Indiana State Sycamores
| Indiana State Sycamores | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| University | Indiana State University |
| Conference |
Missouri Valley Missouri Valley Football Conference |
| NCAA |
Division I (FCS for football) |
| Athletic director | Sherard Clinkscales |
| Location | Terre Haute, Indiana |
| Varsity teams | 12 |
| Football stadium | Memorial Stadium (football, soccer) |
| Basketball arena | Hulman Center |
| Mascot | Sycamore Sam |
| Nickname | Sycamores |
| Fight song | March On! (You Fighting Sycamores) |
| Colors | Royal Blue and White |
| Website | www |
The Indiana State Sycamores are the NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic teams of Indiana State University. Since the 1977–78 academic year, Indiana State has been a member of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). The Indiana State football team has competed in the second-tier Division I FCS since the 1982 season, and has been a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) since it was spun off from the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (Gateway) when the latter league merged into the MVC in 1992. Past conference memberships include the Indiana College Athletic League (1895–1922), the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference (1922–1950), the Indiana Collegiate Conference (1950–1968) and the Midwestern Conference (1970–1972). The women's teams were Gateway members from the league's 1982 founding until its absorption by the MVC. In 1986, a year after the Gateway took on football as its only men's sport, the Sycamores football team joined that conference.
Early on in the school's history, the athletes were referred to as the "Fighting Teachers" (the school's original name was "Indiana State Teachers College"), until the students chose the name "Sycamores", due to the abundance of sycamore trees in Indiana and especially in the Wabash River Valley; though it is believed that the students voted on 'Sycamores' on a lark, never thinking it would win. During the 1950s and 1960s, the sycamore tree itself was used as Indiana State's mascot. However, as a tree does not lend itself well to an athletic mascot, especially considering Indiana State's in-state rivalries with the Ball State Cardinals and Butler Bulldogs, the university created an Indian mascot named "Chief Quabachi", and his "Princess", in 1969. This change paid homage to the fact that ISU was the "State" university of a state named after Indians (prior to statehood Indiana was primarily inhabited by Indians). The university dropped the "Chief Quabachi" mascot in 1989 in response to a variety of objections over use of the Indian caricature and did not have another mascot until 1995, when a blue-and-white wolf named "Sycamore Sam" became Indiana State's mascot.
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