The Indiana University Office of Licensing and Trademarks entered into an agreement with Three Sixty Group Agency to co-brand IU Bloomington trademarks with the name, image and likeness of Martha the Mop Lady, the character of an Indiana University-fight-song-singing cleaning woman synonymous with Hoosiers basketball.
“Martha is a special piece of IU history and tradition,” said Kimberly Spino, director of licensing and trademarks for IU. “We are excited to offer new co-branded merchandise to the IU community, especially during the basketball season.”
Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance launched the Martha the Mop Lady campaign. The commercial aired before IU basketball games on a local TV station from the mid-1970s to 1988. It featured opera singer Martha Webster, who dressed as a cleaning lady sweeping Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall while singing IU’s fight song, “Indiana, Our Indiana.”
Once Indiana’s games started to be televised nationally, the campaign was no longer broadcast on local TV, leaving IU fans with no sight of Martha for over two decades. In 2010, Indiana Athletics brought back the iconic video, but this time it appeared on the video board after the national anthem and before tipoff.
In January 2023, Jacobs School of Music opera singer Maggie Kinabrew gave a live performance as Martha the Mop Lady before IU faced the visiting Ohio State Buckeyes.
