50 Fun Facts About Purdue

In which Indiana city is Purdue University's flagship campus?

West Lafayette. When Purdue opened, the town across the Wabash River from Lafayette was called Chauncey; its voters took the name West Lafayette only in 1888.

Who was John Purdue?

A Lafayette businessman who donated land and money, John Purdue put up $150,000 on condition that the new school carry his name. He is buried on campus, facing University Hall.

Purdue was founded in 1869; what began only in 1874?

Classes. They began in 1874 with 39 students and six instructors; Purdue's first president, Richard Owen, never saw one, having resigned before the first class met.

Under which 1862 federal law did Indiana establish Purdue?

The Morrill Act gave each state federal land to sell, the proceeds to endow a school of practical learning. Indiana signed up in 1865, then spent four years weighing rival bids to host the campus.

What did Purdue become the first American university to own?

An airport. Purdue University Airport dates from the early 1930s, and it still serves as what the university calls its largest classroom, where aviation students learn to fly.

Which famous aviator joined the Purdue faculty in 1935?

Amelia Earhart advised Purdue's women students on careers, and the university's research foundation paid for the Lockheed Electra in which she vanished over the Pacific in 1937.

What is the name of Purdue's independent student newspaper?

The Exponent, founded in 1889, has been financially independent of Purdue since 1969. Twenty years later it put up its own building without any university, state or tax money.

Neil Armstrong studied at Purdue; which fellow graduate was the last person to walk on the Moon?

Eugene Cernan, a 1956 Purdue graduate, commanded Apollo 17 in December 1972. Before climbing the ladder he promised that, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.

How did Purdue's teams come to be called the Boilermakers?

A newspaper headline mocked them: in 1891 a Crawfordsville paper reported Wabash's 44-0 loss as a slaughter by the Burly Boiler Makers from Purdue, and Purdue took the jibe as its name.

What is the Boilermaker Special?

A locomotive-shaped truck that serves as official mascot, the Boilermaker Special outranks Purdue Pete, who is only the athletic mascot. Students in the Reamer Club drive and maintain it.

What does athletic mascot Purdue Pete carry?

A hammer. Purdue Pete began in 1940 as an advertising logo for the University Bookstore, and only in 1956 did a student first appear in costume, at a pep rally.

Purdue's colours of old gold and black were chosen in 1887 to resemble which school's?

Princeton was then a football power, and by Purdue's account its orange and black was widely taken for yellow and black. The first squad kept the black and swapped the yellow for old gold.

What is the name of Purdue's marching band?

The All-American Marching Band got its name from broadcaster Ted Husing, who in 1935 hailed it as a truly All-American marching band, and the label stuck.

What trophy do Purdue and Indiana play for in football?

The Old Oaken Bucket, found on a southern Indiana farm, has been the Purdue-Indiana football trophy since 1925; the winner adds a bronze 'P' or 'I' link to its chain.

What was the result of the first Purdue-Indiana trophy game, played in 1925?

A 0-0 tie. With no winner to add a 'P' or an 'I', the first link on the trophy's chain became a combined 'IP'.

Whom did Purdue beat 14-13 in its first Rose Bowl on January 2, 1967?

USC scored with under two minutes left and went for two and the win rather than kick for a tie, but Purdue's George Catavolos intercepted the pass in the end zone.

Which coach passed Jack Mollenkopf in 2008 to become Purdue's winningest football coach?

Joe Tiller brought from Wyoming a pass-first spread offense he called basketball on grass, the first of its kind in the Big Ten. He retired in 2008 with 87 Purdue wins.

Which three Purdue quarterbacks have won Super Bowls?

Drew Brees, Bob Griese and Len Dawson all won as starters. Griese broke his leg early in Miami's unbeaten 1972 season, missed eight games, then returned to win the Super Bowl.

Which Purdue running back is the school's all-time leading rusher?

Mike Alstott ran for 3,635 yards at Purdue, then as Tampa Bay's fullback, nominally a blocker, scored 71 touchdowns, a club record until Mike Evans passed it in 2021.

Purdue reached its first Big Ten Championship Game in 2022; which team beat it there?

Michigan won 43-22, and four days later coach Jeff Brohm left Purdue for Louisville, his alma mater.

Which Purdue centre was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 NBA draft?

Joe Barry Carroll cost Golden State dearly: to get the first pick it sent Boston centre Robert Parish and the pick that became Kevin McHale, who went on to win three titles together as Celtics.

Which legendary coach played at Purdue and beat his old school in the 1969 NCAA final?

John Wooden was a three-time All-American guard at Purdue, nicknamed the Indiana Rubber Man for his reckless dives across the floor. His UCLA side beat Purdue 92-72 in the 1969 final.

Which All-American led Purdue to the 1969 NCAA final?

Rick Mount hit what Purdue calls the most famous shot in its history, a last-second jumper from the baseline that beat Marquette 75-73 and sent the 1969 team to the Final Four.

Which coach won six Big Ten titles at Purdue and has Mackey Arena's court named after him?

Gene Keady was Big Ten coach of the year seven times in his 25 seasons. He spent the last of them with his successor beside him: Matt Painter, who had played point guard for him at Purdue.

Which Purdue star recruited in 1991 became known as 'Big Dog' and won National Player of the Year?

Glenn Robinson held out as a rookie until Milwaukee gave him a fully guaranteed 10-year, $68 million contract. The NBA brought in a fixed pay scale for rookies the following season.

To which 16-seed did top-seeded Purdue lose in the 2023 NCAA Tournament?

Fairleigh Dickinson, the shortest team in Division I, won 63-58. It had lost its conference final by a point and got in only because the winner, Merrimack, was still moving up from Division II and ineligible.

