Indianapolis Trivia
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60 free Indianapolis trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
48 free Indianapolis trivia questions with answers. Indianapolis was drawn on paper before anyone lived there: a planned capital laid out on a mile square around a circle, which is why locals call it the Circle City. This quiz covers the whole story — the 1821 plat, the world's first union station, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, the Unigov merger, and the Indianapolis 500 that turned a brick-paved oval into the world's largest single-day sporting event. There are questions on the Colts and Pacers, Hinkle Fieldhouse, the Children's Museum, Eli Lilly, Kurt Vonnegut, Madam C.J. Walker, Benjamin Harrison, Crown Hill Cemetery and the tenderloin sandwich. The easy questions ask which state capital this is and what the winner of the 500 drinks in victory lane. The hard ones want the height of the monument, why the milk tradition started with buttermilk, which coach Hinkle Fieldhouse is named for and how many people are buried at Crown Hill. Good for race weekend, a school unit on Indiana or a Naptown pub quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city and its landmarks, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Indianapolis is the seat of which county, named for the Revolutionary War's 'Swamp Fox'?
Marion
Indianapolis is the county seat of Marion County; a 1970 city-county consolidation merged most county government with the city's, making the two nearly coterminous.
Q 02Indiana lawmakers chose the site of Indianapolis for their new capital in 1820 mainly for what reason?
Its central location
Its central location was the whole point: commissioners sent to find a capital site in the middle of the state picked a stretch of dense forest where only a few settler families had arrived.
Q 03Alexander Ralston, who drew the plan of Indianapolis, had earlier helped Pierre L'Enfant lay out which city?
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. was Ralston's training ground: after working under L'Enfant there in the 1790s, he gave Indianapolis the same idea of diagonal avenues slicing across a square grid.
Q 04Where was Indiana's state capital before it moved to Indianapolis in 1825?
Corydon
Corydon hosted the 1816 convention that wrote Indiana's first constitution, its delegates working outdoors in the shade of a giant elm to escape the summer heat.
Q 05Which Indianapolis nickname doubles as Indiana's official state motto?
Crossroads of America
Crossroads of America began as a boast about the many rail lines and roads that met in Indianapolis; the General Assembly made it Indiana's official state motto in 1937.
Q 06Indianapolis sits along the west fork of which waterway?
The White River
The White River proved too shallow for steamboats, so Indianapolis grew by road and rail instead.
Q 07The 'Circle City' nickname comes from what feature of the city's original plan?
A central roundabout
A central roundabout was set aside for the governor's mansion, but no governor ever lived in the house built there in 1827, and it was torn down in 1857.
Q 08Indianapolis merged its city and county governments in 1970 under what name?
Unigov
Unigov took effect on 1 January 1970 and pushed the city limits out to the county line, adding roughly a quarter of a million residents overnight.
Q 09The Indianapolis rail depot that opened in 1853 is often called America's first what?
Union station
Union station: the city's rival railroads agreed to share one depot so that passengers no longer had to cross town between separate stations, though Columbus, Ohio, opened a shared station in 1851.
Q 10The National Road, which runs through the heart of Indianapolis, was America's first what?
Federally funded major highway
Federally funded major highway: Congress authorised the National Road in 1806 to tie the Ohio Valley to the East, and its path through Indianapolis survives as Washington Street.
Q 11The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Indianapolis, at 284 feet, stands nearly as tall as which American landmark?
The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty, at 305 feet from the ground to the tip of its torch, only just tops the limestone monument, which is strung with lights each winter to become a giant Christmas tree.
Q 12The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Indianapolis was first planned to honour Indiana's veterans of which war?
The Civil War
The Civil War was its first purpose, pressed for two decades by Indiana veterans, yet the design chosen from 70 entries came from a German architect, Bruno Schmitz of Berlin.
Q 13The Indiana World War Memorial Plaza hosts the national headquarters of which veterans' organization?
Q 21Which racing team owner struck a deal in 2019 to buy the Speedway and IndyCar Series from the Hulman family?
