(La Porte, IN) - A La Porte man says the ticket was costly but worth the price of being in the stadium for Indiana University winning the national college football championship.

 

Tim Franke called his visit to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Monday a “once in a lifetime experience” he never expected for a program with a long history of mediocrity until head coach Curt Cignetti turned things around quickly in just two years.

 

“This is something I’ll never forget. I still get goose bumps thinking about it,” he said.  Indiana defeated the University of Miami 27-21.  Franke, an I.U. graduate, estimated more than half of the people in attendance were Hoosiers fans despite the stadium being home to the Hurricanes.

 

His voice was a little hoarse from so much cheering and chanting “Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers” during the game and the post-game celebrating he did with former classmates from the Bloomington campus he ran into at the stadium.  “I wouldn’t change anything,” he said.

 

Franke was at Notre Dame Stadium last year when the Hoosiers lost to the Irish in the first round of the college football playoffs.  He's currently in his second four-year term on the La Porte City Council.