Purdue Football 101
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HISTORY & RECORDS With this catch against Indiana on Nov. 20, 2004, Taylor Stubblefield became the NCAA career receptions leader. PURDUE FOOTBALL 101 The resurgence of Purdue University football since the preceded a breakthrough 1891 and 1892, when Purdue went arrival of head coach Joe Tiller in November of 1996 marks a 12-0 over a two-year span, outscoring opponents 512-24. return to prominence enjoyed at regular intervals since the That included a 4-0 run in 1891, when Purdue gave up no 1890s. points while amassing 192. Purdue has won outright or shared the Big Ten Conference After a tri-championship in 1918 — by virtue of a 7-3 title eight times — 1918, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1943, 1952, 1967 victory over the University of Chicago on Nov. 2 that snapped and 2000. a 16-game losing streak against the Maroons — the Purdue has played in the conference now known as the Big Boilermakers captured the only outright conference Ten since its founding in 1895 as the Western Conference. championship in school history in 1929. Purdue finished Purdue President James Smart played a key role in the with a perfect 8-0 record under head coach James Phelan, formation of the conference. He convened a meeting at the who left Purdue at the conclusion of the season to take the Auditorium in Chicago in 1895 to address abuses in the reins at the University of Washington. relatively young college game. Among these were the Phelan’s replacement, Noble Kizer, guided the Boilermakers involvement of paid professionals on college teams, players to a tri-championship in 1931 and a co-championship the enrolling in a single class simply to play football and the use following year. In February of 1937, Kizer was diagnosed with a of “ringers” in the college game. At that initial meeting, Smart serious kidney ailment and never returned to the Purdue and his peers at Minnesota, Michigan and other Midwestern sidelines. He died July 13, 1940. colleges proposed faculty control of not just football but all athletics. That system has endured and flourished since. The 1890s were pivotal in the early development of the Boilermakers. It was the decade in which the Boilermakers acquired their unique nickname, and the era in which Purdue enjoyed unparalleled success in football. In 1891, after a 44-0 drubbing of rival Wabash College in Crawfordsville, a newspaper headline proclaimed the Purdue eleven “burly boiler makers.” It was the latest in a string of slurs that reporters tossed at the Purdue team. Others were ”pumpkin shuckers,” “railsplitters” and “blacksmiths.” All made light of the traditional utilitarian education that Purdue, as a land-grant university, provided. Pro-Purdue newspapers picked up on the term, and it became the nickname of the Old Gold and Black. The success the teams of the early 1890s experienced put the Purdue team on the football map. After a halting 0-1 1943 undefeated Big Ten Conference champions start in the first year Purdue fielded a team in 1887, no team was formed in 1888. Middling teams in 1889 and 1890 In 1943, head coach Elmer Burnham fashioned a team made up of 26 Marines, nine Navy men and nine civilians that posted a 9-0 record, including a Big Ten co-championship with Michigan. It stands as the last unbeaten campaign in school history and came one year after the Boilermakers went 1-8 for the best-ever turnaround at Purdue. Bob DeMoss arrived as a fresh-faced freshman quarterback in 1945 and, in just his fifth game, led the Boilermakers to a 35-13 upset of fourth-ranked Ohio State in Columbus. DeMoss went on to a solid career and is known as the first in the Cradle of Quarterbacks. He later tutored such Purdue legends as Dale Samuels, Len Dawson, Bob Griese, Mike Phipps and Gary Danielson. The 1952 Boilermakers — coached by Stuart Holcomb and quarterbacked by Samuels — shared the Big Ten championship. Four years later, Jack Mollenkopf, an assistant under Holcomb, took over the head coaching reins and began a 14-year tenure that ranks as the longest in school history. “Jack The Ripper” is Purdue’s all-time winningest coach with 84 victories. Purdue’s first football team of 1887 124 2006 PURDUE FOOTBALL PURDUE FOOTBALL 101 Tragedy At Purdue Purdue football teams have been struck by tragedy on two occasions: the horrific 1903 train wreck that cost 16 lives, and again in 1936 when a locker room fire killed two players. About 