Counting Down Top Purdue Boilermakers Reaches 70s
Perhaps the strangest NFL championship game, pre-Super Bowl era, involved the Chicago Bears winning the title in 1932 on an indoor 60-yard field that was littered with circus “leftovers.” A Purdue All-American center never forgot that game until the day he died at age 92.
He’s among this week’s edition of best Boilermakers by number alongside three All-American defensive linemen and two Super Bowl champion offensive linemen with the New England Patriots.
71
Alex Magee
One of a handful of athletic defensive linemen recruited by Joe Tiller and assistant Brock Spack in the early 2000s. The 6-3, 298-pound Magee played his first three seasons at tackle before moving to end in 2008.
Magee recorded 3.5 sacks among his 28 tackles, impressing the Kansas City Chiefs enough to make him a third-round selection in 2009.
72
Bill Yanchar
Yanchar earned first-team All-Big Ten honors at defensive tackle in 1968 and 1969.
He also was an Academic All-American in 1969. Yanchar’s final game as a Boilermaker was memorable, collecting 15 tackles in a 44-21 victory against Indiana. Afterward, Yanchar credited the Hoosier fans for inspiring him.
“Those people pelting us with snowballs really got us fired up,” Yanchar told the Journal and Courier’s George Bolinger.
73
Don Brumm and Jerry Shay
Jack Mollenkopf’s skill as a line coach was never more evident than in the first half of the 1960s when he fielded back-to-back All-Americans in Brumm and Shay.
Brumm was a two-year starter at defensive end, earning first-team All-America honors from the Associated Press and United Press International as a senior in 1962. The St. Louis Cardinals made Brumm their first-round draft pick in 1963, going 13th overall.
Three years later, Shay was a first-team All-American defensive tackle. The Minnesota Vikings made Shay the seventh overall pick of the 1966 NFL Draft. Shay made his mark, though, as a scout for the New York Giants. He was directly responsible for the Giants drafting standouts such as Harry Carson, Phil Simms, Michael Strahan and Lawrence Taylor.
74
Ken Novak
A decade later, the 6-7, 270-pound Novak was selected an All-American defensive tackle after posting a team-high 87 tackles as a senior in 1975.
Oddly, Novak wasn’t a first-team All-Big Ten selection even though he was granted that honor in 1974. Novak was taken in the first round of the 1976 NFL Draft, 20th overall, by the Baltimore Colts.
75
Lance Olssen
Yet another outstanding defensive lineman from the 1960s, Olssen earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as a junior in 1966 and a senior in 1967.
Injuries cut short his professional career after being a third-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1968.
76
Charles Miller
The Marion native was Purdue’s third football All-American, a three-year starter at center while playing for the Big Ten champions in 1929 and 1931.
Winning followed Miller to the Chicago Bears, for whom he played in the first indoor football game in 1932. It was the NFL championship game against Portsmouth in Chicago Stadium.
Age 90 at the time he was interviewed by this columnist in 2000, Miller recalled blocking for Red Grange and Bronko Nagurski during the 9-0 victory. He also remembered the stench from playing on a surface that had hosted a circus earlier in the week.
“It was stinking and dirty,” Miller recalled. “Oh, it was bad.”
77
Karl Singer
Protecting Bob Griese during the 1965 season helped Singer earn Associated Press All-America honors as a senior.
The offensive tackle was a first-round pick by the Boston Patriots in the 1966 American Football League Draft.
78
Matt Light
Converted to offensive tackle from tight end by Joe Tiller, Light became the anchor of the group that protected Drew Brees for three seasons.
Light started 37 consecutive games at left tackle and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2000. The New England Patriots took him in the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft.
During the next 11 seasons, Light started 153 of 155 games, earned three Super Bowl rings and made three Pro Bowl appearances. Light was selected to the Patriots’ 50th anniversary team while still an active player in 2009.
79
Gene Mruczkowski
Last but certainly not least among Joe Tiller’s second recruiting class in 1998, Mruczkowski’s desire to play in the Big Ten led him to rebuff West Virginia, Cincinnati and Toledo.
As a redshirt freshman, Mruczkowski started all 12 games at left guard and earned second-team Freshman All-American honors from The Sporting News. He started all 49 games he played as a Boilermaker, closing his career at center.
Mruczkowski made the New England Patriots roster as an undrafted free agent in 2003. He was a part of two Super Bowl championship teams during his six seasons as a reserve lineman.
80
Dave Young, Bernie Flowers and Paul Moss
How do you choose between three All-Americans? I can’t. Other than No. 15, this is one of the deepest talent positions in Purdue history.
