It's hard to imagine any two football programs in the country moving farther in opposite directions over the last 50 years than Purdue and VPI (aka, VaTech), although some here may come up with other examples.
On Sep 25, 1965, Purdue defeated ND 25-21 and our Boilers were subsequently ranked #1 in the weekly national polls. Purdue was already a very highly regarded national research university, the mother of astronauts, on the verge of becoming the "cradle of QBs," and regularly selling out 70,000+ seat RA, one of the largest stadium in the nation at the time. Meanwhile, VT (known then as VPI), had just left the old Southern conference, where its chief rival was VMI. The two played an annual Thanksgiving Day game called "The Military Classic of the South" in Roanoke's 25,000-seat municipal stadium because it was bigger than VPI's on-campus stadium. VPI was just then, in 1965, beginning to transform itself from a military-oriented engineering school to a major university, but VPI was still firmly in the shadows of Virginia's top academic university, UVa, which blackballed VPI's subsequent attempts to join the ACC for almost 40 years. But to VT's great credit, they persevered, built a huge fan base despite being located in a thinly populated part of southwest Virginia, based largely on selling student tickets for $1 (hear that Morgan, you greedy, short sighted so and so). Today, after 50 years of leadership from Presidents, ADs, and Frank Beamer (a former VPI player), VT has built itself into an excellent national university based partly on how its football program galvanized the alumni base, and the national attention it brought to VT. Meanwhile, Purdue remains a great national university, but its football program was turned into a mess by a succession of pathetic leaders (subsequent to Fred Hovde) who didn't have a clue in the world how a successful football program could help make Purdue an even better university. Joe Tiller gave us a reprieve, but Morgan flushed that down the toilet.
Good thing for VT they didn't have Morgan as an AD, or the likes of Cordova for a President, or VT would still be known as VPI, and probably playing in Conference USA, against the Marshalls and La Techs of the world.
Meanwhile, Purdue has sunken to the bottom of the B1G in football, reduced the capacity of our stadium by 20%, and is scheduling home-and-away games with Marshall. This is what a lack of leadership and a lack of vision brings. At VT, the challenges, the disadvantages, brought resolve and determination to overcome. At Purdue, challenges and disadvantages for our Athletic Department are excuses for our so-called "leaders," most of whom don't have the vision to see beyond the hood of their car, to blame alums for not giving more cash to the JPC, even though we have no reason to believe it would go to where it's needed to support or improve the revenue-producing sports.
P.S. - I haven't given up on this Purdue team or DH2. I'm still hoping he's the guy who can overcome the priority our BOT and AD have placed on non-revenue sports.
On Sep 25, 1965, Purdue defeated ND 25-21 and our Boilers were subsequently ranked #1 in the weekly national polls. Purdue was already a very highly regarded national research university, the mother of astronauts, on the verge of becoming the "cradle of QBs," and regularly selling out 70,000+ seat RA, one of the largest stadium in the nation at the time. Meanwhile, VT (known then as VPI), had just left the old Southern conference, where its chief rival was VMI. The two played an annual Thanksgiving Day game called "The Military Classic of the South" in Roanoke's 25,000-seat municipal stadium because it was bigger than VPI's on-campus stadium. VPI was just then, in 1965, beginning to transform itself from a military-oriented engineering school to a major university, but VPI was still firmly in the shadows of Virginia's top academic university, UVa, which blackballed VPI's subsequent attempts to join the ACC for almost 40 years. But to VT's great credit, they persevered, built a huge fan base despite being located in a thinly populated part of southwest Virginia, based largely on selling student tickets for $1 (hear that Morgan, you greedy, short sighted so and so). Today, after 50 years of leadership from Presidents, ADs, and Frank Beamer (a former VPI player), VT has built itself into an excellent national university based partly on how its football program galvanized the alumni base, and the national attention it brought to VT. Meanwhile, Purdue remains a great national university, but its football program was turned into a mess by a succession of pathetic leaders (subsequent to Fred Hovde) who didn't have a clue in the world how a successful football program could help make Purdue an even better university. Joe Tiller gave us a reprieve, but Morgan flushed that down the toilet.
Good thing for VT they didn't have Morgan as an AD, or the likes of Cordova for a President, or VT would still be known as VPI, and probably playing in Conference USA, against the Marshalls and La Techs of the world.
Meanwhile, Purdue has sunken to the bottom of the B1G in football, reduced the capacity of our stadium by 20%, and is scheduling home-and-away games with Marshall. This is what a lack of leadership and a lack of vision brings. At VT, the challenges, the disadvantages, brought resolve and determination to overcome. At Purdue, challenges and disadvantages for our Athletic Department are excuses for our so-called "leaders," most of whom don't have the vision to see beyond the hood of their car, to blame alums for not giving more cash to the JPC, even though we have no reason to believe it would go to where it's needed to support or improve the revenue-producing sports.
P.S. - I haven't given up on this Purdue team or DH2. I'm still hoping he's the guy who can overcome the priority our BOT and AD have placed on non-revenue sports.
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