9:45 a.m. on Oct. 31, 1903, a special 14-car train carrying the Purdue team, band and fans to Indianapolis for the annual clash with Indiana crashed into a 10-car section of coal cars being backed down the track inside the Indianapolis city limits. Newspapers of the day reported the first car (of wooden construction) of the Purdue train was halved with the floor lying under the tender and the roof resting on the second car of the section of coal cars. Killed in the collision were assistant coach Edward Robertson, athletic trainer Patrick McClaire and players Thomas Bailey, Joseph Coates, Gabriel Drollinger, Charles Furr, Charles Grube, Jay Hamilton, Walter Hamilton, Roswell Powell, Wilbert Price, Walter Roush, George Shaw, Samuel Squibb and Samuel Truitt. Lafayette businessman Newton Howard, who was with the team as a special honor for his fan interest and favors extended, also died. Those injured in the wreck included head coach Oliver Cutts and manager-player Harry Leslie, who was later to become governor of Indiana. The Purdue band, riding in the second car of the special train, miraculously escaped serious injury when the car left the rails and plunged down an embankment. Memorial Gymnasium on the Purdue campus, completed in 1909 and now the Computer Science Building, honors those fatally injured in the wreck. Gasoline, a stove, water and a clogged drain resulted in the Sept. 12, 1936, fire that injured six players and killed two, Carl Dahlbeck and Tom McGannon. The Boilermakers played in their first Rose Bowl in 1967. Purdue played in its first and, until 2001, only Rose Bowl The 1984 season would prove to be the last winning in 1967. The Boilermakers defeated USC 14-13. During the campaign for a span of 13 autumns. The Nov. 22, 1996, 1966 season, Purdue actually finished second in the introduction of Tiller as the conference to Michigan State, but the Boilermakers played program’s 33rd head coach in Pasadena because of the now-defunct rule that kept the ranks as one of the most Big Ten representative from playing in consecutive Rose important developments in Bowls. That same rule kept the Boilermakers home for the the history of Purdue 1968 Rose Bowl, as the Boilermakers tied for the conference football. championship with Indiana and Minnesota. Another was quarterback Mollenkopf’s marquee players were Griese and running Drew Brees’ decision to play back-defensive back Leroy Keyes. In Heisman Trophy balloting at Purdue. Unheralded in high from 1965 to 1968, Griese finished eighth and second, school, Brees became a two- followed by Keyes at third and second. In 1969, quarterback time Heisman Trophy finalist Mike Phipps was runner-up for the Heisman. while rewriting the Purdue From 1978 to 1980, under head coach Jim Young, the and Big Ten record books for Boilermakers finished no lower than third in the Big Ten, passing. As a senior, Brees led qualifying for and winning three bowl games: 1978 Peach, the Boilermakers to the 87th 1979 Bluebonnet and 1980 Liberty. Rose Bowl Game. Young rode the right arm of quarterback Mark Herrmann, Purdue made it eight who set school records that appeared unbreakable in virtually bowls in eight years under every passing category. Tiller by playing in the 2004 In 1984, the Boilermakers under head coach Leon Burtnett Sun Bowl. The Boilermakers Drew Brees and Joe Tiller finished 7-5 and played in the Peach Bowl. Along the way, became one of just eight they defeated Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan, the only schools in the country to time Purdue has beaten those three in the same season. earn a bowl berth every year from 1997 to 2004. WE’VE GOT YOUR GAME 125 YEAR-BY-YEAR RESULTS Overall Big Ten Home Road Neutral Purdue Opponent Year Head Coach Record Record (Place) Record Record Record Bowl Points Points 1887 Albert Berg 0-1-0 — 0-0-0 0-1-0 0-0-0 6 48 Berg Totals (1 year) 0-1-0 — 0-0-0 0-1-0 0-0-0 6 48 1889 G.A. Reisner 2-1-0 — 1-0-0 1-1-0 0-0-0 52 28 Reisner Totals (1 year) 2-1-0 — 1-0-0 1-1-0 0-0-0 52 28 1890 C.L. Hare 3-3-0 — 2-0-0 1-3-0 0-0-0 170 56 Hare Totals (1 year) 3-3-0 — 2-0-0 1-3-0 0-0-0 170 56 1891 Knowlton Ames 4-0-0 — 2-0-0 2-0-0 0-0-0 192 0 1892 Knowlton Ames 8-0-0 — 5-0-0 3-0-0 0-0-0 320 24 Ames Totals (2 years) 12-0-0 — 7-0-0 5-0-0 512 24 1893 D.M. Balliet 5-2-1 — 4-1-1 0-1-0 1-0-0 334 144 1894 D.M. Balliet 9-1-0 — 2-0-0 6-1-0 1-0-0 188 36 1895 D.M. Balliet 4-3-0 — 4-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 84 58 1896 S.M.