Young was the first tight end to lead the nation in receptions, averaging 6.1 per game during his consensus All-American season in 1980. Young was a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection (1979-80).
Flowers was Dale Samuels’ favorite target during the 1952 season, helping Purdue earn a share of the Big Ten championship. Flowers earned consensus All-America honors as a senior in 1952. He set school records with 43 receptions for 603 yards and seven touchdowns.
Moss, who played at Purdue from 1930-32, was a two-time All-American and two-time first-team All-Big Ten end. As a member of the football Pittsburgh Pirates, Moss led the NFL in receiving as a rookie in 1933.
Next time: The first John Mackey Award winner and two prolific (for their time) passers.
Top 100 rivalries
It probably won’t come as a surprise to the serious college football fan that Michigan and Ohio State rest atop The Athletic’s countdown of the Top 100 rivalries.
It did amaze me that the annual clash for the Old Oaken Bucket got such little respect, ranked 49th, that the Purdue-Indiana rivalry was listed behind such titanic matchups as North Dakota State and South Dakota State (No. 39) and Lafayette-Lehigh (No. 41).
Even further back was the once-annual Purdue-Notre Dame game at No. 61.
“This series has waned in recent years with Purdue’s fortunes, but this once was a circled game on the calendar for both programs,” The Athletic stated of the rivalry that the Fighting Irish lead 60-28-2.
Left unwritten was Purdue owning a 3-1-2 record at the start of the series, a 28-22 Boilermaker victory in South Bend on Nov. 14, 1896. The Fighting Irish won 14 of the next 15 games in the series.
The Athletic did note that Purdue owns four victories against top-ranked Notre Dame teams in 1950, 1954, 1965 and 1967. The Boilermakers notched victories in 1968 and 1974 against Fighting Irish teams ranked No. 2.
The 1968 game, a 37-22 triumph, earned The Athletic’s call as the “biggest game” in the series. Purdue was No. 1 at the time and the contest marked the fourth consecutive season both teams were ranked in the top 10 at the time. Leroy Keyes rushed for 90 yards and two touchdowns and threw a TD pass to lead Purdue.
The Old Oaken Bucket was a relative latecomer to the Purdue-Indiana series, which began on Nov. 14, 1891, with a 60-0 Boilermaker victory before a sparse crowd estimated at 1,200. The shutout was one of four that season for Purdue, which outscored Wabash, DePauw, Indiana and Butler by a combined 194-0.
Incidentally, the 46-0 victory at Wabash led to the Boilermaker nickname. The Daily Argus News, a Crawfordsville publication, titled the game story “Slaughter of Innocents: Wabash Snowed Completely Under by the Burly Boiler Makers from Purdue.”
Purdue leads the Indiana series 77-43-6 and the combined 126 meetings ranks second among Big Ten rivalries behind only Wisconsin at Minnesota.
That didn’t impress The Athletic, which justified its lowly ranking by declaring “it’s a historic series, but its impact has limited reach.” Backing up that opinion, The Athletic noted the teams have met just once as ranked opponents, in 1945.
Indiana’s 19-14 victory against Purdue in 1967 was chosen the “biggest game” of the rivalry. The upset of the third-ranked Boilermakers forged a three-way tie for the Big Ten title and by league rules at the time, sent the Hoosiers to Pasadena for its only Rose Bowl appearance.
Boilers make the cut
Purdue’s national runner-up team in 2024 is among The Athletic’s Top 25 teams of the 2000s.
Criteria for selection include overall record, conference championships and historical relevance. In the Boilermakers’ case, Zach Edey’s presence earned them the No. 24 slot in Brendan Marks’ rankings.
“If not for running into a buzz saw in the national title game, Matt Painter’s best Purdue squad would feature even higher,” Marks writes. “Still, watching Edey — the first multi-time Wooden Award winner since Ralph Sampson in the 1980s — at the height of his dominance was something to behold. Edey’s monstrous 37-point effort in the national championship game tied Lew Alcindor for fourth-most points in a title game in men’s NCAA history.
“Alongside the 7-foot-4 Big Maple, Smith and Loyer combined to make the Boilermakers the second-best 3-point shooting team in America, one capable of going undefeated at home despite the nation’s second-toughest schedule. The Boilermakers thrived despite the pressure of a season-long redemption tour, one year after becoming the second No. 1 seed to ever lose to a No. 16 (Fairleigh Dickinson).”
Connecticut, which repeated as national champions by defeating Purdue, was ranked third in the countdown behind Duke’s 2001 national champs and the 2012 Kentucky title team.
Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.