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Intercollegiate athletic competition involving Purdue dates to the 1880s, when the first Purdue baseball teams took on Lafayette-area clubs as well as regional foes, including Wabash College.

Football debuted in 1887. In those early days, the names hurled at opponents were nearly as fierce as the competition. Newspaper reporters who covered sports often took jabs at opposing teams.

By the early 1890s, Purdue not only was enjoying great success in football but also was becoming known as a “railroad school,” where research on the first in a succession of locomotives was beginning to establish the University as a leader in engineering teaching and research.

In 1891, sports writers picked up on the railroad theme as they chronicled the exploits of the Purdue team. Although Purdue football teams had been called by such unsavory epithets as rolling mill hands, blacksmiths, and grangers, one insult stuck. It came after Purdue defeated Wabash College 44-0 in October 1891. A headline in a newspaper in Crawfordsville, Indiana – home of Wabash – read “Wabash Snowed Completely Under by the Burly Boilermakers From Purdue.” By the next week, Lafayette papers were gleefully reporting that the Purdue team was being called boilermakers. By the next fall, the name had entered the popular lexicon.

Purdue offers 18 varsity sports with teams and individuals competing in the Big Ten Conference and at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The aim of this program is to enable qualified undergraduates to engage in competition at the highest level. The responsibility for enforcing the association’s rules as well as those defined by Purdue is placed by the University jointly upon the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Faculty Athletic Affairs Committee.

Purdue has four revenue sports: football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and volleyball. The football team has been ranked nationally among the top 25 during each of the past five years, winning consecutive postseason Alamo Bowls in 1997 and 1998 after having won the Rose Bowl in 1967, the 1978 Peach Bowl, the 1979 Bluebonnet Bowl, and the 1980 Liberty Bowl. The Boilermakers, who also played in the 1984 Peach Bowl, 2000 Outback Bowl, and 2001 Rose Bowl, own a record of 6-3 in bowl games.

The Boilermaker men’s and women’s basketball teams won seven of the 14 Big Ten titles in the span of seven years (1994-2000), plus a women’s national championship, something no conference school had ever accomplished. The women’s basketball team reached the finals of the NCAA Tournament in 2001.

Intercollegiate Athletics Facilities

The 14,123-seat Mackey Arena is the site for men’s and women’s basketball. Volleyball matches are held in the 1,696-seat Intercollegiate Athletic Facility, which is also home for wrestling. Lambert Fieldhouse accommodates indoor track and field. The new Boilermaker Aquatics Center, the home of intercollegiate, recreational, and educational swimming, will be dedicated in fall 2001.

Among the outdoor facilities are the 67,332-seat Ross-Ade Stadium; Rankin Track and Field; Lambert Field (baseball); the Varsity Softball Complex; the Varsity Soccer Complex; the Varsity Courts (tennis); The Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, including the Ackerman and Pete Dye-designed Kampen golf courses; and two football practice fields. The Mollenkopf Athletic Center contains a full indoor practice football field and a 14,000-square-foot weight/strength room. It is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the nation.

School Colors
   Old Gold and Black

Athletics Director
   Morgan Burke

Sports and Head Coaches

Men’s Sports

Baseball — Doug Schreiber
Basketball — Gene Keady
Cross Country — Mike Poehlein
Football — Joe Tiller
Golf — Devon Brouse
Swimming — Dan Ross
Tennis — Tim Madden
Track & Field — Lissa Olson
Wrestling — Jessie Reyes

Women’s Sports

Basketball — Kristy Curry
Cross Country — Mike Poehlein
Golf — Devon Brouse
Softball — Carol Bruggeman
Soccer — Rob Klatte
Swimming — Cathy Wright-Eger
Tennis — Mat Iandolo
Track & Field — Lissa Olson
Volleyball — Jeff Hulsmeyer

Source: Intercollegiate Athletics