The mighty Indiana Hoosiers roll into Champaign this Saturday, a rare road game since Indiana has eight home games (yes, I am jealous). It is a night game at Memorial Stadium which allows everyone to get crunk beforehand. Will Eric Gordon attend the game for his official visit? Illinois must protect the “real” Memorial Stadium from these interlopers. This week’s story recalls when I visited that “other” Memorial Stadium and that “other” Assembly Hall.

October 7, 1995: Illinois continued to be stuck in neutral under the “coaching” of Lou Tepper. Perhaps if he had spent more time coaching football (and sticking with one offensive coordinator) instead of seeking racial harmony, he would have had more success. As it was, Illinois was 2-2 heading to Bloomington. I took a respite from my studies at a sixth-tier Chicago-area law school and rode Amtrak to the 217. I met some of my friends at R&R’s on Friday night for beer, pizza bread and darts. Early Saturday morning we awoke to drive to Bloomington.

I don’t recall much of the drive east on Interstate 74 as I was hung over. Alas, the guy riding shotgun slapped me upside the head and said “Detlef, we’re here!” I exited the car and yelled “BOGGLE!” We were not in Bloomington but in Crawfordsville, home of Wabash College. My crew wanted to visit Wabash so we walked around campus. But my stomach started making odd noises, so we went to a cafeteria. We seemed out of place wearing orange, but the cafeteria lady was quite pleasant. “Where are you boys from?” she asked. We told her that we were going to the football game at Indiana. “I hope your team wins. We don’t like IU!” she proclaimed. The cinnamon sticks and oatmeal put my tummy at ease.

We hopped back in the car and headed south on U.S. 231. We made another stop in Greencastle, home of DePauw University, alma mater of Dan Quayle. I made a crack about Quayle’s golf exploits which did not sit well with the DuPage County Young Republicans who comprised my posse. We then headed to Bloomington. Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the Indiana campus. We visited Assembly Hall but did not find Bob Knight to ask “What’s up Knight?”

Scott Weaver made his first Big 10 start for Illinois. The teams traded early field goals. In the second quarter, Indiana was at the Illinois 15-yard line. But Kevin Hardy rescued Illinois, sacking Chris Dittoe and forcing a fumble. Illinois went on the offensive. On third and eight at the Indiana 35, Weaver eluded a heavy pass rush and threw to Robert Holcombe who broke tackles for the first down. Weaver then threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to George McDonald, completing a 64-yard drive. Sadly, Indiana then responded with a 65-yard touchdown pass from Dittoe to Ajamu Stoner (Indiana’s first touchdown pass of the season!) to tie the score at 10 at halftime. Dittoe sprained his left ankle in the first half and did not return.

Early in the third quarter, the Illinois defense forced another turnover. Dennis Stallings intercepted Adam Greenlee and returned the interception 33 yards. Three plays later, Weaver threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Ty Douthard (5 catches for 52 yards) for a 17-10 lead. The defense did the rest and Illinois had a Big 10 road win. Weaver finished 16 of 28 passing for 213 yards. “I played well, but I had some boneheaded plays.” This included three interceptions and missing on some audibles. Freshman Steve Havard, who thought he would redshirt, ran 13 times for 50 yards. “I went in with the mindset of it being just like practice.”

However, the offense managed only 71 yards and two first downs on its last six drives. One drive ended in a missed field goal and the other was an interception. The game continued an embarrassing streak of 15 quarters where the offense failed to score a touchdown after a punt or kickoff. Despite that, the defense continued to play with confidence, forcing four Indiana turnovers. Kevin Hardy had a great game: six solo tackles, four assisted tackles and three sacks. “As long as we have a lead, we feel like the game is in our hands. We’re still not where we want to be, but we’ll take any win we can get,” commented Hardy. We went to Kilroy’s and toasted Paul Schudel and his innovative offense.

Sources: “So who needs an offense? Illinois wins 3d straight” by Andrew Gottesman. Chicago Tribune: October 8, 1995. “Freshman gives Illini another running threat” by Andrew Gottesman. Chicago Tribune: October 8, 1995. Credit to Detlef’s parents for the research.

hi detlef...thanks for the articles.

Hi nobster, you are welcome.

Signed, Detlef.

P.S. BMCLFs can bite me.

A team of researchers from institutions in Germany, India, and Japan discovered this surprising result while observing the ant species Leptogenys processionalis travel down linear trails. Like many other ant species, these ants form trails with their pheromones that remain stable for hours or even days, making the trails analogous to vehicular highways.

“Our study clearly demonstrates that ant traffic is very different from vehicular traffic, in spite of superficial similarities,” Andreas Schadschneider, of the University of K?ln and the University of Bonn in Germany, told PhysOrg.com. “It also raises a fundamental question: how do the ants achieve practically ‘free-flow’ up to such high densities; our experiment demonstrates what happens and we also make a theoretical model of what might be responsible for this behavior.”
wow gold
To observe the ants in their natural setting, the researchers set up video cameras at sections of 10 different one-way trails that had no intersections or routes that branched off. Surprisingly, the scientists never observed individual ants speeding up to overtake another ant in front; the ants followed each other in single file. This behavior, of course, contrasts with vehicular highway traffic, as well as most other known traffic forms.

Most significantly, the scientists found that, unlike vehicular traffic, the average velocity of ant traffic remains the same in spite of increasing density. Consequently, the greater the density, the greater the flux, so that more ants travel down the trail segment in a given amount of time. In contrast, vehicles on a highway tend to slow down when the traffic density increases, eventually resulting in a traffic jam. Along the same lines, the researchers noted that most types of high-density traffic exhibit mutual blocking, in which a vehicle is prevented from moving by neighboring vehicles and also contributes to the blocking of those vehicles. However, the researchers did not observe mutual blocking in the ant trails. wow gold

As the researchers suggested, perhaps evolution has optimized ant traffic flow, since ants are known to have highly developed social behaviors. In their study, the scientists observed that ants tend to form platoons in which they move at almost identical velocities, allowing them to travel “bumper-to-bumper” while maintaining their velocity. At higher densities, platoons merge to form longer platoons. But because their head-distance remains the same, traffic still maintains its same velocity even as density increases. This behavior is very different from highway traffic, in which vehicles close together tend to slow down.

Is there anyone from Indiana on these forums? Do you enjoy living in Indiana? What is the best part of living there? In other words, what do you like the most about your hometown?