Groundbreakers

 "We haven't been 5-0, evidently, for 57 years. That's a pretty long time, isn't it?"

-- IU football coach Curt Cignetti

Sure is, Coach Cig. Want to know how long?

Fifty-seven years ago, Vietnam wasn't a movie.

Fifty-seven years ago, lots of people had heard of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, but no one had heard of James Earl Ray or Sirhan Sirhan.

Fifty-seven years ago, National Guardsmen weren't yet shooting college students ... and the President of the United States was just starting to familiarize himself with "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" ... and in Bloomington, In., something weird and wonderful was going on.

Indiana University's football team was actually winning games.

A snowy-headed man named John Pont was the coach, and the stars were a trio of sophomores named Harry Gonso and Jade Butcher and John Isenbarger, and every week they managed beat someone they probably had no business beating. Isenbarger, the halfback and punter, kept running for it on fourth down and kept failing to make it. Gonso threw and Butcher caught. Guys named Terry Cole and Doug Crusan and Al Gage made occasional appearances.

The Hoosiers went 9-2 that year and played in their only Rose Bowl game, and damned if anyone could figure out how. They squeaked by Kentucky 12-10 and Kansas 18-15 and Iowa 21-17. Survived 27-20 at Michigan and 14-13 at Michigan State, and held off Wisconsin at home, 14-9. Finally, they were ranked No. 4 and No. 3 Purdue came in to what was then called Seventeenth Street Stadium, and Indiana won the Old Oaken Bucket 19-14 because Purdue kept fumbling in the red zone.

Now?

Now it's 57 years later, and Curt Cignetti, who was six years old then, is 63 now. And the 5-0 team he's put together is by all available evidence a heck of a lot better than the 1967 team.

Yesterday they got Maryland down in Memorial Stadium and whipped the Terrapins 42-28 despite turning it over four times. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke threw for 359 yards and three scores, and the IU defense held  Maryland to one touchdown across the last quarter-and-a-half, and the Hoosiers went over 40 points for the fourth time in five games.

Previously, they paved Western Illinois 77-3 and ball-peened UCLA 42-13 and laminated Charlotte 52-14. And next week?

Next week they travel to Northwestern, which is 2-2 and 0-1 in the conference. Another winnable game, you would think, and a 6-0 start if so.

Shhhh. That sound you just heard, softly for now, is the ground breaking.