Gold and Black @ 30: Year 27--2016-17

Related links: Year 1: 1990-91 | Year 2: 1991-92 | Year 3: 1992-93 | Year 4: 1993-94 | Year 5: 1994-95 | Year 6: 1995-96 | Year 7: 1996-97 | Year 8: 1997-98 | Year 9: 1998-99 | Year 10: 1999-00 | Year 11: 2000-01 | Year 12: 2001-02 | Year 13: 2002-03 | Year 14: 2003-04 | Year 15: 2004-05 | Year 16: 2005-06 | Year 17: 2006-07 | Year 18: 2007-08 | Year 19: 2008-09 | Year 20: 2009-10 | Year 21: 2010-11 | Year 22: 2011-12 | Year 23: 2012-13 | Year 24: 2013-14 | Year 25: 2014-15 | Year 26: 2015-16

Gold and Black Illustrated is celebrating 30 years of publishing. Over the next last few months and for the next three weeks, we will continue our look at each publishing year, reflecting on some key moments.

Note: Captions describing each cover are not available on mobile platforms.

The "Purdue Fit" cover that you see in the gallery above set the tone for a year of change.

The hiring of athletics director Mike Bobinski and Aug. 9 press conference were a surprise to us. In past searches of football and men's basketball, we were usually able to piece together who the eventual hire would be. We were proud of our previous track record of solving the search puzzle. But this time, we fell short.

Purdue officials did a good job of keeping this search private and air-tight. We were on the trail of a couple other candidates that were in the mix but didn't see Bobinski coming. Why we didn't, I am not sure. After all, Bobinski was a name in administration circles with his role as chair of the NCAA Men's Basketball Selection Committee. And the fact he was coming to Purdue after director-level stints at Xavier and Georgia Tech made him a "Purdue Fit," to be sure.

When the morning came to announce Bobinski, I recall being crammed into president Mitch Daniels' conference room, and literally sweating my way through the conference. It was a press conference that Bobinski in effect won by showing an air of pleasant confidence and ample deference to the job his predecessor Morgan Burke had done.

There was no secret that Job 1 for Bobinski was going to be to fix football. As the 2016 season approached, coach Darrell Hazell was as lame a duck as one could be,. And to show how short his runway was, Hazell was dismissed the day after a lopsided home loss to Iowa despite Purdue having a 3-3 record at the time. Make no mistake, it was clear that it was time for Purdue to move on.

When the day came for Bobinski to make his move, we had heard from an extremely reliable source that it was going to happen and even the time of the all-players meeting. As a staff, we chose to wait around to post it because we didn't want the players to hear it from us that a change had been made. Unfortunately, some did, as the players' meeting with Bobinski was delayed from the scheduled time. It wasn't one of my favorite moments. I take no joy in the firing of a coach, even if it was necessary.

I would be remiss in not mentioning the work of interim coach Gerad Parker. Purdue lost all six games during his brief tenure, but I thought Purdue played inspired football under his watch. In no small way, he deserved some credit for at the minimum keeping the attention of the players who would return the following year. And that gave the new guy something to work with.

Just over six weeks later, Bobinski turned to that new guy: Jeff Brohm. In the search which culminated in Brohm's hire, we had it figured out Brohm was the likely target about 36 hours before he was announced. What we didn't know, however, was all of the 11th-hour negotiations that went on to get Brohm to finally commit to Purdue. It will be an interesting story to tell, when and if we ever hear, what really happened. From our sources, it went down to the wire.

I liked this cover for one simple reason: Charles Jischke's image of Brohm's "Mona Lisa" smile captured the subtle joy and confidence Brohm projected in the X and O environment. Just a few months later, Purdue fans would see Brohm draw up some trick plays that went a long way toward helping the Boilermakers be one of the surprise teams in the Big Ten in 2017. No one saw a winning season for Purdue in Brohm's first year. In fact, I thought it would take him four to five years to reach that standard.

One of the challenges of only doing bi-monthly print magazines is that the timing wasn't right for coach Matt Painter's Big Ten title team to be reflected on one of our covers. We were able to feature Caleb Swanigan on the cover three times in his short Purdue career, and the consensus All-American season he put together in 2016-17 was remarkable. I have never seen a better rebounder in my days of watching Boilermaker basketball, nor one who gave greater effort.

And the opportunity to celebrate a Big Ten title and clinching it on Keady Court against rival IU was almost more than a Boilermaker fan could hope for. Heck, it was more than I could hope for, at least from the opportunity to see it in person. A postponed business trip in January was rescheduled for late February, so I was relegated to watch it all on TV.

From all accounts of people in my sphere, it was one of the great nights in Mackey Arena history. And in these days of trying to find positive things to think or feel good about, I leave you with what could have been a cover image. That is, if we had run it horizontally, of course.

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