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

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.

The late 1990s was a pretty glorious period for Purdue's highest profile sports teams.

Quarterback Drew Brees emerged on the national scene in the Los Angeles Coliseum and never looked back. Yes, the Boilermakers lost that day in the heat to USC in the Pigskin Classic. But Brees, in his first college start, took the reins on Purdue's first drive of the game, leading the Boilermakers to a touchdown. I remember thinking this guy Brees might be special.

And on his last drive of the season, in a late-night contest in the Alamo Dome, Brees shook off a sub-par performance, and a staunch Kansas State defense, to lead his team down the field for the game-winning score.

As was the case in those days, I watched the game's final moments from the sideline as media attending the post-game press conference was allowed to do. I remember thinking that Purdue had blown an opportunity to beat the No. 4 team in the land by committing some special teams gaffes, which were a problem during the early days of the Joe Tiller era.

But before I could look up, .Brees found Isaac Jones in the right corner of the end zone, and Purdue had its greatest bowl win ever. From the sideline, my view of Jones' catch was blocked, but the roar of Purdue fans told me what had happened.

Thirty-nine TD passes, still the Boilermaker standard by a long shot, and a Big Ten record that lasted 20 years, were enough proof for me to know, not think, that Brees was truly special.

Also in that special category, it would be hard to top the championship run of the 1998-99 Purdue women's basketball team. This squad had it all. It had great leadership from seniors Stephanie White and Ukari Figgs and it had talent. It's best player arguably was sophomore Katie Douglas. And that player-centered leadership was called to the test often before and during that season. Purdue was coached by Carolyn Peck, who had announced before the season that she was moving on to the WNBA's Orlando Miracle. And yet, in lame-duck status, Peck and the Boilermakers still found a way to get it done.

Like many Purdue fans and observers, I will never forgot watching the title game from home. Imprinted on my brain are the last seconds of the clock ticking off in the win over Duke and ESPN's lead announcer Mike Patrick proclaiming Purdue as national champions. There were so many story lines, so much triumph over difficulty, but it all came together for Purdue.

It provided proof that winning a national title at Purdue in a high-profile sport was possible. It took a special, very special, group of women to get it done.

And yet that triumph over difficulty wasn't finished. Reserve guard Tiffany Young's death at the hands of a drunk driver less than four months after the title was a sobering moment, as well.

I remember being on vacation in northern Michigan and stopping at a local restaurant to pick up carry out. I looked up at a television which was playing ESPN's "SportsCenter" and saw Young's face on the screen. I knew then it wasn't good.

Yet, in the 21 years since, the job--and it has been a job--the collective group of everyone associated with that title has done in telling the complete story of that season just might be its greatest legacy.

They say "sports is life." It rang true in that memorable NCAA run and its aftermath.

Purdue sports has accomplished much in the 30 years of Gold and Black, including a couple of team national titles, including the one mentioned above. Yet, the three teams that the magazine has focused on over the years--football, men's and women's basketball--have been ranked No. 1 on only one occasion. And the above cover reflects that moment.

White's triumphant stroll off the RCA Dome court in the closing moments of a Big Ten Tournament title win over Illinois was a moment of triumph.

There have been few athletes that I have been around quite like her. She was supremely confident and competitive. while always having charm and grace. She always did things right.

And that continued during the team's magical run to the national title, which would occur just 20 days later. Photographer Tom Campbell did a great job of capturing lots of great images during the NCAA Tourney run, but none captured my attention quite like this one.

Somewhat lost in the memory of 21-plus years was Purdue going through its only large-scale NCAA investigation. Athletics director Morgan Burke responded to the NCAA's initial allegations in the fall of 1998, with much of the focus on Frank Kendrick.

The former assistant men's basketball coach was accused of lying about a ride he had given to prospect, turned Purdue commit, Jamaal Davis and his involvement in an illegal bank loan to Luther Clay. Burke defended Kendrick publicly, and Kendrick remained on Gene Keady's staff through the 1998-99 season. Kendrick was removed from Keady's staff for the 1999-00 season, spending the year working on the staff of the Purdue Memorial Union.

In July 1999, Purdue was slapped with two years probation by the NCAA, which cost Keady's program a scholarship for two subsequent seasons. It also was tagged with relinquishing NCAA Tournament revenues in 1995-96, the lone season that Clay was a Boilermaker.

What is relevant today are two things: Purdue's well-respected reputation of running a clean program was sullied, even if the penalties were relatively minor. Yet, it also reinforced the need for the Boilermaker program to be free of violations, something it has maintained with the exception of a women's basketball infraction at the tail end of Kristy Curry's tenure at Purdue seven years later.

Secondly, it caused a bruising of Purdue's relationship with Kendrick, something that has been reconciled in recent years. It did the same with Lin Dunn, the women's basketball coach who was involved in blowing the whistle on Kendrick to the NCAA a couple of years earlier. She returned to the program to be enshrined in the Purdue's Athletics Hall of Fame despite not having her contract renewed in 1996, a bitter, bitter moment for both Dunn and Purdue.

I had been a friend of Kendrick since his playing days a quarter century earlier. After all, Kendrick was as talkative and friendly a guy as one could meet. I recall the strain of that relationship between the two of us, and thought how difficult it had to have been for all in the Purdue basketball family.

Time heals all (or maybe most) wounds.

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