really kind of a Seminole moment.
And it's interesting, like what's happened since then 'cause that was only 8 years ago, but an idea that was kind of DOA across multiple presidents. And, you know, always seem to get a lot of resistance from certain segments of the, the, the, the university branding team and, and certain pockets of alumni. Suddenly there started to be a lot more momentum that picked up across the board on it. Do you think it's just merch?
Like what do you think changed? Because for, like you said, for years, there was kind of a, you know, we don't need a mascot or even like almost pride in that. We don't have a mascot. We don't need that. We're, we're, you know, we are who we are. And, and as a fan too, just a fan as a podcaster, I definitely felt the change over the last couple years. What what do you think kind of helped make that movement, you know, go forward?
I think, I think a couple of things and I think we, we have to look at this with a certain degree of humility too, that the, the pinstripes work for the New York Yankees because they're the New York Yankees and they can hold on to kind of this never changing thing. I, I would say there's a desire a little bit for a fresh start, because a lot of things that have been attempted over the last 25 years as a, as a pertains to the basketball program have kind of gone
through fits and starts. So I think the appetite for trying something new as a department is greater than it's been ever in my in my time here. I think you couple that with a year of great latitude and experimentation in football, where almost all of the gambles paid off and then it was backed up by a highly successful season. I think those things LED people to to be willing to give this a chance. I do think the hoodie that you're wearing is part of the story.
People, you know, buy their relatives Nick's English Hut glass mugs for Christmas. They like that image. And then I think technology has helped where people were able to make their own AI generated graphics and they were ridiculous, You know, a chain smoking bison disembowelling a Spartan or whatever, you know, But like people were able to make that and people really kind of rallied behind that to a
certain degree. And then I think students look for moments and this was really student LED in a lot of ways. And I do think having Lee Corso back here for college game day and him picking IU to win. And this is no disrespect to the baseball cap that he wore. It felt like it was this great coronation of the program, the school, the reuniting of this iconic figure in college football with the school that
kind of helped make them. And we put on a baseball hat instead of instead of something that really kind of established, established the brand. I think all of those elements played into people really wanting to, really wanting to do
this. So the, the other piece that as a fan that I'll throw in there that I thought was a moment as well as I, I do think that year 2015, 2016, whenever the football team released like 9 different jerseys for one year was just like, whoa, this is what like as a fan, like this is the athletic department just doing something totally different, including the Chrome striped helmet, which, you know, at least from my perspective, seemed to get a very positive
fan reaction. It felt like that was also a moment where it's like, hey, we can we can monkey with uniforms a little bit and really have something cool here. I agree. I think I, the other part about it is, you know, I'm a, I'm almost 50 years old. More of my beard is Gray than it is brown at this point. So I'm technically one of the old guys now. And I, I, I do think these things change. So people, you know, there's always kind of a fear of certain
segments of the fan base. Well, you know, I'm 50 years old and I, I, I grew up with hip hop music and liking mascots. And so I I think maybe the demographics of the fan base have changed some. Yeah. I mean, I think it's interesting because you mentioned that desire for a new start across the board. It's something that with football, you're almost asking for a start period, because it never really felt like football
ever got its own thing. I mean, at its most successful points, as you mentioned, like the late 60s, that season came out of nowhere and then was gone just as quickly. So there was never really a chance to build on that momentum. And even in the Mallory era, it was overshadowed throughout that entire time period by Bob Knight and IU men's basketball, which had their own very staid traditions that essentially enveloped the entire athletic
department. I mean, the one time football tried something different, it resulted in the Oval, which is still probably, Jeremy. Would you say the single most divisive thing that's ever been associated with IU athletics? It's up there. I mean, like, I can tell you it'll be the next person who has my job, who brings it back. I'm scared of it. Yeah. What would be? What would be easier for you to do, bring back a new mascot or just bring back the ovals a full
time uniform? But but I mean, you know, now especially and you know, it's, it's weird how this all synced up. And Jeremy, this is maybe where I'd love to hear you talk about the timing and the sequencing of all of this because, you know, as recently as a a couple of years ago, I'm having, you know, a chat with Paul Goutyar, who's giving me bison merch to pass out guerrilla warfare style to people on campus, you know, which I dutifully did.
