There are some interesting parallels to the last time Purdue started its season this late in the year. The Boilermakers' Oct. 24th season opener isn't the latest a Purdue team has played its lid-lifter.

Back in 1918, during the infamous Spanish Flu epidemic, the Boilermakers didn't play their first game until Oct. 26. Newspaper accounts from the Lafayette Journal (as it was called then) indicated that games were set to be played the first week in October, but were postponed due to the "1/2 day rule.". While it is unclear what the "1/2 day rule was" it was something passed by the War Department. The United States had just entered World War 1 when the Spanish Flu hit.

Interesting, the military also had some measure of control over the athletic department as it was referred to "Camp Purdue" and head coach Butch Scanlon was referred to in several newspaper accounts as "Camp Coach."

This were clearly in a state of flux 102 years ago, because Purdue didn't know it was going to open its season until the day before its first game. The Boilermakers opener was at home (Stuart Field where the Purdue Armory is today) against DePauw. Purdue lost 9-7 to the Tigers.

The next week, Purdue was supposed to play at the University of Chicago and its famous coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, but the game against the powerful Maroons was moved to West Lafayette. Why? Because the state of Illinois wasn't allowing sporting events or gatherings of large numbers of people. In 2020, Illinois is allowing college football to be played, but there is no high school football being played in the state.

It was a big deal for Chicago, a league heavyweight under Stagg, to have to travel to Purdue to play. In those days. Back then, and even through the early 1970s, the "power" schools like Chicago, Ohio State and Michigan did't travel away from home very often. According to The Journal, Purdue hadn't played host to the Maroons since 1894, a string of 17 games played between the schools.

Something else that has changed in the last 102 years? Nearly 6.000 fans attended Purdue upset victory over Chicago at Stuart Field. It was the Boilermakers lone win in the series dating back to the 1894 contest.

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