I too was high up. They were STEEEP, and I swear they swayed.
How many years have you been watching Purdue basketball and favorite team
- Thread starter Bleedinggoldandblack
- Start date
I have been watching Purdue basketball roughly 37 years and I LOVED the 3 AMIGOS! Even got a picture this past Fall with Troy and Todd posing for me! I have a passion for defensive players, so Kramer and Davis are gonna be players at the top of my list, but as for an overall team, this year is gonna be hard to top! Just having a NPOTY return and on his way to a back to back for that and the joy of watching this team get a long so well. Lance Jones has been AMZING for us and watching Heide and Colvin have been so fun, even if they don't get huge minutes yet. I could go on about more players, but I won't right now. lol
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45 years for me. 2 Favorites. 3 Amigos because that is when I was at Purdue! and 94-95 team after Big Dog left. So little was expected after losing Glenn and they ended up winning the conference title. A true team that played connected and I think one of Keady's best coaching jobs of his career.
What a great thread! I have been a fan for 44 years ever since I was accepted at Purdue to begin studying Engineering. My All-time favorite team was the Lewis, Stephens and Mitchell squad although it ended in heartbreak that I still remember like yesterday. I would say our current team is probably my second favorite team over the years. Plenty of great memories though with many teams. Boiler Up!
My grand parents , mom were from Connersville, many good memories there, my Grandfather was President of stant ? Stanz manufacturing there, gas caps , radiator caps, ...
Stant Coporation. My Dad worked there after WWII before he became a postman for 25 years.
Many of you have mentioned the Purdue tuba player; that was on a par with the IU scrub lady singing the iu school song (i guess) in empty assembly hall. Better, I thought, was a similar Farm Bureau commercial with a school aged black kid going up the hay loft steps to a BB court in a barn. Another kid asked him, "Man are you ready?" And the kid answered back, "When you're a Boilermaker, you're ALWAYS ready." Classic stuff!
For this reason (as well as youth and the passage of time) my favorite Boiler teams were the Walls/Jordan/Parker years. Combined with Bruce Parkinson and John Garrett (later replaced by Tom Sheffler) those were memorable and very good teams.
For this reason (as well as youth and the passage of time) my favorite Boiler teams were the Walls/Jordan/Parker years. Combined with Bruce Parkinson and John Garrett (later replaced by Tom Sheffler) those were memorable and very good teams.
My father worked for HH Robertson. That company did curtain wall and roof deck for large buildings. The developed a new process that coated porcelain to aluminum. They operated out of the old Cord factory.
Don’t forget Bob Purkhiser.😉 Also, a great pitcher at Purdue. Bob tragically died at age 39, and Mel Garland died at 40.
Great stuff, folks.
My parents met at Purdue, back in the days Neil Armstrong was taking small steps on campus, but I didn’t get to start watching Purdue games until we moved to Indiana in late fall 1967. That’s when Purdue’s new domed arena was dedicated by the NCAA’s defending champion, UCLA, led by 7-foot-2 superstar junior Lew Alcindor and coached by Johnny Wooden, Purdue’s three-time All-American and 1932 national champion, playing a Purdue team that put the big spotlight on a first-time varsity player, sophomore Rick Mount. Fighting a foot injury, Mount scored 28, but UCLA won 73-71.
UCLA won the NCAA again, but, that fall, Sports Illustrated and the AP made Purdue No. 1 … for football, thanks to Leroy Keyes and Mike Phipps. They got upset, but the Blond Bomber, aka The Rocket, led Purdue to the 1969 NCAA championship game, where Wooden’s Bruins again defeated the Boilermakers. Joining Mount on Purdue’s best-ever tournament team were future pros Billy Keller and Herm Gilliam, 7-foot Chuck Bavis and George Faerber, who was cleaning the glass long before doing Bee Windows and later instructed me in coaching class.
I watched them, thanks to WTTV and the Farm Bureau Network, and finally arrived on campus just in time to enjoy the eventual 1974 NIT champs with Frank Kendrick, Big John Garrett, Bruce Parkinson, Jerry Nichols and Bruce Rose, also the bank intern who opened my account. They ran up a 17-point lead over visiting No. 3 North Carolina State with David Thompson, destined to win that year’s NCAA, but, despite the din, Purdue faded and lost 86-81.
I’ve enjoyed every team since, from up close and afar, but my favorite remains the talented cast that fell well short of expectations for 1977-78, despite having four-year starters Walter Jordan, Wayne Walls and Eugene Parker, junior Jerry Sichting and 7-foot sophomore Joe Barry Carroll. They were unbeatable at home but inexplicably hapless on the road. When they blew out Magic and No. 10 Michigan State, roaring to 73-46 and winning 99-80, Mackey was never louder.
Biggest memory … watching Joe Barry riding his bike to class. Tall in the blazing saddle.
Second-biggest … seeing Zach outside after picking up our season tickets. Nice reinforcement.
Funniest … the 1974 Nude Olympics, held annually at Cary Quad on the first sub-zero night of the second semester … when any form of Peacock would’ve been absolutely impossible.
My parents met at Purdue, back in the days Neil Armstrong was taking small steps on campus, but I didn’t get to start watching Purdue games until we moved to Indiana in late fall 1967. That’s when Purdue’s new domed arena was dedicated by the NCAA’s defending champion, UCLA, led by 7-foot-2 superstar junior Lew Alcindor and coached by Johnny Wooden, Purdue’s three-time All-American and 1932 national champion, playing a Purdue team that put the big spotlight on a first-time varsity player, sophomore Rick Mount. Fighting a foot injury, Mount scored 28, but UCLA won 73-71.
