New Harmony’s Wilson family combines IU past, present

Andrew, Amanda, Arianna and Alana Wilson watch the Rose Bowl Parade from their hotel balcony. Photos supplied

By Lois Mittino Gray

New Harmony resident Andrew Wilson pulled off the Trifecta of Indiana University fandom. He was able to take his entire family of four to all three of the big IU football games leading up to their winning the National Championship, traveling from the West Coast to Atlanta and sunny Southern Florida. The quartet, consisted of Andrew, a diehard fan; his wife, Amanda; and daughters Arianna, 13; and Alana, 10 years old. His aging parents, Bill and Pat Wilson, were unable to attend with them, but enjoyed it all vicariously through their frequent posts and pictures.

Bill especially enjoyed re-living his memories of attending the Rose Bowl as a student the only other time Indiana University was invited to the Rose Bowl. It was 1968 and he played the saxophone in the IU Marching Band. Bill attended with friends Bill Gooden, Mark Basin, and Don Bradley. “Dad called it the trip of a lifetime and it was all paid for by the University. They went to Disneyland and even the Whiskey a Go Go, too. My grandfather bought a brand new color television so he could watch dad in the Rose Parade,” said Andrew with a big grin. “Of course, there aren’t many pictures of his trip like we have today with our cell phones.”

Andrew and his family flew out of Nashville to attend the 112th Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day in ‘America’s Stadium.’ It is touted as “The Granddaddy of Them All.”

“The Rose Bowl is big and beautiful and the game exceeded all of our expectations,” he recalled. “Fernando Mendoza and the team played so well.” Andrew noted that the crowd in the Pasadena venue was a “sea of red and white.” “All we seemed to see were IU fans, hardly any Alabama fans. I thought to myself that this is really lopsided. It was maybe 80 percent IU to 20 percent Alabama. There were hardly any fans on the Alabama parade floats either or cheering for them along the route.”

At the Rose Bowl, Andrew was able to see many of his college friends experiencing both planned and unplanned encounters. He attended the university from the years 1998 to 2002 and was an active member of the Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) fraternity on campus. “There were so many people I knew out there. Some of my best friends were there to see the game and I didn’t know it till then. Reconnecting with family and friends was so fun.”

New Year’s Day morning brought incessant rain for the big parade. Andrew watched people at 4 a.m. standing in the pouring rain to get a grandstand seat from his warm, dry hotel room. “I saw there was a hundred percent chance of rain that day, so I booked a newer hotel with a balcony on Colorado Boulevard, the parade route. I invited our friends over and we watched it high and dry from above. It was pricey, but so worth it, as it was a great vantage point.”

The group of fifteen friends he traveled with had one disappointment in the five mile parade. They didn’t get to see the IU Marching Band pass by them, since they only walked the first mile and then bailed out. “There is a folk legend that it is bad luck to march the entire way so they left early. We did see other bands and the floats with all those flowers were gorgeous. Magic Johnson was Grand Marshal. I grew up watching the parade on television. It was so much brighter with all the flowers actually being there. We had seen the floats the day before and had our New Year’s Eve dinner in Pasadena. We went to bed early knowing it would be a long day.”

Luckily, when it was time to walk to the stadium from the hotel, the pouring rain finally stopped and the game was dry. They had seats in the sixth row on the IU sidelines, right next to the marching band and cheerleaders. They were able to send Bill pictures of them in action. “The girls loved watching the Cheerleaders and the Red Steppers. The fans cheered the whole time.”

Afterwards, the family even went to Disneyland and drove by the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Of course, all four were wearing their crimson and cream IU apparel. “People just cheered for us as we walked by. What a great feeling.”

After coming home, Andrew and Amanda, the West Elementary School Principal, and the two girls wore their supporting apparel all week. “At first we didn’t plan to go to Atlanta for the next game. I was able to call friends and use the Internet to score tickets in a good location and it was a whirlwind. We drove the six and a half hours all day Thursday. By Friday, we were sitting in that sea of red and white again. I drove home through the night on the way back .We got back in Saturday at 6 a.m. and I had to do an auction at 10 a.m. I was pooped.”

“In Atlanta, we went to the Big Red warmup and tailgated at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Again I saw people I hadn’t seen in years and even local New Harmony residents like the Scarafias. What a great game.”

On Sunday, January 18, they flew out from Indianapolis to Miami looking forward to a fun plane ride down full of excited IU fans. They flew back on Tuesday from the National Championship basking in the glow of winning, wearing their fan apparel, full of memories never to be forgotten.