I've still got a box like half filled with that merch in my office. But you know, all the way up to the top of the university. The idea is, well, we're never going to have a mascot. Like it's not what we do. And then it, you know, it almost felt like little things happened
along the way. I'll give Trent McGee some credit, who's no longer no longer with IU, but was at the time, you know, at IUSF, at the Student Foundation, they bring a kind of a junior version bison mascot to the little 500 races in 2024, I think it was. And I think Ryder is the name of that mascot. It ends up riding around with President Whitten in a car and there's like pictures and everything, but it was like the the ice melted and then the dam
broke. So like, what has this process been like over the last 18 months as the momentum's picked up on this? Yeah. And I think I, before I go into that, I do think for very understandable reasons and I, and I hope that this doesn't sound like judgment of frankly decisions that I had a part in before and what people I worked with before made for very understandable reasons. After about 1998 until about two years ago, this is a risk averse athletic department.
There were very controversial things that had happened, the firing of the most iconic coach of all time, the probation hyping up football teams that then immediately underwhelmed and, you know, scared of saying win today. So it was a risk averse athletic department in a in a lot of ways and for understandable reasons. And frankly, Kurt Cignetti threw that all out the window. And I will give my boss a lot of
credit. I got this kind of marketing fell into my area responsibility really this time last year. And he said do whatever you want, like you can figure out what you want to do with this football program. Whatever we've been doing hadn't worked. And so we changed a lot of things and a lot of them ended up working out because we ended up winning as well. Like those two things worked in concert together.
So I think we are finally through a 20 year period where everybody was scared of how other people would react because of how angry they were about different situations. So getting rid of that or getting through that, I think changed a lot of the appetite for this.
But you mentioned the IUSF, Trent McGee, the little 500 part of this, the guerrilla warfare of Bring Back the Vice and passing out little foam bison out in the parking lot of football games and seeing koozies appear out of nowhere, crazy hats, all of that kind of stuff. I do think that made the release of this much, much better. I would have been happy when we started this process process and when we determined we were going to do it if we got a 6040 reaction. I that's what we expected.
We looked at what happened when the Cubs introduced Clark and other new mascot reveals. It's like a lot of people are going to hate it at first. I think it's 95.5 because the ice melted some of it. We did little video board graphics, the schedule cards with horns on it, leaning into it a little bit. Some of it are home filled sweatshirts. Some of it are the AI generated
graphics by fans. You know, some of it is seeing IUSF adopt it and giving the plush toys to the wing riders of the little 500. I think all of that made the reveal of it much more palatable to the to to the to the fan base. But I think winning in football, a series of meetings with everyone from student athletic board to the Board of Aeons to the student body president made people feel that the students really, really wanted this.
Seeing what we could have done with football had we had a mascot, but we're unable to do so. Kind of what the appetite of maybe some people who were initially reluctant to the idea. And then December 16th, 2024, when the student government officially passed that resolution to bring back the bison, I think everybody at that point in time was on board of we got to do this. And then we just waited for the suit to be created. And we realized once we got the suit.
More than three people can't keep a secret, so we got them. We got to reveal this thing. And so that's how the videos came to pass. I, I will say I, I did notice the little bread crumbs and I, I think it was important, but I think it was, it was almost, I felt like the athletic department winking at us, not, not us, you know, the fans because you obviously I, I knew Galen was talking about I, I, I knew kind of some of the swag going around.
But then, like this year at football games, you know, in between plays, there was kind of a, a red backdrop of little logos all over the place, like I the state of Indiana. And like there was this logo as part or a bison type logo in there. And it's like, oh, that they're aware, like they, they know people are talking about like threw it in there. So. So I like that. We actually did that to see if people would complain. Oh, OK. It was it was one of the IT was like a trial balloon.
