Going the Extra Mile

October 11, 2024

75 Years of the IU Student Foundation

A serendipitous stroll

Imagine a perfect fall day in Bloomington. Strolling through the IU campus, you follow the distant sounds of yelling and applause. As you approach, you see the commotion is coming from students as they cheer on classmates racing bicycles around the Hickory Hall dorm, now Union Street Center. Thus, the seed for Little 500 and eventually “the world’s greatest college weekend” is planted.

At least, that’s one version of the story of how Howard “Howdy” S. Wilcox Jr. (IU Foundation president, 1942-1952) came up with the idea for Little 500. Some sources say it was spring, not fall. Others say Little 500 was a way for Wilcox to honor his father, Howard Sr., who won the 1919 Indianapolis 500 and died four years later in a race in Pennsylvania. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle.

What we know for sure is that 33 teams mounted their Little 500 bikes for the inaugural race on May 12, 1951. The South Hall Buccaneers (Collins) won before a crowd of 7,000 spectators, and the event raised $6,000 for working-student scholarships—the equivalent of about $73,000 in 2024.

Of course, the story of Little 500 is inseparable from the story of the IU Student Foundation, which was founded in 1950.

“The IU Foundation simply had no identity on campus, neither with the students nor the faculty,” Wilcox once said. “I wrote a letter to President [Herman B] Wells recommending that we form a Student Foundation Committee and charge that committee with spreading the word.”

And so, since 1950, the IU Student Foundation has been spreading the word—supporting an engaging campus environment and raising awareness about the role that philanthropy plays in the success of IU and individual IU students.

A sense of belonging

Abby Hooks wasn’t planning on attending IU when she started college in the fall of 2020, despite both her parents being IU alumni and her dad a member of IUSF in the 1970s. Even after IU’s academics won her over, Abby was still skeptical about joining the IU Student Foundation. Then she had what can only be described as a “canon event” for so many IUSF members: a conversation with Curt Simic, IU Foundation president, 1988-2008.

“[Curt] is a great guy. He’s been a mentor for my dad all these years,” Hooks said. “So I end up Zooming with him, and he was just telling me all the great things about IU … and I started to feel like I was really wanted at this university—like there was some type of great connection and friendship and mentorship waiting for me.”

Joining the IU Student Foundation her freshman year is what kept Hooks going during the most isolating periods of 2020 and 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic’s pre-vaccine period that shut down campuses and pushed classes online.

“At that point, I was so desperate to have any sort of community,” she said. “So I ended up being a subcommittee chair in the fall of my freshman year, and we ended up doing a virtual talent show.”

Hooks would go on to serve as a gunner her junior year and a member of Steering Committee her senior year. She explains “gunning” as sort of a yearlong job interview process in which you learn how to run the Student Foundation by executing events and activities. If a gunner “passes the test,” they are promoted to Steering Committee, the highest level of leadership in the IU Student Foundation and the group that plans and problem-solves everything behind the scenes. In both roles, the Little 500 race is the culmination of a year’s worth of work.

“I remember, at the race, the most emotional part was when [student a cappella group] Another Round sang ‘Back Home Again in Indiana,’ and everyone is kind of just singing and swinging on the stage,” Hooks said, recounting the pre-race tradition. “That’s when I just felt like it’s all out of our hands now. This is the pinnacle of our year. There was a lot of sadness, but also happiness to see it all come together and excitement.”

In addition to serving on Steering Committee, Hooks also helped curate a retrospective telling the story of IUSF through 55 photographs and captions displayed at Wilcox House, the home base for the Student Foundation. Cox scholar Mason Schutte and fellow Steering Committee member Meade Wilson worked with Hooks to complete the project.

“Sometimes it feels like you’re kind of going through the motions of what people have done before you each year,” Wilson said. “But I feel like this is a great way to make a unique mark on the organization. I hope it stays up for a while.”

No signs of slowing down

“Better than yesterday, not as good as tomorrow.”

That is a phrase heard often these days around the IU Foundation and Student Foundation, thanks to it being employed as a rallying cry by IU Foundation President J T. Forbes.

“When you have 75 years of tradition, that’s a lot of yesterdays,” said Trent McGee, former director of IUSF.

How does an organization that’s been around 75 years continually improve? How much and when should things change? McGee said it’s a balancing act. When he took on the role of director in fall 2022, he focused on growing the organization through recruitment and reaching more parts of the campus with Student Foundation activities.

Students Helping Students, for instance, is a new initiative in the last few years that rallies students to donate to a cause that helps their fellow IU students. This year, the fundraising campaign supported a new mental health space on campus, while fundraising in previous years supported Crimson Cupboard, an on-campus food pantry that provides free food to students experiencing hunger or food insecurity.

Hooks says she hopes this spirit of philanthropy continues to grow in the future.

“I really hope that Students Helping Students lasts, and that philanthropy becomes more centered in the organization, because obviously the [Little 500] race is so important, but giving back to IU and to our campus is even more important,” Hooks said.

McGee would agree. He admits that when he came to the IU Student Foundation, he had the misperception that IUSF was “just Little 500.” In his two years as director, his view of what IUSF is and could be has expanded significantly.

“We love our traditions, but our traditions can change,” McGee said. Consider, for example, how women were not able to race in Little 500 until 1988—37 years after the first men’s race. “It’s important to capture our history and celebrate it, but we must also use it as leverage or a jumping-off point to do more.”