Indiana State Sycamores Tickets

About The Indiana State Sycamores

The Sycamores are the school’s sports teams that compete in the NCAA’s Division I and most of the teams are part of the Missouri Valley Conference, except football, which is part of the Football Championship Subdivision of the Gateway Football Conference. It’s best known as NBA legend Larry Bird’s alma mater; it’s also the alma mater of World Champion gymnast Kurt Thomas and World Olympic Champion wrestler Bruce Baumgartner. Early in Indiana State’s history, the sports teams were called the Fighting Teachers until students picked the name Sycamore Trees because of the wealth of the trees in the state and the Wabash River Valley.

A committee started the idea of Chief Quabachi of the imaginary Sycamore tribe to represent the school in 1969; he was in the company of the Indiana Princess. This Native American chief and the “legend” that went along with him was the mascot until 1989. The school got a new mascot, Sycamore Sam, in 1995; he’s a blue and white fox-like creature. The Sycamores’ football team’s home games are played at Memorial Stadium. The stadium was built in 1923-24 by the city of Terre Haute and seated about 16,000 people. The initial use was as the Terre Haute Baseball Club’s home. It’s now one of only a few Division I-AA football stadiums with AstroPlay artificial playing surface. The stadium now seats only 12,000. The stadium is also host to the annual high school football homecoming game between rivals North-South, who play for a memorial bell. Their current head coach is Kevin McKenna.