Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) holds the trophy after the Hoosiers defeated Miami within the School Soccer Playoff nationwide championship sport on Jan. 19.
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The rise of Indiana soccer — which went 16-0 this season and received the nationwide championship — grew to become one of the vital exceptional tales in faculty soccer historical past.
Now, Hoosier Nation is gobbling up something and every part related to that extraordinary title run.
The Nationwide Bobblehead Corridor of Fame and Museum introduced as we speak that the Indiana Hoosiers 2025 College Football National Champions Bobblehead Collection has turn into the best-selling faculty championship bobblehead sequence in its historical past.
The preliminary sequence was launched Jan. 20 following Indiana’s 27-21 win over Miami within the CFP Nationwide Championship Recreation. The sequence options the primary Fernando Mendoza Bobbleheads, in addition to bobbleheads of Hoosier the Bison and a Coach Curt Cignetti Championship Bobblehead.
On Jan. 23, the Fernando Mendoza Indiana Hoosiers Diving Toughdown Bobblehead was unveiled and has turn into the best-selling bobblehead within the assortment. The restricted version bobbleheads are being produced by the Nationwide Bobblehead Corridor of Fame and Museum, an official licensee of Indiana College Bloomington and along side Fernando Mendoza and Coach Cignetti.
- On a soccer field-like base with precise turf and bearing his identify, the Fernando Mendoza Diving Landing Bobblehead is positioned on a spring making the quarterback airborne as he crosses the purpose line whereas clutching the soccer in his outstretched arms. The backing contains a scoreboard which reads: “HOOSIERS TOUCHDOWN!” together with two IU logos in white lettering.
- With the Hoosiers clinging to a 17-14 lead within the 2026 CFP Nationwide Championship sport, Mendoza delivered maybe the largest play in Indiana soccer historical past. Going through a fourth-and-5 from the Miami 12-yard line, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti known as a timeout.
- As a substitute of going for a field-goal try to put his workforce up by six factors, the second-year coach put the ball within the fingers of his Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback. On a designed draw play, Mendoza ran up the center, bounced off a handful of defenders, leaped from the 2-yard line and stretched out his fingers to place the ball over the purpose line whereas getting battered as he fell into the tip zone.
- The landing with 9:18 remaining gave Indiana a two-possession lead and the Hoosiers held on for the victory.
- “That’s one factor about our workforce,” Mendoza stated on the sector after the sport. “We’re all the time going to place all of it on the road. I needed to go airborne. I’d die for my workforce. No matter they wanted me to do.”
- Born in Boston, Mass., and raised in Miami, Florida, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Mendoza was a two-year beginning quarterback for the California Golden Bears earlier than saying his resolution to switch to play for Indiana in Dec., 2024. In 16 video games this season, Mendoza accomplished 273-of-379 passes (72.0%) for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns with solely six interceptions. He additionally rushed for 280 yards and 7 TDs. Whereas the Hoosiers confronted Miami on its house area, the sport was a homecoming for Mendoza, who attended Christopher Columbus Excessive Faculty in Miami.
- Along with changing into the primary Indiana participant to win the Heisman Trophy, Mendoza, a consensus All-American, additionally garnered different honors in an award-winning season. He was named first-team All-Huge Ten and the Huge Ten Most Useful Participant, together with being chosen because the Huge Ten Championship Recreation MVP. Chosen because the AP School Soccer Participant of the Yr, Mendoza additionally received the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, and Davey O’Brien Award.
- “The joy that we’ve seen from Indiana Hoosiers followers throughout the nation is not like something we’ve ever seen for faculty championship bobbleheads over the previous dozen years,” Nationwide Bobblehead Corridor of Fame and Museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar stated. “Indiana followers are definitely enthusiastic about these particular version bobbleheads commemorating one of many biggest and most inconceivable tales in sports activities historical past!”
- Earlier Indiana bobbleheads embody the unique Hoosier the Bison Bobblehead, which was launched when Indiana reinstated its mascot after an almost 60-year hiatus, a Hoosier the Bison Motorcyle Bobblehead, a Coach Curt Cignetti Bobblehead, a Curt Cignetti Talking Bobblehead, a Top-25 Ranking Tracker Bobblehead and a Hoosier the Bison Welcome to Miami Bobblehead.
- The Nationwide Bobblehead Corridor of Fame and Museum is situated in Milwaukee, Wis.
