The Mayor Who Built Indianapolis into a Sports Capital

The eyes of college basketball fans throughout the United States are on the city of Indianapolis, Indiana this month as the city hosts the entire collegiate Men's Basketball Tournament. Normally, 14 cities would host the 67 games it takes to get to a winner in the three-week, single elimination format that includes 68 teams. COVID canceled the tournament last year. This year, the tournament organizers (the NCAA) decided to hold all the games in a single location to best manage COVID measures. When the organizers named Indianapolis as the hub, it was not a surprise to many. The NCAA itself is headquartered in Indianapolis, so organizers were basically holding it in their back yard - with help from the nearby college campuses of Purdue and Indiana.

The story of how Indianapolis, the 17th largest city in the United States, became the natural choice goes back decades, though, to a legendary Indianapolis mayor who had a bold vision for his city.

When William H. (Bill) Hudnut III became mayor in 1976, Indianapolis was known as a sleepy Midwestern US city. Some called it "India-no-place." Like many US cities, the downtown core had been hollowed out as people left for the suburbs. It's one claim to fame was hosting the Indianapolis 500 race every year.

Mayor Hadnut had a vision that the city could become something bigger. During his 16 years in office, he was able to convince his fellow Indianapolis citizens to invest in building dozens of major projects to revitalize the downtown core of the city. Hudnut's boldest move started in 1980 when he started lobbying his town to build an indoor sports arena that could host an NFL football team, even though the city did not have an NFL franchise. In a move reminiscent of the classic Kevin Costner baseball film "Field of Dreams," Hudnut believed that "if he built it, they will come."

Hudnut's gamble paid off four years later when the Baltimore Colts became dissatisfied with the arrangement with their longtime host city of Baltimore. Hadnut secretly negotiated with the Colts owner to move to the indoor arena that was ready to host his team. The Colts uprooted all their operations and assets from Baltimore to Indianapolis in a dramatic, middle of the night, move in March 1984. Getting an NFL team downtown put critical mass behind Hudnut's revitalization efforts.

Hudnut further cemented Indianapolis as a sporting capital in 1987 when the host city, Santiago, Chile, had to drop out of hosting duties for the Pan American Games at the last minute. The Pan American games were a major event, with over 4,000 athletes competing from 38 different countries. Indianapolis was planning to bid on a future running of those games, but Hudnut and other leaders decided to seize on the opportunity by offering to be the last minute host for the 1987 games. Indianapolis got the games and did a great job pulling off all the complex logistics. Since the success of those games, Indianapolis has become a magnet for amateur sports organizations.

So when the NCAA had to find a city to bail out their prized men's basketball tournament in the middle of the COVID pandemic this year, the choice was easy - thanks to the visionary leadership of a great mayor.

Hudnut moved away in later life but returned to Indianapolis in 2014 for the unveiling of the statue in downtown Indianapolis in his honor (pictured at top.) Mayor Hudnut died in 2016 but his legacy lives on through the impact of his visionary leadership on his city and the sporting world.

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About the Author: Victor Prince is a corporate trainer, executive coach, and an Amazon Top 20 best-selling leadership author who helps organizations build leadership, strategy, communications, and critical thinking skills. Follow Victor on LinkedIN to access his 100+ articles on leadership, strategy, learning & development, and more.

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Facts sourced from Wikipedia.