One of the strangest things about coming back to Hammer & Rails after three years away is not being in charge. I actually have to take orders from someone else. In this case, it is Drew who is being the draconian taskmaster.
Still, he asked me to bat leadoff for this one, so it is nice.
This week the staff of Hammer & Rails will be concentrating on the return of college football. We’re aware of the negativity around the sport in general and Purdue’s 2024 season is doesn’t help with that. We think the fun can come back, however. That’s the reason we like this sport after all, right?
Over the course of the week the staff will share the reasons they are college football fans. It is why we put up with 1-11 seasons and still somehow renew our season tickets. Personally, I have felt much of that negativity because I almost didn’t renew my own tickets for the first time in my adult life. In addition to my lack of excitement over the program there have been some rather personal issues of late that relate to attending games, and as a result I wasn’t sure if renewal was worth it.
I am back though, because my fandom won out. I am a Purdue football fan because I really haven’t known anything else. I attended my first game in 1987 about a month before my eighth birthday. That was the first year I got season tickets with my parents, as my dad is an alum and has been going himself since he was a student. There has only been one season where I have not had season tickets since then, and it was in 1994 when they were sacrificed so my parents could pay for my sister’s wedding (which was unfortunate, because that was a vintage Alstott year).
Since I have been going for nearly 40 years now I can say I have seen a lot of bad football. Last year was my THIRD one-win season in that time, is why it was kind of numbing. Those moments are outweighed by the good ones though.
Like September 13, 1997 when Joe Tiller got his first win in West Lafayette and broke a 12 game losing streak to Notre Dame in the process.
Like November 8, 1997 when Purdue pulled off a miracle comeback win 22-21 over Michigan State, a game that started Saban’s eventual flight away from the Big Ten because he lost three straight to Purdue and got scared.
Like September 11, 1999 when Drew Brees spiraled through the air and Notre Dame forgot how to football with the game on the line.
Like October 7, 2000 when Travis Dorsch flipped us the bird after beating Michigan in a miracle comeback.
Like October 28, 2000 when Ohio state forgot to cover Seth Morales and the 64 yard pass from Drew Brees just hung in the air for what seemed like hours.
Like November 18, 2000 when we put roses in the Bucket.
Like September 22, 2001 when the entire stadium was silent before Roy Johnson’s voice broke as he said “I Am An American”.
Like October 16, 2004 (the day I got engaged, no less) when Purdue was the center of the college football universe with GameDay on campus.
Like November 22, 2008 when Joe Tiller led the band in Hail Purdue after his 84th and final win as head coach.
Like October 17, 2009 when the first Purdue Harbor happened.
Like November 25, 2017 when the longest exile from West Lafayette in the history of the Old Oaken Bucket ended and Purdue made a bowl game after four dismal years.
Like October 20, 2018 when Rondale Moore (and DJ Knox & Antonio Blackmon, who get far too little credit in this game compared to Moore) made sure the world knew that cancer sucks.
Like September 4, 2021 when we returned to a sold out crowd after a global pandemic took out so much.
Like November 6, 2021 when yet another top 5 team came to West Lafayette and saw their national title dreams die at the hands of the “Spoliermakers”.
Like November 27, 2021 when the Bucket came back to West Lafayette after another long stay in Bloomington, clinching an eight-win season (and this was a night where my family and I survived being in the middle of a fatal car pileup while returning home.
Those are the good moments. They are still mixed with some bad, but they are the payoffs we get for 1-11 seasons. I was at each and every one of those game, just as I was at last year’s demolition by Notre Dame. They are why we comeback to Ross-Ade Stadium each September hoping to get those feelings again. I have grown up there. I went with my parents and now I go with my own family and my own son. I feel like I am trying to connect him to some of the world I lived in before he was born. I am trying to get him to see those same fall Saturdays I saw as a kid so I can watch it from the other side of the equation now. I can only wonder what my dad thinks as he sees it all for a second time.
So why am I a fan of college football? Because of that. I am already looking at when the next moment will come. Maybe it will be a surprise win over a ranked USC team here in a few weeks. Maybe it will come over highly hyped Luke Altmyer and Illinois to bring home a rivalry trophy. Maybe it will be a true rise from the ashes as the Bucket comes home almost a year to the day of when Indiana Purdue the program to the ground with the worst loss in school history.
Whenever it comes, I will be there. It’s one of the reasons I came back to this place, too.