Purdue has secured one of the 1 seeds of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, riding a 29-5 record and Big Ten Tournament title to the top overall ranking of the East Region.
Matt Painter's squad has reached this stage of the season with tremendous help from a singularly dominant player in Zach Edey, who at 7-4 is not only one of the best bigs in college basketball, but also one of its best players. The Sporting News Player of the Year has been a force all season, paving the way for Purdue up to this point of the season.
Purdue and Edey's style of play is appropriate, considering the university's nickname: Boilermaker. The name evokes an image of a steam engine rumbling down the tracks — much like the men's basketball team has done all season.
It also evokes the question: What is a Boilermaker, and why did Purdue adopt that nickname? It stands among the more distinct names in college athletics, and doubtless will get significant attention as Purdue attempts a deep run in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
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With that, The Sporting News looks at the origin of the Boilermaker nickname and mascot:
Why is Purdue's nickname the Boilermakers?
Purdue's history as the Boilermakers can be traced back to a single football game in the late 19th-century. According to the university, the name has its roots in a 44-0 drubbing of nearby Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind.
The one-sided nature of the 1891 contest prompted one Crawfordsville newspaper to decry the "Herculean wearers of the black and old gold" with a headline that read, "Slaughter of Innocents." A headline from another local paper, the Daily Argus-News, provided more detail: "Wabash Snowed Completely Under by the Burly Boiler Makers From Purdue."
Newspapers in West Lafayette, Ind., responded with similar op-eds, with the Lafayette Sunday Times writing the following on Nov. 1, 1891:
As everyone knows, Purdue went down to Wabash last Saturday and defeated their eleven. The Crawfordsville papers have not yet gotten over it. The only recourse they have is to claim that we beat their `scientific' men by brute force. Our players are characterized as 'coal heavers,' 'boiler makers' and 'stevedores.'
Previously, Purdue had been called nicknames such as "grangers, pumpkin-shuckers, railsplitters, cornfield sailors, blacksmiths and foundry hand" — all with some loose affiliation with blue-collar work. Following the game and ensuing feud between papers, the Boilermaker moniker stuck.
What is a Boilermaker?
A boilermaker, by definition, is someone who makes boilers. As noted by Purdue, its athletic teams' unique nickname stemmed from the nature of the education provided by the land-grant university, which was founded in 1869: It taught working-class skills, and was considered lowbrow for the time.
The same year Purdue beat Wabash College 44-0, the university acquired a working 85,000-pound Schenectady No. 1 Locomotive engine to mount a new locomotive laboratory. That only further established the university as a forerunner in engineering technology and research — and made the Boilermaker nickname all the more apropos.
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What is Purdue's mascot?
Contrary to popular belief, Purdue's primary mascot isn't Purdue Pete (though he is among the university's mascots). That distinction belongs to the Boilermaker Special, a working Victorian-era-modeled locomotive, which was the unfortunate subject of headlines in the 2022 football season after it stalled on the field.
Purdue notes there have been five versions of the Boilermaker Special, with the latest model being dubbed the "Special VII." As for why the current model is named "Special VII," despite being the fifth model, Purdue has an explanation for that as well.
Purdue notes the latest model was unveiled in 2011, after Special IV — known as the Xtra Special — and its current second version, Xtra Special VI, had already been dedicated. The university defines them as "faux locomotives" built on golf cart chassis.
The Boilermaker Special was conceived in the 1930s as a means of highlighting the engineering of the school, with "Special I" debuting on the first day of classes in 1940. Different models have debuted over the years in 1953, 1960, 1993 and "Special VII" in 2011.