All is right again in Bloomington, Indiana.
After a brief hiatus from having names of players stitched on the back of football jerseys, the Indiana Hoosiers are adding the names back to the uniforms this fall.
“After listening to feedback from a variety of sources, particularly from our fans, I believe it is the right decision to return to an exception for football to our tradition of not having players’ names on our uniforms,” Indiana Vice President and Director of Athletics Fred Glass said in a released statement on Monday. “I have come to understand that, taken together, the unique qualities of football including the size of the competition venue, the distance most of our fans from the field of play, the large number of players, and the use of duplicate numbers, as a practical matter call for the return of the players’ names to our football uniforms not withstanding our continuing philosophy of team over self.”
Indiana announces, after going without nameplates in 2018, names are back on the jerseys.
— Brent Yarina (@BTNBrentYarina) April 15, 2019
Good move, as it's a much better look. pic.twitter.com/p2KfYD64al
The removal of the player names in 2018 was to fall in line with a uniform effort across athletic programs at Indiana last season, but clearly there was enough reaction to convince the Hoosiers to go back to using the names on the uniform as quickly as possible.