LIVE interview with J.R. Rohrman
Listed below is an excerpted transcript from a recent interview with J.R. Rohrman, one of the five Rohrman siblings who helped put together the largest donation in Purdue Athletics history: A $15 million gift to name Rohrman Field in Ross-Ade Stadium. Along with J.R.'s dad, Bob, they all visited Ross-Ade Stadium for Purdue's Homecoming win over Maryland.
GoldandBlack.com: What kind of response have you gotten from your friends and associates about the gift?
Rohrman: A great response: Indianapolis, Chicago, of course Lafayette and Tippecanoe County. There’s been a great response and very kind words. My dad is excited about it. It’s been very positive.
GoldandBlack.com: How did you decide to pick the field as a gift
Rohrman: It all started a little over a year ago. They invited me to come in and tour the facilities. I haven’t been in for awhile. They updated it just a little bit (tic).
I met Mike Bobinski, who is a great athletic director and a very sharp individual. I’m very impressed with Mike, Tim House, and Chris Clopton. Shout out to Chris who started this whole thing with me. He’s a great guy too.
They invited my family and I, including our spouses, into the athletics director box before the Maryland game. We had a meeting and Mike and Tim showed us the plans of what they were going to do to Ross-Ade Stadium. We watched a little basketball practice and then we went to a great Maryland game. They kind of planted a seed within me and my family.
It was a family decision. We just started processing at what level we wanted to enter this thing. There’s a lot of different levels. After our day at Ross-Ade and the game, we had a meeting about a week later. We talked about what level we wanted to come in. I thought they might want to sponsor the student section or the north end zone or a side of the tailgate area. To a person, they all wanted to sponsor the field. They wanted dad’s name to be on the field. I was excited and surprised. It’s been an interesting ride since then.
GoldandBlack.com: What’s the story of how your dad got involved in the car business and Purdue Sports?
Rohrman: He was born about five miles out on South River Road near Granville Bridge (on the west side of the Wabash River). He was born out there in a log cabin.
He was a Purdue fan since birth. He went to (Lafayette) Jeff High School. When got out of the Korean conflict and then two weeks after I was born in 1955, he wanted to get to work.
He went to work for Glenn R. Pitman, who was the Ford Dealer. It’s where Holiday Inn Select is now. He worked for Glenn from 1955 up until 1962 or 1963. He then went out to what was then the country out on 52. He started a used car lot in 1963. The rest is history.
His first new car franchise was Toyota in 1970. He added AMC Jeep, Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Kia and so forth.
GoldandBlack.com: Talk about your dad’s love for football.
Rohrman: He loves Purdue football. He watches every Purdue football and basketball game. He’s not able to come to as many as he used to.
Going back to 1967, I was 12. He asked me to go to a game and I had no idea what kind of game that would be historically. I had no idea it was the first game at Mackey Arena. Those late 60s teams were fantastic teams. We had some great players. Watching that game started a love for me of Purdue Athletics.
If we was within a couple hundred miles of campus, he made sure to get over here in time for kickoff. He had three or four guys he always went to games with over the years and there’s some great stories from that.
GoldandBlack.com: I know your dad loves Drew Brees, Bob Griese, Rod Woodson. All great names.
Rohrman: I was looking through his office the other day and there’s a Purdue helmet in there with Mark Herrmann’s autograph on it. I didn’t even know he had that. Of course he has Drew Brees’ jersey hanging in his office. There’s been so many great players that have come through Purdue football and Purdue basketball.
GoldandBlack.com: What are your thoughts with Jeff Brohm?
Rohrman: I thought it was a great season because of what coach did with the team that he had with the injuries. I remember going to Penn State and watching a lot of freshman play Penn State really good for two or three quarters. I was impressed.
In coach Brohm we see a lot of things that we see in our father. A great leader, he has a great character, great faith, and he’s just a good leader of men. I heard something about how he was communicating with David Blough after a Lions game. That says a lot to me about him because it’s not just college and you’re done. With a great coach, that relationship continues.
We obviously believe in the future of Purdue football.
GoldandBlack.com: This gift is for Purdue football but also for Purdue University.
Rohrman: When you look at Purdue, you think about not only athletics but academics. It’s one of the top schools in the world academically. You think about the Neil Armstrong story and how he ended up at Purdue because his dad decided to take him to a Purdue football game. The impact of Purdue athletics goes pretty deep and pretty wide.
We’ve been in business in Tippecanoe County since 1963. That’s about 57 years. Tippecanoe County has been very good to us. Purdue has been very good to us and we certainly don’t forget that.
Dad always said, if you’re going to have a business, a college town is a pretty good town to have a business in because of the consistency in the economy. We’ve seen that over the last 50+ years, in good and bad times.
GoldandBlack.com: Talk about how you feel about the fact that yours is a leadership gift and that hopefully there are more to come.
Rohrman: Dad always liked a good challenge. When they presented the idea to us, they talked about how they needed a leader – someone to go out there and take the first step. I think that fired dad up as much as anything. He was excited to be the lead gift
While he’s in Florida for the winter, he asks me for license plate frames with “Rohrman Field” on it. And I’m like “We need to make it first!”
He asks how the donations are coming as well, so he’s interested. We’re interested too obviously because it’s going to take a lot more than $15 million to get that stadium done. The last number I heard was $120 million to do everything they want to do to the stadium. I’ve seen some of the pictures and it’s very impressive.
GoldandBlack.com: The grandkids are also involved in the business, so it’s bigger than just the siblings.
Rohrman: Exactly. I have four other siblings and then I have 12 grandchildren. My dad has 16 grandchildren. All four of my boys are in the car business. Two of them are here in Lafayette and two of them are in Chicago.
