{"id":435737,"date":"2026-01-25T03:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435737\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T03:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:22:22","slug":"photos-indiana-football-players-meet-fans-in-bloomington-after-national-championship-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435737\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOS: Indiana football players meet fans in Bloomington after national championship win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \"FernandoMendozaMeet&Greet-01.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Indiana football fans camp outside of Dick’s Sporting Goods for a chance to get a wristband for a meet and greet with redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza on Jan. 21, 2026, in Bloomington. Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods gave wristbands to the first 250 fans in line when they opened 9 a.m. Jan. 21. <\/p>\n

\"FernandoMendozaMeet&Greet-04.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Papa John\u2019s pizza boxes sit on the ground Jan. 21, 2026, at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods in Bloomington. An Indiana football fan ordered 30 pizzas to share with everyone who camped out overnight.<\/p>\n

\"FernandoMendozaMeet&Greet-18.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza reads a “promposal” sign a fan brought to the meet and greet Jan. 21, 2026, at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods in Bloomington. Mendoza laughed at the sign and asked about prom details from the fan.<\/p>\n

\"RaisingCanesShift-04.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Elijah Sarratt signs a jersey Jan. 22, 2026, at Raising Cane’s in Bloomington. Sarratt was the last of the three Indiana football players to arrive at the event.<\/p>\n

\"Rally'sMeet&Greet-10.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Aiden Fisher smiles for a photo during a meet and greet Jan. 23, 2026, at Rally House in Bloomington. Fans without wristbands walked around the store in hopes of seeing the players and taking a photo of them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"RaisingCanesShift-15.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Elijah Sarratt hands box combos to fans from the walk-up window Jan. 22, 2026, at Raising Cane’s in Bloomington. Sarratt “worked a shift” at Cane’s for a promotional video.<\/p>\n

\"FernandoMendozaMeet&Greet-17.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

A family gets their photo taken with Fernando Mendoza at his meet and greet Jan. 21, 2026, at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods in Bloomington. Several fans drew pictures, wrote notes or gave small gifts to Mendoza. <\/p>\n

\"FernandoMendozaMeet&Greet-12.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Indiana football fans without wristbands stand outside the meet and greet area to take photos and see Fernando Mendoza on Jan. 21, 2026, at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods in Bloomington. Several fans shouted \u201cHoo- Hoo- Hoo- Hoosiers\u201d or sang \u201cFernando\u201d by ABBA to get Mendoza\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

\"Rally'sMeet&Greet-09.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

A family takes a photo with Elijah Sarratt, senior linebacker Aiden Fisher and redshirt junior offensive lineman Carter Smith (left to right) at a meet and greet Jan. 23, 2026, at Rally House in Bloomington.\u00a0Fans needed a wristband to meet the players and get an autograph.<\/p>\n

\"FernandoMendozaMeet&Greet-16.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza hugs a crying fan at his meet and greet Jan. 21, 2026, at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods in Bloomington. After talking and getting a photo with Mendoza, the fan started to tear up and Mendoza got up to comfort them.<\/p>\n

\"RaisingCanesShift-01.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

D’Angelo Ponds signs a mini helmet Jan. 22, 2026, at Raising Cane’s in Bloomington. Ponds signed helmets, jerseys, posters and banners.<\/p>\n

\"FernandoMendozaMeet&Greet-19.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza high fives a fan during the his meet and greet Jan. 21, 2026, at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods in Bloomington. Mendoza would introduce himself, high five or shake hands with the fan and ask them what their name was.<\/p>\n

\"RaisingCanesShift-10.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Elijah Sarratt, redshirt junior defensive back Jamari Sharpe and junior defensive back D’Angelo Ponds (left to right) film a short clip for an advertisement Jan. 22, 2026, at Raising Canes in Bloomington. They also took promotional photos.<\/p>\n

\"Rally'sMeet&Greet-11.jpg\"\/ <\/p>\n

Elijah Sarratt signs a football during a meet and greet Jan. 23, 2026, at the Rally House in Bloomington.\u00a0The players stayed an hour past the event’s end time to meet all the fans who had wristbands.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana football fans camp outside of Dick’s Sporting Goods for a chance to get a wristband for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-435737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}