Like we met with some students. There's momentum behind this idea. We're going to put this up there and if people complain and actually we got the opposite where it's why didn't you make the whole video that which was a great leading indicator for us. I do I I respect you have to like take all complaints into there, but it's like if somebody's like goes to a game, it's like I it was a great experience, but during one of the video replays, there is an
image with five images up there. One of those I I disagree with like that would be an insane insane. I'm going to say you'd. Be amazed at what comes your e-mail. OK, fair, very fair, but. I I I do. I don't want to get too wonky or in the weeds, but I am curious like, so I use student government passes a resolution like bring back the bison. You know, I'm just, I'm curious, what are the next steps? Like who has votes in that process?
Because it's not as simple as, hey, the student government said it like, OK, we're put in a mascot. Like it's going to be, you know, because they can just be like, we want marshmallows. Our mascot like, you know, there has to be like, you know, does does Witten get involved? Like I'm just, I'm curious kind of from a just procedural point
of view. Once it's like this is something I think we're actually going to go down, you know, as much as you can talk about like who, where, what are the next steps? Who has the next steps, who has the votes, who's in the room and like, who has the vote to actually veto it if they wanted to? Yeah, so that's a great question. And I want to make sure I keep this vague enough that I'm I'm right enough about this. But let's just say in September, I convinced Scott that it was a
good idea. Not me, yes. Mark Skirvin has always been for this idea. We gave kind of the rationale of why we think it's important and we'll talk about maybe that a little bit later. I think the president really got excited about it when she heard how excited the students were about it. She has positioned herself as a student focused president. It's been something that she's declared in every communication
since she became president. And once the student government decided that this is something that that they really wanted. And you couple that with the justification that Scott brought to her of how it can increase revenue, it can increase fan loyalty, especially amongst young people, How we do need to try some new things to, to, to modernize, you know, the presentation of some of our programs. She, she then she then was all in. So that that was kind of the process of it.
I'll, I'll also note, I mean, it's been palpable the excitement students have had about this. And it kind of feeds into something that you were talking about earlier, which is for this generation of students, many of them grew up as IU fans, I think it's important for them to feel like they've got something that's their own, that that
feels like it's from their era. And I mean, whatever you want to say about IU athletics, and you mentioned like it's been kind of a a rough 25 years in terms of like overall successes. A lot of it it's that has left a void. And it's not too different from what occurred during that exact same period that you were talking about from like the mid 1950s until really when Bob Knight got on campus.
And that that period right there led to a bunch of established traditions and norms that carried through Handy. Stripes the under 8 timeout Martha's intro of basketball the script Indiana the block eye like yes. That's what we're all new at one point. Yeah, we we've just been playing the hits for a long time and you know, a new album would be nice. Well. I think this is where a lot of not, this is not just an IU thing. This happens with a lot of athletic departments, a lot of institutions.
And, and you mentioned like being kind of getting to that age where you're one of the old people. Like I'm in the same boat. And it's like at some point you realize that you're allowed to create your own culture and you're allowed to modernize the culture around what the, the tastes and the expectations are of people at the time. And so it's, does this happen 10 years earlier or, you know, is this still shadows that you're living in at that point?
I think it's an open question. Yeah, I, I I do too. And and you live history in real time. And it's hard to actually describe to somebody who just started working here how contentious things were 15 years ago. Yeah, yeah. So I'll, I'm also curious, just so all right, we, you know, we're, we're going through the process, the, the students have voted for it. It's gone up the chain. I'm assuming that both both coaches are are in favor of this. Like you said, Signetti is very
they're a fan of this as well. So like Signetti is in, you know, President Whitney is in and Devries is in. So now I'm curious like what the next steps, You know, you, you can't put a bison out there. Like let's get the helmet with the chain and go back to the 60s. Like do you have to consult with a mascot? You know, I know there is like I've saw like real sports, like there's like mascot schools, there's mascot creation
consultants. You know what, what are the next steps of like, alright, we're going to put a, you know, a bison mascot. You know, we, we, we haven't seen it in full. We've seen kind of, you know, aerial shots. We know kind of what it might look like. And that might even just be a teaser. Maybe there's something else coming out there. But I'm just curious, like at that point, do you need to like, we're going to hire a mascot consultant to take the next steps?
