One of the things I always love about this site is hearing about everyone's Boilermaker roots. Often, you'll hear someone say "I was an (insert college here) fan, until I started attending Purdue", or that their entire family comes from a long line of Boilermakers. It is always fascinating to me to hear these stories.
I can tie my roots to one man, Charles Hicks. In 1953, when my father was 3 years old, my grandfather moved his family from Syracuse, NY to Lafayette, Indiana, where my grandfather would start teaching at Purdue. In 1964, he became the head of the Department of Education. I was born in 1976.
As many of you remember, I filmed a Knucklehead Charities commercial back in the mid-2000's and talked about my seats in section 123 of Ross Ade Stadium. Those were my grandfather's seats, and I'll NEVER forget those years. My dad would always try and scalp a ticket for me for $5 just so I could get in, and then they squeezed me into that section. (i was a skinny kid) I remember the gold jerseys and Woodson playing both ways against IU, and starting to hate the cream and crimson when they threw our player out of bounds by his face mask. I remember the triplets in 1986-87.
He later helped me with my financial commitment to attend Purdue University. I never even applied anywhere else.
I'm a Boilermaker because of him. Those of you that are now my friends, and have shared a beer with me in every tailgate lot across the big ten have done so because of him.
The world lost an amazing man yesterday, and a true Boilermaker. Purdue is such a HUGE part of my life, and the amount of time I've spent doing things related to Purdue are incalculable.
He's going to be missed.
I smiled yesterday when he passed for two reasons. One, I know he's in a better place now, and then again when I heard that the services will be on Friday. I had two tickets to the UC on Friday, and was taking a fellow Knucklehead. If anyone is going to make me miss the game on Friday, it needs to be the man that brought me to this fine University.
Boiler up, my friends.
-Kevin
Charles Hicks
I can tie my roots to one man, Charles Hicks. In 1953, when my father was 3 years old, my grandfather moved his family from Syracuse, NY to Lafayette, Indiana, where my grandfather would start teaching at Purdue. In 1964, he became the head of the Department of Education. I was born in 1976.
As many of you remember, I filmed a Knucklehead Charities commercial back in the mid-2000's and talked about my seats in section 123 of Ross Ade Stadium. Those were my grandfather's seats, and I'll NEVER forget those years. My dad would always try and scalp a ticket for me for $5 just so I could get in, and then they squeezed me into that section. (i was a skinny kid) I remember the gold jerseys and Woodson playing both ways against IU, and starting to hate the cream and crimson when they threw our player out of bounds by his face mask. I remember the triplets in 1986-87.
He later helped me with my financial commitment to attend Purdue University. I never even applied anywhere else.
I'm a Boilermaker because of him. Those of you that are now my friends, and have shared a beer with me in every tailgate lot across the big ten have done so because of him.
The world lost an amazing man yesterday, and a true Boilermaker. Purdue is such a HUGE part of my life, and the amount of time I've spent doing things related to Purdue are incalculable.
He's going to be missed.
I smiled yesterday when he passed for two reasons. One, I know he's in a better place now, and then again when I heard that the services will be on Friday. I had two tickets to the UC on Friday, and was taking a fellow Knucklehead. If anyone is going to make me miss the game on Friday, it needs to be the man that brought me to this fine University.
Boiler up, my friends.
-Kevin
Charles Hicks
