The founding members consist of Purdue, Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern and Wisconsin.ġ896 – The Boilermakers play their first football season in the newly formed conference and go 0-2-1, falling to Minnesota and Michigan and tying Illinois.ġ903 – Tragedy strikes the Purdue program the morning of Halloween as a train that is carrying the team to Indianapolis to play Indiana crashes into a 10-car section of coal cars inside the Indianapolis city limits. 24 in Crawfordsville, Indiana, a headline in the “Daily Argus-News” proclaims the Purdue eleven “burley boiler makers.” Pro-Purdue newspapers pick up on the term, and it becomes the nickname of the Old Gold & Black.ġ891-94 – The Boilermakers embark on a four-year run under head coaches Knowlton Ames and David Balliet that sees them post a combined 26-3-1 record and win four consecutive Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships.ġ895 – Purdue president James Smart plays a key role in forming the “Intercollegiate Conference Athletic Association,” which became the Western Conference and ultimately the Big Ten Conference. After a 44-0 drubbing of Wabash College on Oct.
29 in Indianapolis.ġ891 – Purdue goes undefeated and unscored upon in a 4-0 season. The squad falls to Butler College 48-6 in its only game Oct.
1887 – Purdue fields its first football team with Albert Berg serving as head coach.