📍 Muncie, Indiana
🏀 Home of Ball State Cardinals basketball

East Central Indiana is hallowed ground for basketball fans. This important region of the state has made major contributions to the legendary “Hoosier Hysteria”, the excitement surrounding Indiana’s most popular sport. Although it’s home to the nation’s largest high school basketball arena, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and the historic gym made famous by Hoosiers, there’s only one college program to be found amongst the cornfields and driveway hoops – the Ball State Cardinals.

Although it had several predecessors known by many names, the school presently known as Ball State University can trace its humble beginnings all the way back to 1918. That year, the Indiana Normal Institute in Muncie was saved from foreclosure and donated to the state by the Ball brothers, local entrepreneurs famous for founding one of the world’s largest manufacturers of glass jars. The college was renamed for the Balls in 1922 – ultimately taking on the Ball State University moniker in 1965 – and boasts a basketball program that’s been around for over a hundred years.

Over the last century, the Cardinals have enjoyed moderate success on the court, appearing 7 times in March Madness. Ball State peaked in 1990 after advancing to their first-ever Sweet Sixteen, upsetting their way past Oregon State and Louisville before losing a thriller to UNLV by a single basket. Their last appearance in the tourney came in 2000 and ended with an early exit in the Round of 64.

The Cardinals are proud to call Muncie’s Worthen Arena their home, an imposing on-campus coliseum that opened in 1992 and features a gigantic roof which stretches approximately 120 feet above the court. This cavernous hunk of steel is fantastic for gameday acoustics, reverberating the cheers and yells of Cardinals fans back onto the floor. For packed out games at Ball State, the venue can hold over 11,500 spectators.

Player introductions are preceded by a tradition poached from Virginia Tech: the playing of Enter Sandman, which really gets fans going and pumps up the energy inside the arena. During the pre-game festivities, spotlights featuring the Cardinals logo dance around the court and seats.

Bird-themed naming conventions are the norm at Worthen. The huge center-hung videoboard is nicknamed “Chirp Vision”, the concessions stands are known for selling “Birdfeed” and the student section is called “The Nest.” I’m a big fan of all these bird-inclusive epithets…hopefully they don’t fly over your head.

Sure, it’s no Hinkle Fieldhouse or Assembly Hall, but Worthen Arena has its own unique charm and architectural beauty. A fun college hoops experience at this one-of-a-kind venue in Muncie is worth stopping for while traveling the land of Hoosier Hysteria.