Deland McCullough's Biography, for the IU Football Fan

Enclosed are notes from Sarah Spain's fascinating telling of former IU RBs coach Deland McCullough's journey -- particularly focused on the IUFB fan perspective.

ESPN’s Sarah Spain authored a book with former Indiana RBs coach Deland McCullough – Runs in the Family: An Incredible True Story of Football, Fatherhood, and Belonging – on McCullough’s journey toward discovering his biological parents, which ultimately expanded into a full biography on McCullough. It truly is a fascinating read, and I recommend any Indiana Football fan to pick it up (link is below).

[Runs in the Family, by Sarah Spain and Deland McCullough]

Pablo Torre also hosted Spain on Pablo Torre Finds Out to essentially summarize the primary plot points of the book, and McCullough sat down with Spain on her podcast, Good Game, to discuss the process of working on the book.

What this edition of BSB aims to do is summarize the parts of the story that would most interest Indiana Football fans, and expand upon some of the notes with research that wouldn’t have been significant in Spain’s book. It leaves out many of the key plot points that are the meat of Spain’s narrative and attempts to offer touching points that would catch an IUFB fan’s attention.

To respect Spain’s book, I’m only making these notes available to paying BSB subscribers.

While McCullough’s 2021 return and quick exit seemed a bit messy and blemished the end of his legacy in Bloomington for many IU fans, you can’t tell the story of Indiana Football’s 15-year elevation without McCullough. The backfields he built remain legendary and positioned IU for the next step as a program, whatever that next step might have been during its endeavor to shake off its national reputation of unseriousness.

His RBs accounted for 43.7% of Indiana’s offensive yardage from 2011-16 (46.4% from 2014-16), and three of his RBs eventually made NFL rosters (Stephen Houston, Tevin Coleman, Jordan Howard). Coleman’s 2,000-yard season in 2014, when he finished 7th in Heisman voting, will go down as one of the greatest individual seasons in program history, if not the greatest.

This story dives into his childhood, his influences, and his traumas, and follows his life and career through roughly 2017. Most of the story has little connection to Indiana, as the story is told, but I connect some dots for those who are interested.

Key Takeaways from an Indiana Football Fan’s Perspective