Indianapolis 33, Delta State 18
This game required the shortest journey of my “tour” of Indiana small colleges to photograph football. The trip from my home to the University of Indianapolis constituted just under 2 miles.
It would have seemed logical to have started at UIndy, which is not more than a couple miles from home, and then work my way out to farther regions of the state, but for various reasons, I elected not to do it the obvious or logical way.
But the timing of waiting until 2012 — UIndy's best season in many years — couldn’t have been better. After losses in its first two games, the Greyhounds had won eight consecutive games by the time I got there. It was their first eight-win season since 1998, and the season wasn’t over yet.
UIndy built its football program impressively in the 1990s and into the new millennium. The Greyhounds participated in several leagues through the years, winning Heartland Collegiate Conference championships in 1978 and 1981, and they qualified for the NCAA Division III playoffs in 1975.They joined the the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1999 and stayed there until 2012, when they then joined the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Greyhounds immediately won four consecutive football championships – 2012 to ’15 – and added more more in 2017, ’18, and ’21-23. They qualified for the NCAA Division II playoffs in 2012, ’13, ’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’22 and ’23.
This game featured the third non-conference foe on the 2012 schedule for UIndy, which lost its first two games of the season to non-conference schools Ashland and Western Illinois, both road games. The Greyhounds then reeled off seven consecutive Great Lakes Valley Conference victories before meeting Delta State at home on Senior Night on Nov. 3, 2012.
The Statesmen entered the game at the tail end of a mediocre season. They played the Greyhounds tough in the first half, but still trailed 16-0 at half. UIndy added a field goal in the third quarter to lead 19-0, but then Delta State matched the field goal before the end of the quarter and added a touchdown with a two-point conversion with 14:53 left in the fourth quarter to pull within 19-11.
When the Statesmen then recovered a UIndy fumble inside enemy territory, they seemed to have momentum on their side. But after they completed an 8-yard pass on first down, UIndy redshirt sophomore cornerback Nick Wehby jarred loose the ball from a Statesmen receiver on a second-down pass reception, and Wehby recovered it, bringing the Greyhounds’ offense back on the field.
UIndy drove 35 yards to the Statesmen 38-yard-line when it was confronted with fourth-and-one scenario to get a first down. UIndy head coach Bob Bartolomeo elected to keep his offense on the field, and junior quarterback Chris Mills rewarded the coach for his decision.
The host school put the game away a little more than 5 minutes later when Fiechter ran 61 yards for another score, putting UIndy up 33-11, rendering meaningless a final Statesmen TD with 1:39 left in the game.
Strangely, despite the win over Delta State University (Cleveland, Miss.), the Greyhounds fell one spot -- from No. 4 to No. 5 -- in the NCAA Division II regional rankings the following week.
UIndy secured its second consecutive GLVC championship the following week with a 31-24 win at Urbana, Ohio. The Greyhounds also won GLVC titles in 2013, ’14, ’17, ’18 and ’22-’23.Perhaps more significantly, UIndy also received an invitation to the NCAA Division II tournament in 2012, marking the Hounds’ first foray into postseason play since their first in 1975.
In the first-round of the 2012 playoffs, UIndy hosted No. 8 Midwestern State on Nov. 17 and won, 31-14, but the No. 18 ’Hounds lost the following week at No. 1 Colorado State-Pubelo, 28-7. The Greyhounds ended the season 9-3 (8-0 in the GLVC).
2012 would not be UIndy’s last season to play in postseason. It returned in 2013, ’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’22 and ’23, although the Hounds would not get past the first-round except in ’18, when they beat Fort Hays State (Hays, Kan.) 38-27 in their first game before losing 35-7 the following week at top-seeded Ouachita Baptist (Arkadelphia, Ark.).
A recap of UIndy’s 2012 game against Colorado State-Pueblo at the school’s website indicates that members of the team’s senior class amassed 27 wins in their time at the school, the third winningest four-year period in UIndy history, surpassed only by the classes of 1986 and ’87, each of which had 28 victories.
Delta State lost its final game of the season the following week and finished the year 3-7.
The 2012 Greyhounds and several of its key players – Mills, Fiechter, wide receiver Mar’quone Edmonds and place-kicker Scott Miller would be among the most prolific performers to grace the turf at Key Stadium.
When he left UIndy following the 2013 season, quarterback Mills would hold several season and career passing records. As of 2020, he held the career total offense mark for any UIndy player with 9,226 yards amassed from 2010-13.
Fiechter’s last year also would be 2013, and he departed as the school career rushing leader with 3,809 yards and the player with the most all-purpose yards (5,980). His rushing yardage total would be eclipsed by Toriano Clinton (2018-22), who amassed 4,538 yards on 593 carries. Fiechter's 735 carries still rank second, and his average yardage per carry of 5.18 ranks eighth (Clinton's 7.65 ranks first).
2012 would be Edmonds’ senior season, and he would leave as the career leader in receiving touchdowns with 41. Today he is second in total career receptions (256), third in career receiving yardage (3,254), and ninth in career points scored (246, all on those 41 TDs). He holds the top two places on rankings for most touchdown receptions in a season (17 in 2012 and 14 in 2011), tied for both fourth and 13th in scoring in a season (102 points in 2012 and 84 points in ’11), and tied for third and eighth for touchdowns in a season (17 in 2012 and 14 in ’11).
Miller, who played for UIndy from 2011-14, holds all of the important career and season place-kicking marks for UIndy. In addition to being the top all-time career scorer for the Greyhounds, Miller holds career marks in point-after-touchdown kicks (186) and field goals made (52) and ranks second in field goal percentage (77.6).