Yeah, so there's a couple things that we've got to do. So one, there is going to be a coach assigned to it, somebody to to, to run the mascot program, working in consultation with the with the the spirit squad, the cheerleaders. There is a mascot camp and we will send the people who will be wearing the suit to mascot camp. We have to determine what is this mascot going to do? Like how is it going to be introduced? What does it perform?
I think on a more granular level, something that's really, really important, especially to what I think and maybe, you know, everybody, everybody tells me it's a great idea because they feel that I participated in the idea and maybe behind my back they say other things. But for judging from, and I, I've looked around even at, at the negative, I, I feel like it's about 95.5 the, the 5% often the, the objection is what does this have to do with Indiana?
And I think on a granular level, rather than just saying state SEAL over and over again, or we used to have it or the Bison battalion or look at you've been to next, right? I think we need to tie this to the state of Indiana in fundamental ways. And so I think you'll see that on social media, tying it to other traditions within the state to make it feel like it's feel like it's ours. I think is a is an important thing to do as we roll this
thing out. Yeah. I mean, I've heard that a lot as well, this idea of like, well, what does the Bison have to do with Indiana? And there is a ton of historical stuff, but it's also, it feels like to me, and I think maybe this leads into some of the the revenue and merchandising aspects that that obviously fit into this. If you look at college football, it's far more important to have a mascot, something that you can point to other than just your logo in college football.
I mean, the college football video game for years had a mascot only game that you could play within it. I mean, these these are things that are part of the culture of college football. And since IU has really gone all in on taking college football seriously there, there's a big need there, and you want something there that can represent the spirit of what you're doing.
And I think as Zach Osterman pointed out in that excellent piece that he wrote, which he obviously realized on you for a lot of interviews for what is a Hoosier, we've been asking that since the formation of the state. That's a hard thing to represent by itself. And the fact that the state of Indiana's got a historical animal that's, you know, it's, it's, it's powerful, it's regal. It's not a lion or a tiger or, you know, anything that you'll normally see. It's unique.
And it also does have a tie. I think all that really fits into it quite a bit. I I only too and there's there's a mountain of research in it. It's true for me anecdotally, in my own personal experience, there's a ton of research out there that says your fandom, if you choose that team prior to the age of 6, is much deeper and much more loyal than a favorite team you pick after the age of 6.
And my insane devotion to the Saint Louis Cardinals and the, you know, Indiana basketball and all that kind of stuff, I think, you know, it kind of tells that tale. So connecting the program with children I think is really, really important and making this a kid friendly mascot. And so the constitution of its eyes, soft eyes, make it approachable. All of the mascots you put out there on like the 10 creepiest mascot list, they have bad eyes. The vacant stare of Purdue Pete, for instance.
So having soft eyes is important. But then you also have to understand your competition. We're in the Big 10 conference. You've got Sparty out there, you got the turtle out there. What whatever its name is, I don't really care. You got the sad thing from Penn State, the world's weakest lion. I wanted it to look like a Marvel character, so it's got soft eyes to make it approachable to children. But as I said in the Zach article, tough enough to win a play fight against a turtle at
halftime, you know. What I also love, you know, I think everything you're saying is great. I, I do think to me, it's like, I want to turn this around and it's less about what's the connection with the bison where we should just look at Purdue and be like, hey, man, what's a Boilermaker have to do? The state of Indiana, like ours is the flag. Like what you guys really suck. Like you just have a weird vacant stare. Purdue guy who has like there's no connection to Indiana.
Yeah, yeah. And it's it's, you know, like a Tar Heels, a Civil War soldier that didn't back up. But they're symbols, a ram. It's the Crimson Tide, and they've got an elephant. It's, this is less unusual than I think it's being portrayed, but it's our job to explain it and it, and people can feel about it however they want to feel about it. But I think it's important for us to kind of establish that connection.
