The1981 Indiana Hoosiers football team represented theIndiana Hoosiers in the1981 Big Ten Conference football season. They participated as members of theBig Ten Conference. The Hoosiers played their home games atMemorial Stadium inBloomington, Indiana. The team was coached byLee Corso, in his ninth year as head coach of the Hoosiers.

Several Indiana players ranked among the Big Ten leaders, including the following:

• QuarterbackBabe Laufenberg ranked third in the conference with a 57.1% pass completion percentage, fifth with 1,788 passing yards, and sixth with a 118.5 passing efficiency rating.^[1]
• Wide receiver Duane Gunn led the conference with an average of 21.2 yards per reception and 27.3 yards per kickoff return and sixth with 656 receiving yards.^[1]
• Marc Longshore ranked fifth in the conference with four interceptions.^[1]

Date	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 12	atNorthwestern	Dyche Stadium Evanston, IL		W 21–20	22,856	[2]
September 19	No. 2USC*	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN	ONTV	L 21–0	51,167	[3]
September 26	atSyracuse*	Carrier Dome Syracuse, NY		L 7–21	32,060	[4]
October 3	No. 8Michigan	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN		L 17–38	50,612	[5]
October 10	at No. 15Iowa	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA		L 28–42	60,000	[6]
October 17	Minnesota	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN		W 17–16	46,460	[7]
October 24	atOhio State	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH		L 10–29	87,182	[8]
October 31	atMichigan State	Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI (rivalry)		L 3–26	60,131	[9]
November 7	Wisconsin	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN		L 7–28	44,218	[10]
November 14	atIllinois	Memorial Stadium Champaign, IL (rivalry)		L 14–35	56,143	[11]
November 21	Purdue	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN (Old Oaken Bucket)		W 20–17	48,466	[12]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings fromAP Poll released prior to the game

^{[13][14][15][16]}

Doug Smith kicked the go-ahead 39-yard field goal with 8:30 left in the game and Indiana's defense stopped two ensuing Purdue drives with interceptions to preserve the victory.

^[17]

• WR Duane Gunn
• QBBabe Laufenberg, Jr.

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