The photo leading off the post was one of Mills’ 28 pass completions on the night — and one of 14 to Mar’quone Edmonds. The catch came on the Greyhounds’ last drive of the first half, and Edmonds successfully fought several Delta State defenders in an effort to get more yardage after the catch, putting the ball inside the 10-yard line.
Moments later, Mills and Edmonds connected again for a TD, giving UIndy a 16-0 lead. (A photo of that catch comes immediately below.) Edmonds tied the school's single-game mark for receptions in a game (14) for the second time this season. The mark would be surpassed in 2015 by Reece Horn, who had 17 receptions in a game against William Jewell.
To view a full gallery of game photos, follow the link in this sentence.
Mar’quone Edmonds grabs a Chris Mills pass in the end zone for UIndy's second touchdown of the game, closing the first-half scoring after the extra point kick. Below, Edmonds celebrates the score with a teammate.
By avoiding this tackle attempt (above) by Delta State's Rory Island (47), UIndy's Klay Fiechter had a free path to the end zone (below) for a 13-yard touchdown run, the Greyhounds' first score of the game. Scott Miller's extra point kick attempt was blocked.
Above and below: I figured out early on that it would be wise to keep an eye on Mar’quone Edmonds. These are two more of his then-school-record-tying 14 receptions.
UIndy defensive lineman Vince Maida (95) couldn't quite get his hands on this pass by Delta State quarterback Spencer Van Brunt, intended for wide receiver Lavon Downs, who is obscured in the photo above by UIndy defensive back Max Davis (48). Downs (2) caught the ball (below), but was tripped up almost immediately afterward for a modest gain.
Above and next two below: At the end of a short scramble to the left sideline, Delta State quarterback Spencer Van Brunt hit the ground so hard from a tackle by UIndy defensive lineman Justin Robinson that the impact jarred loose Van Brunt's helmet. He was not hurt, but UIndy was penalized on the play (second below).
Running back Rondreas Truesdale scored Delta State's first touchdown early in the fourth quarter on this 12-yard scamper to close UIndy's lead to 19-9. A successful two-point conversion on a Van Brunt pass (below) to Antwain Harvey (23) reduced the lead to 19-11.
Above and next two below: UIndy tight end Adam Knies is brought down a yard short of the end zone on a 37-yard pass play in the fourth quarter. Trenton Warren (27) made the TD-saving tackle for Delta State, but it delayed a UIndy score only momentarily. Shortly thereafter, Klay Fiechter ran the ball into the end zone, wisely passing up this hole (below), where Statesmen defensive back Kenny Barnes (22) was waiting for him. Instead, Fiechter scurried around right tackle where he leaped into the end zone ... then got a congratulatory hug (second below) from Adam Knies. Fiechter wasn't done yet. See next series of photos.
Above and next two below: Fiechter went up the middle on this play, emerging (above) with a wide open field in front of him, with only Preston Felder (12) to get past (first below), which he did. Felder never got close on Fiechter’s 61-yard scamper “to the house,” as they say. Fans seated in the Stadium Club seats outside the north end zone salute his accomplishment (second photo below) as Fiechter crossed the goal line. The run accounted for more than half of Fiechter’s 118 yards rushing (on 21 carries) for the night.
Above: A secondary reason I made a last-minute pitch to add UIndy to my tour this season was to see Paul Corsaro play at least once in his college career. Corsaro's story is a stirring one. He was a prominent multi-sport athlete at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis (from which the last of my children graduated in 2003), setting school records in basketball, and he quarterbacked the football team to the state Class 4A title game against Lowell in 2005. He also battled an incidence of testicular cancer while in high school. After playing football one season at Division I Youngstown State University, he transferred to UIndy, a Division II school, where he again played both football and basketball. A serious football knee injury in 2011 seemed to spell an early end to his college career, but UIndy made a successful appeal to the NCAA to grant Corsaro, now working on a master's degree, another year of eligibility for football. From 2012-18, Corsaro served as an assistant coach for the UIndy basketball team. After a two-year stint as assistant coach and recruiting director at Division I Purdue-Fort Wayne (2018-20), Corsaro returned to UIndy in 2020 as head men's basketball coach and has led the team to a record of 56-28. In 2022-23, he led the Greyhounds to the most wins in a season (26) and in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (17) in program history. The team claimed GLVC championships in 2022-23 and 2023-24 and in 2022-23, Corsaro was named conference Coach of the Year and junior center Kendrick Tchoua was named conference Player of the Year.
Above: A touch of pregame pageantry unique — so far — to my tour of Indiana small-college football stadiums, as school mascot Grady leads the Greyhound charges onto the field through dense plumes of smoke.
Above: Few people welcome a camera into their lives, even for a public moment like at a football game. Indeed, most shy away from it. Not these spirited fans, who enjoyed the game from a spot behind the southwest corner of the field and who invited me to take their picture several times when I needed to walk past their spot while trying to get from an end zone vantage point to one on the sideline. I finally consented, and was happy I did.
Above: UIndy players gathered on the field after the game for a moment of reflection.
Above: After wins, UIndy fans are invited onto the field to share in ringing the school's Victory Bell, which this youngster was doing. It's a tradition reminiscent of one practiced at the annual Monon Bell Classic between Indiana small-college rivals Wabash and DePauw.
Above: A view of the post-game on-field activity from the top row of the stadium seats.
Next up: Chapter 16, University of Indianapolis campus
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