And I would also go further and I'm, I'm from the state of Indiana. I love Indiana. I've lived all but three years of my life in Indiana. The people have been able to represent Hoosier, that phrase in the ways that they have chosen and not necessarily in the way that people from Indiana would have chosen. There are old pictures of Big 10 mascots from the late 1970s and the other 9, back when it was a ten team league, represented those schools the way they wanted to be represented.
And they have a shoeless person in a straw hat sitting down with holes in their jeans as a representation of a Hoosier. So we can maybe change the way we define ourselves a little bit, and that might be pie in the sky and a little too aspirational, but this is a representation of the Hoosiers when when they're putting it in cartoon form. I wanted to get in as we kind of, you know, wrap up here, a little bit like the dramatic arc of the reveal.
You know, you obviously had a big hand in this and the videos that came out really did a good job of teasing this back. I think people kind of figured out early on where it was headed, but it was still fun. And we see this in a lot of these social media comments for people to ride along with that
over the four or five episodes. So like, what was the creative process for you and for the the Cuban Center video team and Andrew Brown and that whole group in figuring out how you were going to do this, what the best way to reveal it was, and then obviously like ultimately executing that? So really it started with Scott Dolson, who got really excited about the idea of this thing being in a coffin, rising from the dead and the hand peeking out. And that's how he wanted it to start.
From there we we had to look at what are our objectives. So Objective 1, mascots are supposed to be fun, so we need to have fun with this in some way. Objective 2, we got to let everybody know that this is for all of our sports and not just football. So we needed to communicate that. We need to make it look playful and approachable over the arc itself. And so it ends in a much happier place. And then a little bit of mystery to to keep people talking, I think think was important.
And so we kind of outlined it out. And I promise I'm not running to the front of the parade on this, but I, I'm big into movies. Galen knows this. I actually used to be a movie critic. So I'm, I'm into it. So I, I love movies. And so I started to think of tropes from some of my favorite movies that were widely seen by people. And so the box in the first one glows, right? And it's got a title card. And it's clear that we're going
to tell this story out of order. So it's got the Pulp Fiction briefcase that glows story told out of order with a bunch of title cards. And then I always loved the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where he keeps telling everybody how dangerous it is and they say, well, it's going to be taken care of by top men. So I sent Nate and Sean, who are the two maintenance people who are working in the video itself, and they made the crate to look like the Raiders of the Lost Ark
crate. Plus that ends up getting open and, you know, kills all the Nazis, you know, whatever. And then the third part of that one was Silence of the Lambs, the way too casual night watchman doesn't listen to what he's told and lets Hannibal Lecter out. Right. So I'm the idiot who opens the the case and lets this thing out. And then then the second one, it's Alien. So Sydney Parrish's Ripley. She's a tough woman who sees something and none of the none of the other people around her
believe her. And then the Doc Yagli Montgomery McCracken is an ode to our 4 great coaches. But really it's the Richard Attenborough character in Jurassic Park who sees nothing but opportunity and profit in this scientific discovery. And then the third one, which is kind of my favorite one, we were going to have Sig do the Roy Schneider scene from Jaws, you know, where he turns around, you know, he's got the bucket of chum or whatever. He's like, Nah, I'm going to say something else.
And we're like, OK, and he just, he just did his own thing and it it was a perfect eight second. It was just totally on brand for him. And what this is about, like this is an approachable animal. And then in the fourth one, we did ET, you know, ETS in the house, the toys start flying around, the plants grow again. And so they can't figure out what's going on in their house. So basically, ET solves our shooting problems in assembly Hall.
You know, that's kind of that. And then the fifth one, obviously the Star Wars Scroll, but because it's return of the Bison, we say it's Episode 6. And then the flashback sequence from the Usual Suspects shows like why all of this is supposed to make sense. And that it was really the vote of the student government that brought this creature to life, that started all of the events that we had. And then I'm like, all right, this thing's coming back.
