On an early 2016 September Saturday morning, my daughter and I got up and drove 3 hours from our house to West Lafayette, Indiana, to watch the Purdue University Boilermakers play against the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Living in Cincinnati, it’s not a bad drive. From Cincinnati, it’s not a bad drive to go to Indianapolis and then from there you’re about an hour to West Lafayette. It’s a very doable trip where we live currently.
Purdue is known from their research and engineering. According to US News magazine, they rank Purdue 60th in the upcoming 2017 issue. The school and facilities, to me, aren’t big. It seems like a small, good, little university that you can your degree, be proud of where you went, stay in contact with your alumni and professors, a small town where you can bring up a family, in a Midwestern city. Some notable football alumni include that I know are: Mike Alstott, Drew Brees, Jim Everett, Gary Danielson, Kyle Orton, Rod Woodson, and Neil Armstrong (first man to walk on the moon, did not play football. But, you’ve got to acknowledge a man who walked on the moon for the first time, right? And, you have to acknowledge John Wooden who played basketball there.).
We got to the university a little early to see some of the university athletic facilities. We couldn’t see inside of the basketball arena, due to them working on it. Got to see the famous “Purdue World’s Largest Drum,” which is a Big Bass Drum. It’s part of the band performance before the kickoff and during halftime. Got there early to see the band march to the stadium while singing and had the Purdue train as well. I found a video of a pregame from someone who went earlier to an earlier 2016 game verses Eastern Kentucky. Here’s another video of Purdue running onto to the field before the game. You’ll see that the band formed a “P” and inside the “P” is the “Big Bass Drum.” I actually found the halftime performance of the Cincinnati game here. In this 2016 pregame video, you’ll the band spell “Boiler” and the “National Anthem.” At every kickoff, or really whenever they felt like it, the Purdue student section would chant “IU sucks!” Of course, IU is Indiana University, the in-state rival. At the end of the game, the band was on the field to do a few songs and marched out.
Visiting Purdue marks my first game that I saw in a Big Ten stadium. I have visited Michigan, and Michigan State. But, I haven’t seen a game at those stadiums, currently. At this stadium, the fans were friendly. Got to see the historic “P-U-R-D-U-E” spelled out in the stands. The game was not packed out, which doesn’t surprise me since Purdue is not historically very good and their opponent was not very major school.
The game was a good game. Cincinnati ended up wining it, 38-20. The time spend with my daughter, was fantastic. After the game, we went to a local restaurant that’s well known within the community and college. It’s called “Triple X Family Restaurant“, which is a hamburger restaurant.
Triple XXX hamburger family restaurant
College Football Junkie 