UCLA won the NCAA again, but, that fall, Sports Illustrated and the AP made Purdue No. 1 … for football, thanks to Leroy Keyes and Mike Phipps. They got upset, but the Blond Bomber, aka The Rocket, led Purdue to the 1969 NCAA championship game, where Wooden’s Bruins again defeated the Boilermakers. Joining Mount on Purdue’s best-ever tournament team were future pros Billy Keller and Herm Gilliam, 7-foot Chuck Bavis and George Faerber, who was cleaning the glass long before doing Bee Windows and later instructed me in coaching class.
I watched them, thanks to WTTV and the Farm Bureau Network, and finally arrived on campus just in time to enjoy the eventual 1974 NIT champs with Frank Kendrick, Big John Garrett, Bruce Parkinson, Jerry Nichols and Bruce Rose, also the bank intern who opened my account. They ran up a 17-point lead over visiting No. 3 North Carolina State with David Thompson, destined to win that year’s NCAA, but, despite the din, Purdue faded and lost 86-81.
I’ve enjoyed every team since, from up close and afar, but my favorite remains the talented cast that fell well short of expectations for 1977-78, despite having four-year starters Walter Jordan, Wayne Walls and Eugene Parker, junior Jerry Sichting and 7-foot sophomore Joe Barry Carroll. They were unbeatable at home but inexplicably hapless on the road. When they blew out Magic and No. 10 Michigan State, roaring to 73-46 and winning 99-80, Mackey was never louder.
Biggest memory … watching Joe Barry riding his bike to class. Tall in the blazing saddle.
Second-biggest … seeing Zach outside after picking up our season tickets. Nice reinforcement.
Funniest … the 1974 Nude Olympics, held annually at Cary Quad on the first sub-zero night of the second semester … when any form of Peacock would’ve been absolutely impossible.
Have had many ties to Purdue basketball, beginning in 1967. Played on the JV while 7 footer Chuck Bavis dominated the northeast corner of Indiana as a junior senior. As a 12-13 year old, Chuck couldn't even run down the floor without becoming winded. I have home movies of us little kids running circles around this big oaf. He slimmed down, ran everywhere, dribbling a basketball, and got himself in shape. We had a complete idiot for a head coach and we only made it out of the regional once (one year our lineup was 7 foot, 6'10", 6'6", 6'3" and 6 foot). The problem was, the coach's son played!
My H. S. head coach played at Purdue and brought our team down our junior year. Of course with Mount, Gilliam, and Keller, Chuck was primarily a rebounder and the guy setting screens. After seeing him play for 3 years, averaging 25+, that was somewhat of a shock to me.
The atmosphere in 1968-69 was different in Mackey. During warm-ups, all the lights were on. After the line-ups, the outer lights would be shut off, and you got the impression of a play starting on the main floor. I was amazed at Herm Gilliam's ability to come from behind a player and knock the short shot off the backboard. Billie Keller dribbled the ball high, but he could hit from the outside (what would now be a 3 pointer). Student tickets were on a rotating basis, and sometimes you got really good seats, sometimes you were up high, and sometimes you ended up in front of the TV set. Mount was amazing. I had met him a couple times, and was not impressed with his intellect. I thought to myself ('this guy isn't smart enough to know that you can't make shots like he does'). But he just kept pouring them in (until the NCAA final game against . . . . . . ).
Please, don't make me relive all the heartbreaks and depression that we've experienced over the years.
Then there was living in the same subdivision as Keady. I felt that nobody knew where he lived and that he enjoyed his privacy. I know this, the plow always came past our house to clear a path so that Gene could make it to Mackey. The rest of the subdivision would have to wait a few days. The kids always liked going to his house, cause he gave the big candy bars!
I don't wanna talk about the 3 years straight where our draw took us to our opponents home floor . . . or the baloney blocking foul on Berning and the no call on the goal tending of Tony Jones layup and so on . . .
Tony Jones was my favorite, he was a great defender. Sadly, too many officials were too dumb to realize a 6' 4" guard could to straight up and block shots like he did.
When the 3 amigos won the Big Ten against Meatchicken, the roar was deafening for 20 minutes. It's why I'm wearing hearing aids now!
I could talk about Matt as a youngster, and their family love for IU. I could go on for about 20 more pages, but it's been enjoyable to read your stories!
Now, let's wait and see if CMP rips his jacket off one game and gets a T.
The big draw for The Nude Olympics was always the same -- “Girls are gonna be in it this year.” My exposure to it, not in it, came with a gang that marched over from Wiley and joined the coed mob surrounding Cary Quad’s courtyard oval, looking like race day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, coolers included. After the Olympic theme from someone’s window and a makeshift torch, a group of guys defrocked and took off on the marathon run, lap after lap, dodging girls who jumped on the track and lasting for what seemed like 45 minutes. The last six survivors, with frost turning one’s black beard white, finally locked arms and crossed the finish line together, then did live interviews with WBAA Radio. Mike Phoelein should’ve given them all cross-country scholarships on the spot, if anyone could’ve stopped laughing. Purdue’s Nude Olympics that year appeared to launch the national fad -- streaking -- because Ray Stevens soon released “The Streak” and then all of America started doing it, including a nightly crowd between Earhart and Meredith to watch “outfits” -- hats, shoes, leopard skins -- and streak stars like “The Flame.” The radio would give updates … “The Flame hit the main mall today…” And then we streaked through the NIT.
I have been watching Purdue sports for 64 years. I remember enjoying watching Terry Dischinger play BB in 1960. I was age 10 and my oldest brother was a student at Purdue.
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