Titan Plaque

USAF Titan

Ashley Kinyon

Indiana University of South Bend’s first basketball team was a men’s team in 1969. It had been started as a simple club. Most of the sports teams around this team had been played at a student club level. When the men’s basketball team became an actual team, the student government took votes on the school “name” and colors. The school’s name of Titans was made up under the Student Government in December of 1969. That same student body voted on the Titans as the official nickname and then chose the colors Air Force blue and white as the official colors.

The copying of the colors Air Force blue and white seemed like a huge coincidence to most people and Indiana University of South Bend; however there is no back story into why these specific colors were ever chosen. No archives have ever been found to find a reason either. After exactly one year, IUSB changed their school colors to red and white to match the other Indiana University schools, but they remained the Titans.

This piece is to represent the old, “official,” colors of the university. It is not common knowledge that the university had originally chose the Air Force colors to represent the school. The colors could have been chose as a simple respect towards the Air Force, but nobody knows the true meaning. It represents our original standing as the university, although it the colors only lasted a year. This is a big historical factor to the campus. It shows the changes we have had. It is not a huge change many people would notice, but our colors are a big part of our “home.” We have always been home of the Titans but our colors have changed. It shows a growth and a way of reaching out to become just as big as the other Indiana Universities.

This piece, to me, shows an expansion of our university. I believe that if we had kept our colors Air Force blue and white we would not be closely linked to the other Indiana Universities. We might not have ever become officially connected to them. Our changing of the colors shows a growth to be like the bigger schools. I think the change was good and it helped our school get more recognition. Being connected to the other Universities by the same color makes the university more appealing to people who cannot afford to go away to the bigger Indiana Universities, although the mascots differ. Red and white represent Indiana University and everybody recognizes those two colors as Indiana. Our change was, perhaps, for a greater reasoning.