Location: West Lafayette, Indiana
Enrollment: 38,788
Founded: 1869
Colors: Old Gold & Black
Nickname: Boilermakers
Conference: Big Ten
Ross-Ade Stadium seats: 57,236
Mackey Arena seats: 14,264
Intercollegiate Athletics Facility seats: 1,696
Purdue is the first university to have both men's and women's basketball teams seeded first going into the NCAA tournament. This took place in 1994.
The women's basketball team was in the NCAA Final Four in 1994.
Well-known alumns: Neil Armstrong (first man on the moon), Birch Bayh (former U.S. Senator), John Wooden (basketball coaching legend), Orville Redenbacher (popcorn king).
On October 26, 1891, the Purdue football team was for the first time called "Boiler Makers" by a Crawfordsville reporter who wrote about Purdue's 44-0 trouncing of Wabash College. Soon after, Lafayette newspapers picked up the name, and in October 1892 "The Purdue Exponent" gave it the stamp of approval. In the early days of Purdue football, the team was called other names as well, including "haymakers," "railsplitters," "sluggers," and "cornfield sailors."
"HAIL PURDUE"
The school song. Music by Edward S. Wotawa, BSSC '12; words by James R. Morrison, S '15.
Morrison wrote the words about 1912 and sent them to Wotawa, who put them to music. Originally carrying the title "Purdue War Song," "Hail Purdue" was published with a 1913 copyright and dedicated to the Varsity Glee Club. Wotawa had been a member of the Glee Club.
Hail Purdue
To your call once more we rally,
Alma Mater, hear our praise;
Where the Wabash spreads its valley,
Filled with joy our voices raise.
From the skies in swelling echoes
Come the cheers that tell the tale,
Of your vic'tries and your heroes,
Hail Purdue! We sing all hail!
Chorus
Hail, hail to old Purdue!
All hail to our old gold and black!
Hail, hail to old Purdue!
Our friendship may she never lack,
Ever grateful ever true,
Thus we raise our song anew,
Of the days we've spent with you,
All hail our own Purdue.
When in after years we're turning,
Alma Mater, back to you,
May our hearts with love be yearning,
For the scenes of old Purdue.
Back among your pathways winding
Let us seek what lies before,
Fondest hopes and aims e'er finding,
While we sing of days of yore.
Chorus
"PURDUE HYMN"
The Purdue Board of Trustees approved the song "Purdue Hymn" as the official alma mater of the University on February 5, 1993.
Words and music were written by Alfred B. Kirchhoff in 1941. Kirchhoff did graduate study at Purdue while serving as a teacher, principal, choirmaster, organist, and youth leader at St. James Lutheran Church and School in Lafayette, 1932-1948.
Purdue Musical Organization's University Choir first performed the hymn on March 6, 1943, during a convocation in the Purdue (now Elliott) Hall of Music. Fifty years later, it was adopted by the trustees as the University's official anthem in response to petitions by hundreds of students and alumni.
Purdue Hymn
Close by the Wabash in famed Hoosier land
Stands old Purdue, serene and grand.
Cherished in memory by all
Her sons and daughters true,
Fair alma mater,
All Hail Purdue! Fairest in all the land,
Our own Purdue!
Fairest in all the land, our own Purdue!
COACHING STAFF:
Steve Solberg
The Purdue University cheerleaders and mascots are affiliated with Varsity and the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA)