Jim Banks: “As we begin the new year, there are a lot of things that Members of Congress and the American people are paying…”

“As we begin the new year, there are a lot of things that Members of Congress and the American people are paying attention to. But something really extraordinary is going on in my home State of Indiana. It is not just Hoosiers who are paying attention; the whole country is following Indiana football. I am the first in my family to go to college, and it was a no-brainer for me to attend Indiana University in Bloomington. Everyone knows that IU is a basketball school. IU basketball won five national championships. We had the legendary 1976 undefeated team in the NCAA--the only undefeated team in college basketball history. When I got to college in the 1990s, one of the reasons I attended IU was to watch Bobby Knight-coached basketball games. We had great players over the years: Isaiah Thomas, Damon Bailey, Steve Alford, and so many others who played on the floor at Assembly Hall and made Indiana very proud. Assembly Hall is the mecca of college basketball. Again, it is one of the reasons that I wanted to go to college there in the first place. When I go back to IU and attend basketball games, I still get choked up in the pregame show at Assembly Hall each and every time. But IU was never known as a football school.”