Purdue Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
This Purdue trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the university and its Boilermakers from John Purdue's 1869 gift to Zach Edey's Final Four: the land-grant founding in West Lafayette, the first university-owned airport, Amelia Earhart on the faculty, the 27 astronauts including Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, the newspaper insult that became the Boilermakers name, old gold and black, the Boilermaker Special and Purdue Pete, the Old Oaken Bucket, the 1967 and 2001 Rose Bowls, Bob Griese, Len Dawson and Drew Brees, Piggy Lambert, John Wooden, Rick Mount, Gene Keady and Matt Painter, the Big Ten title record and the Fairleigh Dickinson upset — plus Nobel laureates, Orville Redenbacher and other famous alumni. Early questions suit anyone who has heard 'Boiler Up'; later ones reward people who know which coach passed Jack Mollenkopf's win total and where John Purdue is buried. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Indiana city is Purdue University's flagship campus?
West Lafayette
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.
Q 02Who was John Purdue?
A Lafayette businessman who donated land and money
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.
Q 03Purdue was founded in 1869; what began only in 1874?
Classes
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.
Q 04Under which 1862 federal law did Indiana establish Purdue?
The Morrill Act
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.
Q 05What did Purdue become the first American university to own?
An airport
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.
Q 06Which famous aviator joined the Purdue faculty in 1935?
Amelia Earhart
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.
Q 07What is the name of Purdue's independent student newspaper?
The Exponent
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.
Q 08Neil Armstrong studied at Purdue; which fellow graduate was the last person to walk on the Moon?
Eugene Cernan
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.
Q 09How did Purdue's teams come to be called the Boilermakers?
A newspaper headline mocked them
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.
Q 10What is the Boilermaker Special?
A locomotive-shaped truck that serves as official mascot
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.
Q 11What does athletic mascot Purdue Pete carry?
A hammer
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.
Q 12Purdue's colours of old gold and black were chosen in 1887 to resemble which school's?
Princeton
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.
Q 13What is the name of Purdue's marching band?
The All-American 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.
Q 21Which Purdue centre was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 NBA draft?
Joe Barry Carroll
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.
Q 22Which legendary coach played at Purdue and beat his old school in the 1969 NCAA final?
John Wooden
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.
Q 23Which All-American led Purdue to the 1969 NCAA final?
Rick Mount
Q 14What trophy do Purdue and Indiana play for in football?
The Old Oaken Bucket
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.
Q 15What was the result of the first Purdue-Indiana trophy game, played in 1925?
A 0-0 tie
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'.
Q 16Whom did Purdue beat 14-13 in its first Rose Bowl on January 2, 1967?
USC
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.
Q 17Which coach passed Jack Mollenkopf in 2008 to become Purdue's winningest football coach?
Joe Tiller
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.
Q 18Which three Purdue quarterbacks have won Super Bowls?
Drew Brees, Bob Griese and Len Dawson
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.
Q 19Which Purdue running back is the school's all-time leading rusher?
Mike Alstott
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.
Q 20Purdue reached its first Big Ten Championship Game in 2022; which team beat it there?
Michigan
Michigan won 43-22, and four days later coach Jeff Brohm left Purdue for Louisville, his alma mater.
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.
Q 24Which coach won six Big Ten titles at Purdue and has Mackey Arena's court named after him?
Gene Keady
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.
Q 25Which Purdue star recruited in 1991 became known as 'Big Dog' and won National Player of the Year?
Glenn Robinson
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.
Q 26To which 16-seed did top-seeded Purdue lose in the 2023 NCAA Tournament?
Fairleigh Dickinson
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.
Q 27Which Purdue centre won back-to-back National Player of the Year awards in 2023 and 2024?
Zach Edey
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.
Q 28Whom did Purdue face in the 2024 NCAA championship game?
UConn
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.
Q 29Which coach led Purdue to the 1980 Final Four?
Lee Rose
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.
Q 30Carolyn Peck won Purdue's 1999 NCAA title having already taken her next job where?
The WNBA
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.