Which Purdue centre won back-to-back National Player of the Year awards in 2023 and 2024?

Zach Edey grew up in Toronto on hockey and baseball and turned to basketball only in grade 10, after he got, in his own words, almost too tall for baseball.

Whom did Purdue face in the 2024 NCAA championship game?

UConn won all six of its tournament games by 14 points or more, so Purdue's 75-60 defeat was the second-closest anyone came to the repeat champions.

Which coach led Purdue to the 1980 Final Four?

Lee Rose stayed only two seasons. Less than two weeks after Purdue finished third in 1980 he left for South Florida, where in six seasons his teams never reached the NCAA tournament.

Carolyn Peck won Purdue's 1999 NCAA title having already taken her next job where?

The WNBA's Orlando Miracle had hired her the summer before. Her players took the news badly, so she asked to stay one more season, and it ended with a 62-45 win over Duke in the final.

Which Purdue coach won 11 Big Ten titles between 1916 and 1946?

Piggy Lambert built his Purdue teams around sheer speed and is credited with developing the fast break. The old campus fieldhouse now carries his name.

Which famous food brand's founder played tuba in the Purdue band?

Orville Redenbacher, class of 1928, and his partner Charlie Bowman first sold their hybrid popcorn as RedBow. An advertising agency told them to put his own name on the jar instead.

Which Purdue chemist shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for palladium-catalysed cross-coupling?

Ei-ichi Negishi first came to Purdue in the 1960s to work under Herbert C. Brown, the university's first Nobel winner, and held the professorship named for Brown when his own prize arrived.

Where do the Boilermakers play home football games?

Ross-Ade Stadium carries the names of two alumni, David Ross and the humorist George Ade, who in 1922 bought the 65-acre farm it stands on and helped pay for the building.

In 1962 Purdue founded the first department in the United States devoted to which field?

Computer science. The department offered only master's and doctoral degrees at first, and by its own account spent the 1960s defining its courses and, indirectly, the field itself; a bachelor's degree came only later that decade.

Which for-profit school did Purdue announce it would acquire in 2017 to create Purdue Global?

Kaplan University changed hands for one dollar. For that, Purdue took over a for-profit chain with some 32,000 students and relaunched it in 2018 as a public online university, Purdue Global.

Which Purdue student tradition raises money for Riley Hospital for Children each year?

The Dance Marathon bans sitting: dancers stay on their feet for the whole event. The first, in 2005, raised $1,500, and by 2013 a single year's total had passed $1 million.

Which national student event began at Purdue in 1949 as a duel between two engineering fraternities?

Rube Goldberg Machine Contest teams build a contraption that performs one simple task in dozens of needlessly complicated steps. It died out in the 1950s until the Theta Tau fraternity revived it in 1983.

Which Purdue alumnus founded C-SPAN?

Brian Lamb, a 1963 Purdue graduate, talked cable company executives into funding a channel that shows Congress unedited. It launched in 1979 and takes no government or taxpayer money.

Under what preliminary name did the state's 1865 act create the school that opened as Purdue?

Indiana Agricultural College was a name without a home. Indiana University in Bloomington was among the fierce bidders for it before Tippecanoe County won in 1869 and the school became Purdue University.

Which Purdue landmark, finished in 1995, recalls a building that burned down days after its 1894 dedication?

The Bell Tower echoes Heavilon Hall, the engineering building that burned four days after its dedication. Purdue's president vowed it would go back up one brick higher, and the rebuilt hall's bells now ring from the tower.

In 2024 Purdue opened a new urban campus extension in which city?

Indianapolis. The campus was born on July 1, 2024, when Purdue and Indiana University split their shared IUPUI campus: Indiana kept most of it, and Purdue took over its engineering and technology programs.

Purdue's football team plays Notre Dame for which trophy?

Shillelagh: an Irish club the winner has kept since 1957. Seven years earlier, a Purdue team that finished 2-7 had ended top-ranked Notre Dame's 39-game unbeaten run.

What is the name of the trophy the Boilermakers and Illinois play for in football?

The Cannon was hauled to Champaign by Purdue students in 1905 to fire after a win. Illinois fans found it hidden in a culvert and took it, and one of them, Quincy Hall, offered it as a trophy in 1943.

What is the traditional nickname of Purdue's football program?

Cradle of Quarterbacks owes much to one man. Bob DeMoss, the freshman passer who upset fourth-ranked Ohio State in 1945, spent 20 years as a Purdue assistant recruiting and coaching the passers who followed him.

In which sport did Purdue win the 1961 NCAA men's team title as host, on its own course?

Golf. The host team won, but the individual crown went to Ohio State's Jack Nicklaus, who added his second US Amateur title later that year.

Before returning to Purdue, Matt Painter spent one season as head coach at which school?

Southern Illinois was coached by Bruce Weber, a Purdue assistant during Painter's playing days, who hired him in 1998. When Weber left for Illinois in 2003, Painter took over, won the league and was called home to Purdue.

Which former Indiana governor served as Purdue's president from 2013 to 2022?

Mitch Daniels moved in as his second term as governor ended, and within two months froze tuition, which had risen every year since 1976. It stayed frozen for the whole of his decade in charge.

Which Purdue cornerback, also a world-class hurdler, entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009?

Rod Woodson played running back and receiver as well as cornerback and safety at Purdue, and returned kicks. The Steelers kept him to defense and returns, judging him too valuable to risk on both sides of the ball.

Whom did Purdue beat 63-50 in 2024 to reach its first national title game since 1969?

NC State arrived as an 11 seed on nine straight wins, the first five of them in five days to take the ACC tournament as its tenth seed. Purdue ended the run one game short of the final.