The Showalter Fountain was damaged when a group of people climbed onto it during a celebration. Wednesday morning. Members of the Indiana University Police Department could be heard on police radio frequencies responding to the area, and then guarding the fountain in case another crowd arrived.
Tuesday was the first day of summer school classes.
The fountain’s fish, which have been damaged, and even stolen before, are fixed onto metal bases and are not able to hold groups of people climbing onto them.
During the 1987 IU basketball championship celebration, one of the fish was stolen, so another fish was put in its place. Then after basketball coach, Bob Knight was fired in September 2000, one of the fish was stolen by protesting students who carried it all the way to Memorial football stadium.
A photo of them carrying it was broadcast on the David Letterman show. Letterman is from Indiana and one of the vandals was wearing a t-shirt advertising his late-night show. The author of this article made the photograph while working as a local journalist.
Police arrived to deal with the rioting students, but Knight arrived in front of Assembly Hall and used a megaphone to tell his supporters to go home. They did.
The fountain is under video surveillance 24-7, in case anybody else decides to damage it or try to take a fish.
Occasionally, a crowd shows up, like on late Tuesday and early Wednesday, and people climb onto the sculpture of Venus or the fish. Police usually arrive to tell the crowd to leave.
Early Wednesday morning, a fish was laying at the bottom of the fountain and the water was drained. By afternoon, the fountain was repaired.
As this article is being written, a small group arrived at the fountain around 11:25 p.m., Wednesday night.
Police say they are in the water. Then some were on the Venus statue, and others are suspected of messing with the fish.
More about the sculpture can be learned on Bloomingpedia:
https://www.bloomingpedia.org/wiki/Showalter_Fountain
