WASHINGTON — There was enough Cream and Crimson to make a Purdue fan queasy at Eastside Park as Indiana University coaches and athletic staff visited Washington on Thursday.

The visit is part of the school’s Tailgate Tour, hosted by the IU Varsity Club and the Southwest Indiana University Alumni Club. IU coaches Tom Crean, Bill Lynch, Todd Yeagley and Felisha Legette-Jack along with Athletic Director Fred Glass were the main attractions. Don Fisher, the voice of IU athletics, emceed the event.

“We have been around the state. There’s nothing like southern Indiana,” Football coach Lynch said. “There is no question about it.”

Around 150 to 200 Hoosier fans came to meet the coaches, get autographs and pictures taken with the names they hear every season. IU cheerleaders also took part in the event.

This is the second year for the tour and the closest in the area, apart from Bloomington. The coaches talked about the pride it feels to be a Hoosier and did their part to encourage the fans to cheer Indiana on.

Legette-Jack, the women’s basketball coach, said there are few places that rival what IU will be doing this coming season, no matter the sport. She also said that all IU sports will have a “swagger” about them this fall.

“It’s going to take a lot of schools to stop what we are doing,” Legette-Jack said. “We put all our eggs in one basket.

“I’m not going anywhere until I get a net and some scissors,” she later added.

Yeagley, the son of former IU coaching legend Jerry Yeagley in his first year as men’s soccer head coach, said that being the coach at Wisconsin and hearing a fight song that wasn’t IU’s made him long for home.

“When you’re born and raised with Hoosiers, it’s very special,” Yeagley said.

Although he has not coached a regular season game yet, the men’s soccer team already has highlights as they defeated the Mexican National Youth team in exhibition this spring. The team is trying to add to its record of seven national titles.

After Yeagley was Lynch. The Hoosier football team had the chance for several upsets in 2009, but had several falters in the fourth quarter.

 Lynch said the word for his team in 2010 is “finish.”

“Everything we do. Every drill, every practice, everything we do this summer is about finishing the deal,” Lynch said. “Coming close, it gives you confidence. It also gives you motivation and it gets you a little ticked off.”

The program, Lynch said, is winning the state in recruiting including in southern Indiana where the top three quarterbacks on the depth chart all come from south of Indianapolis.

“We are going to win a Big 10 Championship and it’s going to come from kids that come from Indiana,” Lynch said.

Crean has been around Washington several times before Thursday’s event as he was a speaker at the Senior and Family Services banquet last fall and appeared at Washington’s Class 3A State Title game.

“It’s so much fun to be with people who really, really care,” Crean said.

The men’s basketball coach said he really couldn’t talk about the most asked question from Washington fans (the recruitment of a certain player), but he said the second-most question he has heard across the state is how the Hoosiers will be better in 2010.

“(The players) are not happy where they sit as basketball players,” Crean said.

Crean went further to say how hard the team has been working in the gym and on the floor to get better.

Also, he wanted to get better by getting players as tough as the ones he has now.

“We’re recruiting and developing people that want to be better,” Crean said. “We’re looking for guys who hate to lose.”

The Southwest Indiana University Alumni Club is based in five counties — Daviess, Dubois, Martin, Pike and Orange.

The club has given more than $90,000 in scholarships since its inception 16 years ago.

On July 22, the club will be hosting its annual student send-off for incoming IU freshman at the Eastside Park Community Building.