Gold and Black @ 30: Year 5--1994-95

Related links: Year 1: 1990-91 | Year 2: 1991-92 | Year 3: 1992-93 | Year 4: 1993-94

Gold and Black Illustrated is celebrating 30 years of publishing. For the next few weeks, we will look at each publishing year, recalling the moments that took place in that particular year.

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

Two things stand out for me as I look back at 1994-95. I was still living in Columbus, Ohio, at that time, and I always looked forward to when the Boilermakers would come to central Ohio for games.

And in the 1994 season, there was a game in my hometown with a fair amount of anticipation when the Boilermakers, sporting a 4-1-1 record, paid a visit to Ohio Stadium.

With a victory, Purdue could legitimately insert itself into the Big Ten race. And it wasn't all that unreasonable, considering coach Jim Colletto's team had already posted a win at No. 25 Illinois, and played No. 23 Wisconsin to a tie a week earlier. Couple that with the fact that Ohio State wasn't all that staunch (ranked No. 24), and one could see a glimmer of hope.

That is until the game started.

Ohio State completely hog-tied Purdue in a 48-14 rout, and the Boilermakers failed to win another game the rest of the season. Yes, if you read a current media guide, you will find Purdue's record listed as 5-4-2, but that is because Michigan State had to forfeit its games in 1994.

And I recall the outrage by some readers when publisher Ken Halloy produced the "Decade of Futility" cover after a tough 33-29 season-ending loss to Indiana. Purdue football was relevant for a while in 1994, but it was fleeting. Relevance never returned again until Colletto departed two years later.

With basketball, my memories were quite personal. My dad was in failing health that season and we had the sort of relationship that Purdue sports was our way of communicating. I remember calling him after the Boilermakers' impressive Saturday afternoon win in early March at Illinois, when it looked like back-to-back titles were in the cards. As we were talking, I could tell he was struggling, but coherent.

It was the last time I spoke to him.

The next day, he had an incapacitating stroke. By the time the Boilermakers clinched a share of the Big Ten title with a win at Minnesota just four days later, our family had already buried him.

Purdue sports has marked time for me dating back to the first grade, and this was no different.

I remember the fact that Matt Waddell and Cuonzo Martin both entered the season coming off of knee surgeries and far from 100 percent. But the toughness of that duo in leading the Boilermakers to their first back-to-back undisputed Big Ten titles in the program's history always makes them special.

The 1994-95 season was also the last time that the men's and women's hoops teams won a conference title in the same season. Coach Lin Dunn's team came within an eyelash of a back-to-back Final Four trip. And not much more than a year later, Dunn's days at Purdue would be ... done.

Martin epitomized Purdue basketball. And Halloy and his staff didn't shy away with some brash talk in the form of cover titles, captions and images. Sometimes, it was a bit much for me as a reader, but it was Halloy's style.

And Martin wore it well and was worthy of all praise and attention. Yet, the truth about the Martin I came to know in later years was that he was pretty quiet and didn't like to draw much attention to himself, especially off the court. But, when on the court, he was as fierce and tough as they come. He had swagger before it became a popular word.

Martin remains relevant to Purdue sports today. Yes, 'Zo has coached at a high level after leaving Matt Painter's staff. But he embodies what a Purdue basketball player is supposed to be. In his senior season, he overcame a knee injury to become a first-team All-Big Ten-level player. He overcame cancer a few years later.

But his classmate Waddell was also the personification of the Boilermaker basketball player in the best of times. He was unselfish and a great student (he is the last pharmacy student I can recall in the Boilermaker basketball program) with a high basketball IQ. Martin and Waddell may have been Purdue's version of the odd couple, considering their wildly different backgrounds. Waddell was from Tipton, Ind., while Martin was a native of East St. Louis, Ill. But they found a way to have great success at Purdue by complementing one another on and off the court.

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