Feb. 7—***
During his press conference before the Illinois-Northwestern basketball game Wednesday at the State Farm Center, Illinois football coach Bret Bielema told a funny story about an encounter with a fan.
Advertisement
I didn’t include it in the Thursday story, but am making up for that oversight now.
Bielema was recently in Houston with members of his coaching staff. While checking into the hotel, Bielema noticed a woman wearing an Indiana hat.
“We’re all decked out in Illini gear,” Bielema said. “We get on the elevator and four of my coaches walk on with her, we hold the door for her.”
Turns out, the Indiana fan was riding to the top floor, same as Bielema.
“She’s looking around and she says
‘Illini.’ She’s like ‘Basketball?’ And I’m like ‘No.’ I said ‘We’re with football.’ I go ‘You with Indiana?’ And she said ‘Oh yeah, class of ’79.’ She was very proud.
Advertisement
“She looks at me and goes ‘You’re Bielema.'”
Then the conversation turned to the game between Illinois and national champion Indiana during the 2025 season. a 53-point win for the Hoosiers.
“She said ‘That wasn’t a good day for you was it?’ I don’t mind getting a little teased, but I don’t need it on an elevator at 9 o’clock at night in Houston from an Indiana fan.
“Congrats to them obviously, what they’ve done for our conference, Indiana and a year ago Ohio State and the year before that Michigan, the way this conference has been built I give Tony Petitti an incredible amount of credit.”
Indiana fans, who for so long had little to say about football, now are into bragging season. Hard to blame them. But you hope it will be kind too.