What's the most what's the greatest return in the history of the world? It's like Michael Jordan returning to the NBA with the two word press release of I'm back. And so we're like, let's put it on Scott's desk that he says he's back. And then we find him on the top of his domain, you know, peering out over over what he's going to oversee over these next year. So we had a good time with it. And Trevor Bowens and Will Kirby was the guy in the suit for all the videos.
He got stuffed in a crate. That's not easy. That's definitely in other duties as a sign on his employment agreement. And then Andrew Brown did a great job with the videos as well. So we had a lot of fun. It it came through. I mean, the, the, the, they were awesome. The last one was great. Although all I can think of is like alt, you know, the the internet's gonna have fun with his like alt cuts of like other Pulp Fiction.
You know, see, if you do from that, it's like, you know, the, the, the fight with the, the thing that, you know, stabbing them in the chest with the, the, the shot. And yeah, there's some wild stuff for sure. And actually, Galen and Dr. Gautier were Marvel movies. So Stan Lee, you know, always is ordering a slice of pizza and
Spider Man 2 or whatever. They were the fake faculty advisors, you know, So we had to put the people we started bringing back the bison as kind of the Stan Lee little Easter egg in there. So it was fun to have them be a part of it. That's awesome. No, the the the videos were were awesome. As a wrap up, I have a couple of kind of random questions I just want to throw out there that people have asked me. So I'll just put these in no particular order.
One, any plan on a real bison on the field, like kind of like Colorado? OK. That's a great question and it's one that we actually wrestled with over the the course of the process there. There are a lot of challenges to it.
And if you look at the live mascots, other than dogs, the live mascots, the hard to train, fundamentally very dangerous animal mascots, those have a really long legacy to find 6 people every year to run this thing on the field, to feed it, to pay for it, all that kind of stuff. It just feels too cumbersome. I'm not saying that there isn't a day that that could potentially occur, but, but, but
there are no plans for it now. We have had actually a lot of people who run bison farms have in 24 hours invited Hoosier to come out and visit and they talk about calves that are being bottle fed right now and would be perfect companions to the mascot. So you never know, We'll keep the door open on that. Nil stuff, you know, goes wild. Like, you could have, you know, players promoting bison farms
around the state. And I would say this, this is 1 surprising element, how excited the athletes are about this and have been from the start. They actually put some Bison imagery in the weight room like four or five months ago as the video started. I would get text messages from track coaches and field hockey coaches, like when is it going to happen? You know, when's it? Because their athletes were asking him. So the athletes have really responded to this.
I mean, Sydney Parish was over the moon to be a part of it. So All right, next question. The the other, the other one that I have is, is his mind, my mind immediately went to this are are we going to see integration of a bison logo in football, basketball jerseys, alternate jerseys, you know, is that, is that something that's being thought over on the road map? Because I just I can imagine,
you know, a helmet with bice. You know, they used to have like, you know, the, the IU on one side and the, the state logo on the other side was cool. You know, a bison logo. I'm thinking of, you know, the basketball shorts, like having a bison on there. Just I'm curious if that's been thought of, you know, using it within uniforms and or complete all uniforms based on the logo? Well, we're still finishing up the process on the artwork for whatever that logo will be.
So we don't have anything in the design stages. I would say it's it's an absolute possibility and a high likelihood that it would occur again to the athletes excited about it. We've had three programs already reach out about putting the Bison on their warm up shirts. So, so they're into it. I, I would, I would assume that it will make its way onto apparel that the that the players and the athletes will wear in the field of play. That's awesome. And last one is.
A for us, our podcast Galen came up with some new imagery. It's our it's our logo. Are we good to still use our bison that we have on Crimson Cast or are we are we going to see a little approval or we got the change? Go for it. I do think you I do think you need a new sign off Galen. I'm actually we need to workshop this. I'm I'm a little, I bet.
