Things to love about Purdue athletics

1. Paint Crew

Home court advantage is real, and it has a name: the Paint Crew, named after head men’s basketball coach Matt Painter (LA’94). The student section takes up the bleachers behind both hoops, and fans are positioned so close to the court that the electrifying high-energy environment can help overwhelm even the toughest opponents. These fervent fans have also been known to camp outside Mackey Arena the night before a big game to be first in line and snag a seat in the lower bowl closest to the court.

2. Ross-Ade Brigade

Win or lose, the Purdue community makes football game days special. Students start the day early, heading to Triple XXX on the Boilermaker Special for breakfast. It’s a point of pride for students to make the trek up to Ross-Ade bright and early, playing cornhole or tossing a football while they wait for the gates to open.

3. Lifting People After Touchdowns

If you’re short of stature, you might want to keep an eye out the next time you’re at a Purdue football game. Each time Purdue scores, spectators in the student section hoist up fellow Boilermakers once for each point scored. As the game wears on and the score mounts, people start looking for the slightest person they can find for the next touchdown. There’s nothing quite like the thrill of a touchdown and immediately getting hoisted up and down in celebration by friends and strangers alike!

4. Boiler Ball Show

Mackey Arena has been called the loudest environment in college hoops, with good reason. Fans sit incredibly close to the floor compared with more recently built facilities. Student sections located behind both buckets create a wall of sound during opposing teams’ free throws. In recent years, Purdue Athletics has capitalized on technology by encouraging fans to download the Boiler Ball Show app and become part of the pregame show. The arena lights go out. The music is pumping. The cell phones around Mackey begin flashing in a synchronized light show. Whose house? Our house!

5. I Am An American

During the tumultuous ’60s, a Lafayette Journal & Courier columnist challenged Purdue University to instill a deeper sense of patriotism in the student body. Heeding the call from the newspaper’s column, John Hultman (LA’58) penned what was to become — and remains to this day — a wildly popular campus tradition: “I Am an American.” For decades, Roy Johnson’s (AAE’60, MS E’62) reading of the poem during the “All-American” Marching Band’s performance of “America the Beautiful” was synonymous with Purdue football. Johnson’s final reading was during the final home game of the 2015 season against IU.

6. Golf Courses

Purdue University boasts two 18-hole championship courses, Ackerman-Allen and Kampen. The former was designed by Bill Diddle, a member of the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame, and built in 1934. In 1961, the course hosted the NCAA men’s championships, where Purdue won the team title, beating the runners-up by more than 10 points. Jack Nicklaus won the individual title playing for Ohio State. Kampen has been recognized as one of the top college golf courses in the United States and ranks as one of Indiana’s toughest courses. Both were redesigned by legendary golf course architect Pete Dye and are on the Pete Dye Golf Trail throughout the state of Indiana.

7. Big Ten Flags

Among the Big Ten’s 14 member schools, Purdue has special claim on the conference — the University’s fourth president, Winthrop Stone, originally called the meeting that led to the creation of the Big Ten. In 1919, Purdue’s “All-American” Marching Band became the first to march onto the field carrying the flags of all the other conference schools. Band director Al Wright decided that carrying one flag for each school wasn’t enough. He bumped up the count from 10 to 40, four for each school. While the flags didn’t appear in the 1980s and ’90s, Jay Gephart, Al G. Wright Chair, Director of Bands, revived the tradition in 2006.

8. Gene Keady-Bobby Knight Rivalry

Gene Keady’s tenure as head men’s basketball coach was a golden era at Purdue. His career lasted from 1980 to 2005, during which time he recorded 493 victories, more than any other coach at Purdue. He is the second-winningest coach in Big Ten history, behind rival Bobby Knight. Even so, Keady had the last laugh with a 21–20 record against IU.

9. Dancing to “Shout”

Between the third and fourth quarters of home football games, the warring teams’ fans put aside their differences for a stadium-wide dance party. Since 2006, a Purdue celebrity has kicked off the fun and led the crowd in singing “Shout” (made famous by Otis Day & the Knights in the movie Animal House).

10. Storming the Field

During the 1960s, football fans would celebrate victories by ripping up the goalposts and carrying them to the Wabash, where they would be tossed into the river and sent downstream. The tradition continued, albeit only after major wins, until the 1990s, when safer, indestructible goalposts were installed. Still, fans continue to storm the field in revelry following major victories, such as the November 2000 win over IU that secured a spot in the Rose Bowl and the October 2018 trouncing of No. 2 Ohio State.

11. Thrill on the Hill

Ninety minutes prior to kickoff on home football game days, the “All-American” Marching Band and auxiliaries entertain the crowd on Slayter Hill with a preview of their halftime selections, trivia, and more. Following the pep rally, the band marches on to Ross-Ade. As you see and hear the band go by, that is your signal to pack up your tailgate and head to the stadium.

12. Boiler Block Party

The official student section of the Purdue volleyball team, the Boiler Block Party often sells out for the season. It’s a major contributing factor to Purdue’s ranking among the top teams for attendance. The intensity of the fans makes Holloway Gymnasium hum with energy and has earned the gym a reputation as one of the toughest places to play. The Boiler Block Party has a series of cheers, and the group comes up with specific cheers for each player.