Roger Penske
Roger Penske had already won the 500 18 times as a car owner when he took over the track from the Hulman family, who had run it since Tony Hulman bought the war-neglected Speedway in 1945.
Q 22Which NASCAR race, first run in 1994, ended the Indy 500's 78 years as the only race at the Speedway?
The Brickyard 400
The Brickyard 400 drew more than 250,000 fans to its first running and was won, to the home crowd's delight, by Jeff Gordon, who had spent part of his boyhood in Indiana.
Q 23The Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984 from which city?
Baltimore
The American Legion
The American Legion picked Indianapolis by a vote of delegates at its founding convention in Minneapolis in November 1919, and its national headquarters has been in the city ever since.
Q 14The Indianapolis 500 is billed as the world's largest what?
Single-day sporting event
Single-day sporting event: the Speedway has more than 250,000 permanent seats, and when the 100th race sold out in 2016, its local TV blackout was lifted for the first time in over 60 years.
Q 15Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 after replacing his riding mechanic with what device?
A rear-view mirror
A rear-view mirror was Harroun's answer to rivals who protested that his single-seat Marmon was a hazard with nobody aboard to watch for cars coming up behind.
Q 16What does the Indy 500 winner traditionally drink in victory lane?
Milk
Milk became the tradition after Louis Meyer, a habitual buttermilk drinker, was photographed swigging from a bottle in victory lane after his 1936 win, and a dairy executive promoted the image.
Q 17How many cars traditionally start the Indianapolis 500?
33
The traditional field is 33 cars in eleven rows of three, a size derived from an early AAA safety formula that allowed one car for every 400 feet of track.
Q 18How long is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval?
2.5 miles
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval measures 2.5 miles around, so drivers cover 200 laps to complete the 500-mile race.
Q 19Which Formula One world champion won the Indianapolis 500 just once, in 1969?
Mario Andretti
Mario Andretti never won at Indianapolis again after 1969: he was named the 1981 winner, then lost that victory months later when it was handed back to Bobby Unser.
Q 20The Borg-Warner Trophy, awarded each year at the Indianapolis 500, is decorated with what?
Sculpted faces of every winner
Sculpted faces of every winner since 1911 cover the trophy: each new champion sits for a sculptor, and a small silver likeness is added to the rows already there.
Baltimore lost the Colts in the middle of the night of 28 March 1984: denied a new stadium there, owner Robert Irsay moved the team out before most fans knew a move was planned.
Q 24Which coach and quarterback led the Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI?
Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning
Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning won it in the Miami rain, the Colts forcing five Bears turnovers on the way to 29-17; Dungy became the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl.
Q 25Before Lucas Oil Stadium opened in 2008, where did the Colts play their home games?
RCA Dome
The RCA Dome, opened in 1984 as the Hoosier Dome, was the Colts' home until 2008 and was then demolished to expand the Indiana Convention Center.
Q 26The Indiana Pacers began in 1967 in which league?
The ABA
The ABA's showcase team, the Pacers won three titles there, but the cost of joining the NBA in 1976 nearly sank them: a 1977 telethon led by coach Bobby Leonard and his wife Nancy kept the club alive.
Q 27The name of Indiana's NBA team is usually traced to harness racing and to what else?
Indy 500 pace cars
Indy 500 pace cars and the pacers of Indiana harness racing are the usual explanation, though one account has the club announcing in 1967 that it meant to set the pace in pro basketball.
Q 28Reggie Miller earned what nickname for his clutch shooting against one particular team?
Knick Killer
Reggie Miller was dubbed the Knick Killer for feats like scoring eight points in 8.9 seconds against New York in the 1995 playoffs; drafted 11th overall in 1987, he spent all 18 seasons with Indiana.
Q 29The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, founded in 1925, holds what world distinction?
Largest of its kind
Largest of its kind in the world, the museum began because Mary Stewart Carey came home from a visit to the Brooklyn Children's Museum set on giving Indianapolis one of its own.
Q 30Which pharmaceutical giant was founded in Indianapolis in 1876?
Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly teamed up with insulin's discoverers in Toronto and in 1923 began selling Iletin, the first commercially produced insulin, at a time when diabetes had no effective treatment.