Big 10 Football Tour

Okay, first question - what is a "Boilermaker?"  Go to the Purdue site and figure it out.  Once you read it, you'll find it to be one of the more interesting nicknames in sports.  Our "start of the second half" roadtrip took us to West Lafayette, Indiana.  Now we made the mistake of calling the home of the Spartans "Lansing," so make sure you use the WEST before Lafayette.  The visit started off great as the Purdue staff was very receptive to our cause and got us some Boilermaker gear to get us in the spirit to cheer Purdue on to victory!

If you're attending a Purdue game for the first time, or any time for that matter, you should participate in something they call the breakfast club.  It's one of the most unique traditions anywhere, let alone the Big 10.  We promise you, these aren't just some Halloween photo!  Read all about our visit to the non-80's-movie Breakfast Club HERE!

Jon Hodge was kind enough to invite us to his tailgate right outside of Ross-Ade Stadium and this guy had some of the most unique tailgate attractions we've seen anywhere.  This included an ambulance that was converted into a tailgate-mobile!  Not to be overlooked was the battle between the Carebear and the Giant Chicken.  To see some more photos and read about our experience, click HERE!

This game will go down as one of the biggest upsets of the year.  While the crowd was comprised as nearly as many Ohio State fans as Purdue fans, the Boilermaker faithful let everyone know that this was their house!  During halftime, the guys from the tour left the stadium to check out the Boilermaker statue and had some fun that you can view in the video below.  Before doing that however, you should read about our experience in the stadium HERE!

Well rarely do you associate XXX with a Family Restaurant, but in West Lafayette they do.  Now we didn't go here because that chubby nerd Guy Fieri went there, but rather because many of the Purdue faithful suggested it.  Just like any other diner, they only accepted cash and had a bunch of friendly servers with their own personality rather than a corporately mandated one (see T.G.I. Friday's, Applebees, etc).  Good food, good prices, and probably a good thing that we went at 5 AM rather than during one

Only on one other occasion did I mention the bloggers of a team on this site, but the guys from both Hammer & Rails and Boiled Sports do such an exceptional job and were our great assistance to us that I had to give them a shout out.  If you're a Purdue fan, please check out both of these resources to read about all things Boilermaker.

The Purdue staff was kind enough to provide Blake with a tour of the pressbox, which is extremely generous considering that Blake is from Ohio!  If you go HERE, you can view some of Blake photos and read some of his bullet points on the tour.

This week was a tough one.  We met so many great fans thanks to the Purdue blog Boiled Sports.  The guy we're going with this week was one of the few that we unfortunately didn't get a chance to speak with.  He sat near the Purdue band, had props (D-fence), had a wild outfit, cheered on every play, and danced when dancing was appropriate. 

Our runners up include Andrew, sporting the Canadian tuxedo at the Breakfast Club.  Provided below is our first "reader-submitted photo" to appear on the blog.

This other guy who somehow found a sai for Jeff's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle outfit

The people who dressed this dog.

As the weather gets colder, it's getting tougher to spot good shirts.   The fact that many people were wearing costumes didn't help the cause.  So after hearing about a black-out at Iowa, a white-out at Penn State, a maize-out (that's a yellow/gold) at Michigan, we decided to keep it very very simple this week.  What should I wear for the black-out??? Problem solved.

Unfortunately, shortly after the game, I was told that we were going home.  This was of extreme disappointment to me because I did not get the opportunity to visit Harry's or Bruno's or even get to the chance to visit Jon and the gang down at Buffalo Wild Wings.  But so if the path you must follow when you agree to take the trip with a group and you're not the driver.

Certainly, our visit exceeded expectations due to the monumental upset.  Win or loss however, I still believe we would have had a great time.  This is largely attributed to the warm reception we received from the Purdue staff (no one was more professional) and the way the fans reached out to us during the week leading up to our visit. 

Personally I think the Breakfast Club is the one of, if not the greatest tradition I've seen in the Big Ten.  Maybe I was just wowed by how perfectly all of the bars execute the event and the amazing number of people that actually dress up and actually get up at 5 AM!

I think even without the Breakfast Club, the bar scene looked pretty good, with the only negative being that there was yet another Brothers in West Lafayette.  If you're not already aware, there is one in almost every Big 10 town and if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

The game enviroment was a blast.  All the fans are relatively close to the action.  Loved the Boiler Up chant, the First Down chant, the shout song, the enthusiasm of the band.

As you'll read in the Game link, I loved the Boilermaker statue and felt that allowing fans to leave during halftime and re-enter was a big plus.  As a result, the tailgating was one of the best in the Big 10. 

The concourse didn't present a lot of action or things to see from my perspective & once in your seat, the stadium had a smaller, more intimate feel like Northwestern.  Despite the overwhelming amount of OSU fans, the Purdue faithful still made it a very exciting environment.

Gautier, Aaron - driving us down and joining us for the Purdue game
Gautier, Austin - hosting us Friday evening and picking up the food for the tailgate
Hodge, Jon - Allowing us to join his phenomenal tailgate!
Purdue Front Office - Namely Tom & Jim for the gear, the info, and the tour.
Tim, J Money, & Boilerdowd from Boiled Sports - for the interview to reach the Purdue fans and all sorts of advice on Purdue.
Travis from Hammer & Rails - Advice on everything Purdue.  Our apologies that we couldn't meet up.