Gold and Black @ 30: Year 2--1991-92

Related: Year 1: 1990-91

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.

The independent publication began in the spring of 1990, and has evolved from newsprint (1990-2010) to glossy (2011-18) to its current exclusively digital format. The website GoldandBlack.com is in its 23rd year, having started in 1997.

As mentioned in our first installment, Boilers Inc. was originally formed by a group of charter investors/members. They were Jim Ackerman, Dr. Louis Angelichio, Bart Burrell, Billy Christensen, Joe Dawson, Jim Dora, Bob Ferguson, Paul Graegin, Billie Jones, Roger Kemper, Fred Klipsch, Pat MacDonald, Randy Noel, Bob Shortle, Dick Shively and Dan Zieg.

As a freelancer for the publication, I was an avid reader of GBI in those days, though I wouldn't join the organization for another four years.

I remember publisher Ken Halloy was working to utilize some of the same formula he had employed in his previous role at Scarlet and Gray Illustrated, a similar publication covering Ohio State. That formula? Lots of recruiting coverage and focus on featuring non-committed athletes on the cover.

In fact, first-year coach Jim Colletto had come up with his "Targeted 10" recruits, a list that GBI ran in the magazine. Six of the 25 covers that season focused on recruiting. Unfortunately for Purdue, few of the football prospects featured on these covers ended up playing for the Boilermakers. And if memory serves, none of said "Targeted 10" ended up coming to Purdue.

And, as I was told years later, the emphasis on recruiting caused some uneasy moments when the GBI staff had to cover Colletto's football program.

I joined the publication in Colletto's last season at Purdue, and while he was always pleasant enough to me, there was a palpable level of tension. Colletto was an irascible sort especially as his program's inability to get over the hump was an annual event. He had a bit of a disdain for media that is common, at some level, with many coaches. That is especially true when things aren't going as well as one would like.

In many ways, the 1991-92 season, at least in men's basketball, was the year in waiting. Glenn Robinson was on campus, but not eligible due to Prop 48 rules, and it left the Boilermaker faithful with a constant "wait until next year" mantra. There was so much hype around Robinson, and the Big Dog didn't let anyone down in his two seasons on the hardwood in West Lafayette.

Once again, the Purdue women's basketball team, under Lin Dunn, kept Purdue fan's spirits up. It finished 23-7 and second in the Big Ten, earning a chance to play in the Sweet 16 in Mackey. The Boilermakers had their second Kodak All-American in as many years in MaChelle Joseph. She was one of the most tough-minded, competitive players to ever play at Purdue in any sport.

I watched the game from my home in Columbus, Ohio, where I was working in professional hockey at the time. I was in disbelief, and with good reason.

Indiana was a prohibitive favorite and possessed a national-championship capable team with players like Calbert Cheaney, Greg Graham, Eric Anderson, Damon Bailey and Alan Henderson. There was no way the Hoosiers, who had beaten Purdue by nearly six touchdowns 48 days earlier in Bloomington, were going to throw away a share of the Big Ten title, a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance and a chance to play very close to home in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, right? But, that is what happened.

Senior guard Woody Austin caught fire in the second half, hitting all six of his shots (none from 3-point land, however), and allowed the Boilermakers to pull the upset. Fellow senior Craig Riley also had a huge game on that Senior Day with 15 points and seven boards.

All these years later, I still can hear the sound (the rims were first being mic'd in those days) of Austin's shots going in, just barely skimming the back of the rim. Austin, who started the game hitting just two of 14 from the floor, nailed five in a row during a four-minute stretch midway through the second half. Austin's heroics helped Purdue rally from being down 10 early in the second half when it appeared to be dead in the water. It was a scoring burst the likes of which Rick Mount, Glenn Robinson, Rob Hummel, E'Twaun Moore and Carsen Edwards were capable of.

The Hoosiers were sent to Boise, Idaho, as a No. 2 seed in the tournament, much to the delight of Boilermaker fans. But Bob Knight's team got off the deck and made it to the last Final Four of his career.

Purdue was relegated to the NIT, losing to Florida in the third round in a game played in Market Square Arena, ousted from the post eason by a Lon Kruger coached team for the second time in five years. It was impressive that Purdue, relegated to Indy because Mackey Arena was hosting the NCAA tourney women's regional, drew nearly 12,000 fans in MSA with just a couple of days of ticket sales.

Matt Painter for one.

The current Boilermaker basketball coach was in his junior year in 1991-92, and while I don't know all the circumstances of the photo shoot, he posed for December issue (see above gallery) dressed as Mrs. Claus with women's basketball coach Lin Dunn. It was a contest devised by publisher Halloy for readers to identify the husband and wife team from the North Pole.

But, in all seriousness, Painter's longevity, especially at his current age of just 49, is sa taunch example of the stability that Purdue has had in its men's basketball program for a long time. Purdue has had just two coaches since April 1980 and plenty of success in between. Yes, Painter was away from Purdue for a decade before returning as head-coach-in-waiting in 2004, but he never was far away from the program working for coaches that coached him while Painter was an undergrad: namely the late Tom Reiter and Bruce Weber. There were other mentors as well, but Reiter, Weber and Gene Keady cast a long shadow on the person and coach Painter is today.

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