Astonishing Fun Facts About Purdue University Football

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Purdue began playing intercollegiate football in 1887. In the first game, they lost to Butler College 48-6. Butler College, now Butler University, was named after Ovid Butler. Ovid is named after a Roman poet from the 1st Century names Ovidius Naso who wrote about love.

“Dearest I want you to know
I love you
But what I really want
Is to beat Purdue”

Purdue hired their first coach, Albert Berg, and paid him $1 for every lesson he taught the new football team.

“OK, men, here is the first lesson. Get more than a dollar for being the coach. I’m starving over here.”

In 1891, Knowlton Lyman Ames, nicknamed “Snake,” was named head coach and took the team to a stellar 12-0 record. Playing at Princeton as an undergrad, Ames scored 730 points, unofficially the highest career points in college football.

“It’s unofficial because the NCAA didn’t start keeping official records until 1937. Ames scored 730 points, compared to official records which show the highest career point total to be around 500.

“The reason for that is they so scored differently in those days. You got 6 points for touchdowns, AND 5 points for each shot of Jaegermeister you downed after every score.”