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IU'S NATIONAL CHAMPION SOCCER TEAM
TO RIDE IN KENTUCKY DERBY FESTIVAL PARADE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's national champion men's soccer team and its coach, Jerry Yeagley, will bring their winning tradition to Louisville on April 29 when they appear in the Pegasus Parade, a major event of the 1999 Kentucky Derby Festival.
The team will appear in the parade aboard a float that combines something old and something new, through replicas of landmarks from the oldest part of the Bloomington campus and the 1998 NCAA championship trophy for men's soccer. IU's involvement in the festival parade is the result of input from many of its 16,000 living alumni in the Greater Louisville area.
"We're very excited to be part of a larger tradition, the Kentucky Derby Festival," Yeagley said. "It gives us an opportunity to be recognized on a national scale, at a truly major event. I consider it an honor for our soccer program and Indiana University."
IU men's soccer -- synonymous with tradition and excellence -- has posted more wins, has appeared in more Final Fours and has a higher winning percentage in both regular-season and post-season play than any other school in Division I soccer.
Under Yeagley, a three-time National Coach of the Year, the Hoosiers have won four NCAA championships and have made 11 Final Four appearances.
But there is more to IU's soccer team than just winning on the playing field. The 1998 champion team featured three Academic All-Big Ten student athletes, and half of the members of the traveling team posted grade point averages of 3.0 or better (on a 4-point scale).
The academic achievements of the students on the IU soccer team mirror the overall academic excellence of the institution. IU consistently ranks as one of America's top public research universities, with 90 programs currently ranked among the nation's top 20.
During 26 years of intercollegiate soccer under Yeagley, the IU soccer program also has emerged as a national leader. Yeagley has coached All-Americans, Olympians, Hermann Trophy winners and World Cup players, all of whom have made great contributions to help the IU program reach its current level.
IU's entry in the parade is sponsored by the IU Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations and the IU Athletics Department.
More information on IU and its soccer team can be found at http://www.indiana.edu and at http://www.indiana.edu/~athlweb/graphic/sports/m-soccer.html
(George Vlahakis or Jeffrey Austin, Office of Communications and Marketing, 812-855-3911, gvlahaki@indiana.edu or jeaustin@indiana.edu)