In 1966, he began teaching at Indiana State University where he advanced to become professor and chair of the English Department before retirement in 2006.
He published over 100 articles in professional journals, magazines and was the author or editor of nine books: Folklore in the Writings of Rowland E. Robinson (1973), Indiana Place Names (1975), Hoosier Folk Legends (1984), Jokelore: Humorous Folktales from Indiana (1986), French Folklife in Old Vincennes (1989), The Study of Place Names (1991), From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History (1995), Homeless, Friendless, and Penniless: The WPA Interviews with Former Slaves Living in Indiana (2000), and Jesse Stuart and the Hoosier Schoolmasters (2007).
He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the History and Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society in 1988, Indiana State University Research/Creativity Award in 1990, and the Presidential Medal in recognition of exemplary performance as a faculty member at Indiana State University in 2000.
In 2005, colleagues presented him with a festschrift in his honor, entitled Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities, edited by Simon J. Bronner (Indiana University Press).
[1] The contents referred to his work in interpreting the connections of jokes, songs, recitations, and legends to masculinity as well as regionalism, ethnicity, and aging.