Gold and Black @ 30: Year 6--1995-96

Related links: Year 1: 1990-91 | Year 2: 1991-92 | Year 3: 1992-93 | Year 4: 1993-94 | Year 5: 1994-95

Gold and Black Illustrated is celebrating 30 years of publishing. Over 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.

This year was a roller coaster ride for me.

I remember the football season opener at West Virginia, it was my first trip back to Morgantown in a dozen years since I had finished graduate school there. I made the three-plus hour trip over from my home in Columbus, Ohio. I recall working on the stat crew in the radio booth for Joe McConnell, in his first game as Purdue's play-by-play man, and for his sidekick Dale Samuels, who was in his last season of work as an analyst with the network.

I was just hoping Purdue could keep it close against the No. 23 Mountaineers, and I was shocked, like the rest of Purdue and WVU fans, to see the Boilermakers with a 19-0 lead at the half. But nothing was easy for Purdue under coach Jim Colletto, and the Boilermakers managed to be on the brink of a heartbreaking loss with the Mountaineers inside the Purdue 10 and lining up for the game-winning field goal with 22 seconds left. After the kick somehow sailed left of the goalposts, giving Purdue the win, I remember saying to Samuels that I hoped his last season would end up with a bowl trip.

Samuels was, and still is, one of the nicest people you will ever find. But, even a nice guy didn't get the bowl trip as the season floundered.

It did end on a high note, as I recall watching the Bucket game from home the Friday after Thanksgiving. Being a numbers and records guy, I remember hollering at the TV for Colletto to put Mike Alstott back in the game so he could break Purdue's single-game rushing record. I couldn't understand what was keeping Colletto from doing it.

Then, when I read later in GBI that Alstott didn't want to be put back in, I realized I was just acting as an un-informed fan. A knucklehead long before Knuckleheads became a thing on GoldandBlack.com.

A few months later, the call came.

Bart Burrell, who was on the board of directors of Boilers Inc. (dba Gold and Black Illustrated) called and asked me if I would be interested in being the publisher. Bart and I had remained close over the years and it didn't take me long to say 'yes.' The new gig would be a welcome return home for me and an opportunity to work with guys like Burrell and other board members like Bob Ferguson. It was too good to pass up. And that move has proven to be a good one, as I have remained close to Burrell and Ferguson 24 years later and rely on them for advice and guidance even though they are no longer my boss as shareholders. I have also had the good fortune of working with many dedicated people during that period...none more so than Brian Neubert and now Tom Dienhart.

But it would also end my days of just being a fan. It was my job, and always has been at GBI, to work with people that tell the story of Purdue sports, especially its highest profile teams. Sure, we have always aimed to be constructive in our approach, living by the mantra that "none of this is all that important." But I also feel lucky that the program (Purdue Athletics) I have been covering, so to speak, has been one that, in general, has had good people around it.

Yet, it was tested a bit in my first weeks on the job. Athletics director Morgan Burke's decision to not renew women's basketball coach Lin Dunn's contract, and the NCAA investigations surrounding the women's and men's programs at the time, put our work to an early test. It created a firestorm.

But it also taught me the meaning of a "tempest in a teapot." Emotions were running high at an all-time on both sides of the ledger. I had worked with Dunn when I was an athletic department employee, and really liked her. She was aggressive, and played to win. She was also a lot of fun as a person. Yet, it appeared things had gotten out of control in both the men's and women's programs. Not wildly out of control, but enough that there was NCAA scrutiny.

I appreciated at the time, and for the vast majority of Burke's tenure, that he just let us do our jobs and tell the story as we saw fit. It wasn't always pleasant, but I learned that if Gold and Black was going to have credibility, it had to be honest with its readers. The whole experience, at least for me, was a blessing in disguise.

On the basketball front, I do recall saying before the season that Keady's team had a chance to win the Big Ten again, despite few people thinking it did. It was Keady's second-best coaching job of his 25-year tenure, with the only one better being his first title in 1983-84 with Jim Rowinski and Co.

Yet, I wasn't shocked when the Boilermakers were shown the door in the Round of 32 by Georgia. Most fairy-tale seasons come to an end sooner than later. And this one was no different.

It was an amazing season, but it was time to move on and embrace my new role with Gold and Black. And that for me, has, and continues to be, a good thing.

Mike Alstott held :Purdue football together in a period when it was on life support.

It is true that coach Jim Colletto upgraded the talent and effort level from his predecessor Fred Akers. Colletto put the program in a position to win under his successor, Joe Tiller. Yet, it also was an example of not being able to get the job done, for whatever reason(s), and the Boilermaker football faithful was losing its patience.

Alstott was the perfect placeholder for what was to come under Tiller. He kept Purdue fans interested enough in football to come back in droves once the team improved enough to warrant such support a couple years later. And that is exactly what happened.

If it weren't for Alstott, who personified a Boilermaker -- he even looked like one-- the program might have been beyond repair, relegated to the abyss. Alstott was always there to give that effort, no matter the score. It was frustrating for many to think that the Joliet, Ill., native never enjoyed a winning season or a trip to a bowl game. It wasn't fair.

Yet, his collegiate swan song performance in the Old Oaken Bucket game was one of the greatest ever by a Purdue player at any position. He rushed for 264 yards, just 12 shy of the Purdue-single game record set 23 years earlier by Otis Armstrong against IU. Alstott had a remarkable 157 yards rushing in the third quarter alone.

Alstott left the game with 6:23 left in the fourth quarter and was quoted after the game saying he didn't have any more to prove and the single-game rushing record wasn't important to him.

Alstott was humble, selfless and while never making a first-team All-Ten squad, he is known as the best Boilermaker running back in the past 40-plus years, and maybe ever.

The "Three-Pete" championship in men's basketball thrust Purdue back to the very top of the Big Ten in terms of recognition. After all, there was no denying the statistic that the Boilermaker program had more league titles than anyone else.

Important to many Purdue fans was that Keady's program was starting to get credit as being equal or better than Indiana under Bob Knight. Purdue swept IU in 1996, and it served as a turning point in the rivalry. The Boilermaker program, by and large, has had the upper hand over its rivals ever since.

The ability to win three straight immortalized Keady in Big Ten annals, and set the standard that Boilermaker men's basketball is an elite program in the conference. That notion remains important today. It is a standard that Matt Painter's program has been able to maintain, and in some instances build upon, during his 15 seasons at the helm.

Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?

Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2020. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.