In its 84-game history with Northwestern, Purdue has played only a handful of games equal to or greater in importance to Saturday night's contest in Ross-Ade. The win at Ryan Field in 2000 was critical to Purdue's Rose Bowl run in Drew Brees' senior season, and once could argue the 2018 season opener loomed large as it started coach Pat Fitzgerald on its West Division title run.
But 89 years ago, there was a game, during a major world crisis (albeit economic) that was historic.
In the early days of the Great Depression in 1931, breaks were hard to come by. Work was hard to find and so was food for some folks.
The Big Ten Conference wanted to do its part to help the many needy folks. So at the end of the 1931 season, it decided to have its teams tack a game on the end of the league schedule to raise money for the less fortunate.
In football terms, it was just the break the Purdue football team needed.
The Boilermakers learned they would have a chance to play for a share of the Big Ten title just six days before the regular season finale Old Oaken Bucket game with Indiana. Purdue took care of business against the Hoosiers, shutting them out 19-0 and turned its attention to unbeaten Northwestern in a contest played at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Under second-year Coach Noble Kizer, Purdue was in a second-place tie with Ohio State and Michigan a game behind the Wildcats. But after the eighth game of the season, a 22-0 shutout of Iowa, the Boilermakers were tabbed over the Buckeyes and Wolverines to face unbeaten Northwestern.
The Wildcats had their sights set on the Rose Bowl, which did not automatically take the Big Ten champion in those days. They had shutout Ohio State earlier in the year, but hadn’t played Purdue or Michigan. It came as a surprise that Michigan, who had lost in the first week of league play to Ohio State, didn’t get the game with NU. A heated league vote finished 6-4 in favor of selecting Purdue as the sacrificial lamb for the ‘Cats. Ohio State and Michigan played charity games on Nov. 28, 1931 as well, with the Buckeyes losing 19-7 at Minnesota in front of 25,000 fans while only 9,000 faithful saw Michigan shutout Wisconsin 16-0 in Ann Arbor.
Not surprisingly, the Purdue-Northwestern matchup drew the biggest crowd with some 50,000 fans making their way to the ice-cold Chicago lakefront.
“The wind chill was 15 or 20 below zero,” recalled Dutch Fehring in a 2004 interview. “I had a couple of cracked ribs in the Indiana game and didn’t expect to play in the game. I ate about eight poached eggs, and 10 pieces of toast and hot tea in an attempt to stay warm figuring I was going to spend the game on the sidelines.”
Fehring, a Purdue Hall of Fame inductee who passed away in 2006 was a standout baseball and basketball player, and one of two student athletes in school to win nine varsity letters, was surprised when Kizer called his name. John Wooden called Fehring "one of the greatest athletes I ever saw."
“I spent most of the game worrying I was going to toss my cookies,” Fehring said. “It was the coldest game I can ever remember playing in, but luckily no one hit me in the ribs and I was able to keep my food down.”
Few people gave Purdue a chance against the Wildcats. NU had gone 14-1-1 in last 16 games, losing only to Notre Dame and legendary coach Knute Rockne. In fact, Northwestern was pondering leaving the Big Ten to become an independent in search of better competition. The Boilermakers, on the other hand, enjoyed a successful season to date, but had played erratic at times, including in its 21-14 loss at Wisconsin in the fourth game of the year.
There was a lot of fanfare surrounding the game and a bizarre event occurred. Some Northwestern reserves were involved in a elevator accident that was reported in newspaper. The Boilermakers, however, kept their focus on the game, thanks to some quick work by trainer Lon Mann moments after the team had enjoyed a movie at the Chicago Theater the night before the game.
“I remember Lon Mann whisking us into the bus and cabs as fast as possible,” Fehring, who is a lifelong friend and former hoops teammate of Wooden, said. “Vendors were trying to sell us newspapers on the way out of the theater that chronicled the accident, but Mann would have none of it. We didn’t hear about the incident until after the game.”
Fortunately no Wildcat players were seriously injured, but the Boilermakers were spared the distraction.
The game was a classic stalemate and was a scoreless tie through three quarters. It was so cold that a trench was dug on both team benches and filled with straw in an attempt to keep the player’s feet warm.
Kizer played just 12 players in the entire game and just 11 for all but the last drive of the contest. The Boilermaker “Iron Men” got their break early in the fourth quarter when Fred Hecker intercepted a pass in Pudue territory and raced 55 yards to the Wildcat 15. Then he lateraled to Fehring who went the distance for what appeared to be a score. Referee Fred Gardner, however, ruled the lateral an illegal forward pass nullifying the touchdown and giving Purdue possession at the NU 30.
“I saw Gardner years later and chided him about the call,” Fehring said. “He told me that he didn’t want the game decided on such a fluke play.”
Three plays later, Hecker hit All-American end Paul Moss for a 19-yard gain to the NU 11. On the next play, back Jim Purvis, the older brother of ’34 Purdue All-American Duane Purvis, left a trail of Wildcats in his wake and went 11 yards for the game’s only score. Fehring threw one of the key blocks on the play.
The Boilermaker line, which had All-American Charles “Ookie” Miller, was the difference in the game. Northwestern only seriously threatened once in the second quarter as it got to the Purdue 1. The Boilermakers knocked the Purple back to the 13 before regaining possession.
The victory marked a key moment, in terms of conference titles, in Purdue football history. Purdue won three Big Ten crowns in four years from 1929-32, the first in ’29 under Coach Jim Phelan (the school’s only undisputed crown) and the latter pair under Kizer.
Long-time Boilermaker fans don’t need to be reminded that championships have not come so frequently before or since.
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