I've gotten probably 80 people have reached out in the last 24 hours saying some combination of hey, Congrats and it's always like how are you going to sign off on the podcast now? And I have, I have 0 idea and don't open source it. I can tell. You from experience in a very short period of time, I've gotten 7278 recommendations on what song we should play during the third quarter and no two are
the same from any two people. And you tangentially participated in the naming of the Bison process and nine people came up with 9 different names that they preferred. So, you know, write your own sign off. Don't open source it, make them live with it. That gives me one more question. Can you so name is Hoosier, right? Hoosier the bison. Can you throw out any other names that were considered or that didn't make the cut? And you don't need no no
attributation needed. So I. Will say this one, we we wanted it to be unique. So I think that was important. Two, we opted not to go the route of someone who was once a living figure. I do find it and I it's endearing because I mean, who doesn't as an IU person have great deal of respect for the Bob Knight years. I'm like, I can't think of anything Bob Knight would want less than to. Have a mask got named. After him.
So we opted not to do living figures also because I mean, we've, we've seen around our own campus that history has a way of changing things And you just don't want to be 20 years from now and you name it after a person and something is looked at at a different lens and you got to change the name. So we, we steered away from living figures and then we tried to think of truly IUE things and every alley we went down. And Galen had a suggestion that he can offer on his own.
Every alley we went down, there were two or three people brought up an objection. So this felt like the safest choice, which I know is not what people want to hear. I just don't think we had an obvious one at IU. And redefining Hoosier seemed appealing. And I really wanted to nail the reveal in the suit. I'll let other people determine whether or not we did the suit well and nailed the reveal. Well, the early return seemed pretty good. And I think they'll, I think
they'll warm to the name. And I actually think little kids yelling Hoosier, Hoosier, you know, to get a picture, I think will work. I, I agree with that. I I. Was not sure about it at 1st and the more I thought about it I was like it actually makes sense it it ties it a lot more closely to directly to the university and it needed to be redefined anyway. So I think that all the IT it ends up hitting all the marks. No, I don't think anybody's going to complain about it.
That's the thing. No, I agree. I I like it hearing. Your thought process makes sense. I mean, as you were thinking, I was like trying to think who what, you know, you go like Herman Wells, like Wells is not a fun like, hey, Wells, it's our mascot like that. Then you have to hold, have another whole back story. I think that all makes sense.
Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Well, I'm glad you guys are excited about it. I'm ready for the merch to come out and I'm ready to see this thing come to events this upcoming fall. And by the way, we have a lot of interchangeable uniforms and outfits for it. So it's it's going to hit the mark when it goes to a tennis match, a field hockey game, a football game, obviously the basketball games. I I think it's exciting and I, I also think, you know, back to the humility.
We've got to reconnect our basketball program to our student body. It has been broken and we've got to to re establish that. And I think, I don't think that this is a a cure all for that, but I think it's a step in the right direction that we're going to try to do new things with student engagement in in basketball. Yeah. No, I, I think I. You're you're doing great stuff. It's awesome. I as again part of the old guy new the new old guy club. I am all for it. I like it.
So Jeremy, I appreciate it and look forward to to more rally towels. And you know, what's what's great is, and I mean this in a very positive way, like we've now had you on twice in six months because of really unique, interesting, fun things at the university and the athletic department are doing that are getting fan interest, engagement enough so that it's like, I want to talk to Jeremy for an hour about how did this happen, how are we doing this?
I mean, that that is awesome. And so appreciate everything guys are doing and looking forward to a great season with Signetti, with Devries and with Hoosier, our new mascot. Yeah, really, really excited about it. And last time I was on this show, I complimented your sweatshirt and your mom. My mom got it for me for the holidays because I said something nice about your
sweatshirt. So I made sure that I didn't mention anything you're wearing or in the background so that I get the gift cards that I want next year. Well, I mean, yeah, we have. We have a. Millennium Falcon, so you know, Mama Gray, if you want to, you know, get Jeremy that we can look at that for for Father's Day coming up. We have some some really cool like gear right there. Anyway, No. Well, Jeremy, thank you so much for joining Galen, as always.
It's awesome having you on. Want to thank everybody for listening and for Galen for Jeremy. This is Scott saying we brought back the bison. Let's go along, everybody. Thank you guys, dude. Thanks man. Awesome.