Indiana University’s Memorial Stadium opened in 1960 and has long had the main mast and two gun mounts from the USS Indiana battleship, gifts from the Navy, as reminders of the sacrifice that Indiana’s military service members have made over the years. But now, nearly a half century after the stadium’s formal dedication, the school has added the repainted prow of the ship to the memorial outside the stadium's main entrance. It had been located in the parking lot of a seafood restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., until an effort was made to give it a more appropriate home.
The restaurant’s family owners were approached by IU alums living in the Bay Area, who expressed interest in the prow, which the family agreed to gift to the university, located in Bloomington, Ind. A ceremony to acknowledge this new addition to Memorial Stadium will occur, fittingly, when the Hoosiers host Navy on Sept. 7. The USS Indiana saw significant World War II action, including at Iwo Jima,. It was decommissioned in 1947 and sold for scrap in 1963.
