Hoosiers Now

The Story of Indiana Football’s Biggest Fan Outshines the Program Itself

Indiana football completed the greatest story in college football history by winning the national championship, but its story was only half as good as the story of its biggest fan
Nick Shepkowski|
Drew Shouse flexes before an Indiana home football game
Drew Shouse flexes before an Indiana home football game | Shouse Family

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Indiana Hoosiers

What if I told you the biggest underdog story at the National Championship game between Indiana and Miami wasn't a bunch of scrapheap football players from a team that had won practically nothing in a century?

It wasn't Indiana football that was the best story of the night, or the year, but instead one of its biggest fans who happens to be only 10 years old.

You'd probably think that would be impossible, but Drew Shouse has been defying the odds since a little more than halfway through his mother's pregnancy.

Meet Drew Shouse, Indiana's Biggest Fan

Drew Shouse and family at an Indiana football game
Shouse Family at an Indiana football game | Shouse Family

Shouse was born with a heart defect and faced an uphill challenge from the exact moment he entered the earth. He was immediately taken to a roughly seven-hour procedure to install a PICC line for a heart issue that had been detected months prior.

From there, he'd spend 287 days in the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indianapolis before finally getting to go home, a length believed to be a record.

There were multiple surgeries and procedures, feeding tubes, and several other obstacles still in play when Drew's older brother began playing pee-wee football.

With Drew unable to participate at that time, that's when Team IMPACT stepped in.

About Team IMPACT

Team IMPACT matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams, creating a long-term, life-changing experience for everyone involved.

In 2023, Team IMPACT paired Drew with the Indiana football team, meaning he's been around it longer than head coach Curt Cignetti.

Through the last three years, Team IMPACT has made an endless effort to make the Hoosiers rise to college football's summit a memory Drew will certainly never forget.

Shouse hasn't missed an Indiana home game since the start of the 2023 season thanks to Team IMPACT, but it was one of his plays that has been his favorite over the past two seasons.

During the 2024 spring game and before the Hoosiers burst onto the scene nationally, they closed their annual spring football game by giving Drew a last-second carry that he took for a 20-yard touchdown run.

"They all picked me up and when they raised me everyone was just cheering" Drew recalls, in what his father calls his "Rudy moment."

When the Hoosiers went from a feel-good story in 2024, to an absolute juggernaut in 2025, Team IMPACT made sure Drew was around for the entire ride, and like many kids in Indiana, he's got a special fandom for Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

"He's my favorite player because he loves God and loves his mom."

Drew and his family were in Pasadena for Indiana's Rose Bowl beatdown of Alabama.

And they spent January 19 where every Indiana fan wishes they could have been, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

"HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOSIERS!" was the only thought on Drew's mind just hours before kickoff last Monday. That and getting to see Hard Rock Stadium up close, as he's a rare Miami Dolphins fan rooted in Southern Indiana.

Indiana, completing a season for the ages, one that almost nobody outside Bloomington thought possible even a few short weeks ago, will go down as arguably the best story in the long history of college football.

However, Indiana's story even falls short in comparison to the story of Drew Shouse.

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Nick Shepkowski
NICK SHEPKOWSKI

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