National Treasure 3: The Ides of March Madness

March Madness is upon us. Indiana earned a 4-seed on Selection Sunday, paired up against MAC conference champion Kent State. And so it begins…Hoosier Nation is hoping this is the start of a deep tourney run in Albany, New York this coming weekend. 70 years ago, another group of Hurryin’ Hoosiers marched to glory to win the 1953 NCAA championship.

Now…on to my collecting madness! Arguably one of my greatest finds, the collection of press photos featured in this article are literally — and figuratively — the newest “signature” pieces of my memorabilia collection. These came from a prominent IU School of Medicine alum who had a pretty sizeable memorabilia collection himself. Collectively, the group of photos cover 10 members of the 1953 NCAA Championship team — including all five starters — along with Coach McCracken himself, which is an extrememly rare find in and of itself. None are personalized (other than “to a good friend”)…and I believe all photos are Type 1 press photos, meaning they were produced within a year or two of taking the photo. You can see each photo more closely by checking out the Autographs section of the vault!

Go Hoosiers!