Gold and Black @ 30: Year 30--2019-20
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 | Year 27: 2016-17 | Year 28: 2017-18 | Year 29: 2018-19
Gold and Black Illustrated is celebrating 30 years of publishing and this is our final look at our three decades of covering Purdue sports.
Note: Captions describing each cover are not available on mobile platforms.
My memories of 2019-20 and what is relevant today
I would like to end this 30-part series on a high note with a "happily ever after" ending. But that is not possible after the year that we all have endured.
It is a fair question to ask whether the 2019-20 season has even ended yet. The answer for me, is "I am not sure."
We all hope there are better days ahead. Not just for Purdue sports but for everything that is a part of our collective lives. There are always places to find optimism, and there were good things that happened in our 30th year of publishing.
But it was also a year of bizarre occurrences on and off the playing field.
It might be fair to say the single-best example of the craziness was one seemingly harmless pass play early in the Purdue-Minnesota football game in Ross-Ade. In all my years of watching sports, I have never witnessed an instance where the two best players, at least on offense, ended their respective seasons by being injured on the same play.
Yet, such was the case with Elijah Sindelar and Rondale Moore in that one instant in the loss to Minnesota. It sent Purdue's season careening into the abyss. It was a year of severe disappointment and adjustment for coach Jeff Brohm and staff, a group not used to losing. The injuries were catastrophic and played a primary role in a 4-8 record, but my guess is it didn't make it any easier for Brohm and Company to accept.
Yet, there were bright spots. Freshmen David Bell and George Karlaftis were too examples. Bell was the league's best newcomer and arguably its best receiver, and Karlaftis often flashed his unlimited potential.
The story continues after this photo below
The men's basketball season was strange, too. Lopsided home wins over Virginia and Michigan State made for memorable moments in Mackey. A road win at Indiana also left fans with hope that an NCAA Tournament bid was attainable.
But the truth of the matter is, we will never know if coach Matt Painter's squad could have earned its way into the NCAA Tournament. It was unlikely because Purdue would have had to have won four straight at a Big Ten Tournament that began but never was completed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In the end, it was all empty.
The lights were turned off, so to speak, and everyone went home. The NCAA Tournament was postponed, spring sports flushed and our publishing year ended in June with more uncertainty of what was ahead.
Some of those questions have been answered since, but there are still challenging times ahead.
The good thing for us at GoldandBlack.com is that our readership actually increased during the early days of the pandemic. Our goal to become the "Netflix of Purdue sports" worked well. That is a credit to the pros I get to work with in Brian Neubert and Tom Dienhart.
It is also a "thank you" to you, the readers. We have appreciated all of your support over the past 30 years and we look forward to earning your business for years to come.
We are now well into our 31st year of publishing. There will be more stories to tell and better days ahead. Maybe it all starts with the return of football on Oct. 24.
At least I sure hope so.
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