The End Of The Big House of Horrors as Indiana Snaps 59-year Drought

To say it had been a long time since Indiana had one at the Big House would be the understatement of the century. In fact, it feels like it has been a century since the Hoosiers won in Ann Arbor. That changed on Saturday.

October 21, 1967. The last time Indiana beat Michigan at the Big House. In that game the “Cardiac” Hoosiers beat a 1-3 Michigan team 27-20 on their way to a Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl appearance. Take a look at what that game looked like:

To put that into perspective, this was two years before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. Gas was $0.33 per gallon, and The Graduate was still in theaters. Needless to say, the world has changed quite a bit since Michigan Stadium has seen a victorious Indiana.

Since then, the Big House has been a Big House of Horrors for the Hoosiers. Indiana had lost 22 consecutive games in Ann Arbor before Saturday. Over the past 59 years, the Big House had played host to all sorts of Hoosier heartbreak, each one unique and more heartbreaking than the previous. There was Anthony Carter’s 45-yard walkoff touchdown catch and run in 1979, a 58-0 beatdown in 2000, and a devastating 33-36 loss in 2009. As the years ticked by it seemed as though Indiana would never win in Ann Arbor. Then came Curt Cignetti.

Snapping a losing streak is never easy, especially with one as long as Indiana’s in Ann Arbor. The first step is belief. Cignetti brought that in bunches when he won a national championship last year and continued to win this year. The next step is execution. The execution didn’t need to be perfect; it just had to be good enough to win. That is exactly what happened on Saturday.

Led by a banged-up Josh Hoover, the Indiana offense struggled to execute through large stretches of the game, yet came up big when they needed to. It took just two plays in overtime for the Hoosiers to score the first and only touchdown of the game as Josh Hoover showed his grit running it in for a score. While it wasn’t pretty, it did the job as the Hoosiers broke the losing streak and finally got a win in the Big House.

For the Hoosiers this is their first time winning back-to-back games against the Wolverines since the 1958 and 1959 seasons. Indiana survived an ugly game in a place where they have historically struggled, as they seek to make a return to the College Football Playoff. Heading into next week, the Hoosiers control their own destiny with regard to the playoff. But one thing is for sure, Indiana is glad they can put the Big House of Horrors in their rearview mirror.