The fact that intercollegiate athletics at Purdue is improving year by year is evident throughout the athletics complex. Many credit the success to the arrival of Morgan Burke as athletics director in 1993.

Without question, Burke’s high expectations have helped transform the Boilermaker sports program from a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten Conference finisher to a contender in an array of sports. But Burke is quick to deflect credit to the coaches, student-athletes and fans.

"This is a journey all of us embarked on together, and we weather the lows and celebrate the highs together," he says. "But only through the toils of hundreds of individuals do we achieve the great success we are beginning to see."

The 2000-01 year produced a number of success stories, most notably that the Boilermakers for the first time ever won three Big Ten championships.

First was the football team under coach Joe Tiller grabbing a share of the Big Ten title and winning the right to play in the 2001 Rose Bowl.

Next came the women’s basketball team under coach Kristy Curry. The Boilermakers claimed the regular-season title with a 14-2 record and finished runner-up in the Big Ten Tournament. The team then marched through the NCAA Tournament to advance to the Women’s Final Four, beating Southwest Missouri State in a national semifinal game before falling to Notre Dame in the finals. The team notched a 31-7 record, the second-most wins in school history.

To round out the triple crown, the women’s track and field squad won the conference indoor championship for the first time in school history. Ben Paolillo was named Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Also in 2000-01, men’s and women’s golf teams qualified for the NCAA championships after winning and finishing second in their respective regional tournaments.

The ascendancy of Purdue athletics also can be seen in its average finish in the Big Ten, arguably the toughest conference in the nation. In 1991-92, Purdue had an average finish of 7.92. Since that time, the Boilermakers have inched up the standings. By 1995-96, the average Purdue finish was 6.37. In 2000-01, Purdue climbed to a 5.25 finish, its best since 1987-88.

The 7.92 finish in 1991-92 put Purdue in last place in average finish. The 2000-01 finish of 5.25 vaulted the Boilermakers to fifth place among the 11 conference teams, trailing Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio State. The pack at the front of the race is crowded: Wisconsin, in first, stands at 4.37.

As Burke is known to point out frequently, a few games going the Boilermakers’ way here and there would propel Purdue from being among the elite to being atop them.

Of the 20 sports in which Purdue competes, 11 ranked in the top half of the Big Ten in 2000-01. Other top finishers were baseball, men’s golf, men’s indoor track and field, and women’s outdoor track and field in second place, women’s golf in fourth and softball in fifth.

Although success for the Boilermakers has become more consistent in recent years, Purdue has long been known for fielding strong teams that challenge for conference and national titles.

Gene Keady and his Boilermakers claimed three consecutive men’s basketball titles in 1994, 1995 and 1996 and advanced to the Elite Eight in 1994 and 2000.

In women’s basketball, Curry was the third Boilermaker coach to make it to the Women’s Final Four. Lin Dunn led the Boilermakers there in 1994, and Carolyn Peck repeated the feat in 1999 and came away with the national championship as Purdue topped Duke 62-45.

Known as a bastion of basketball power since the days of John Wooden, a 1932 graduate of Purdue and later record-setting head coach at UCLA, Purdue enjoys a reputation as a producer of fine football talent as well. NFL greats Len Dawson, Bob Griese, Mike Phipps, Rod Woodson and Mike Alstott made their marks in Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette before they moved on to fame in the professional ranks.

Purdue fields 18 men’s and women’s sports teams, the newest of which is women’s soccer. The soccer program was established in 1997. In 2000, the Boilermakers qualified for the Big Ten Tournament for the first time and finished with a 12-7 record and sixth-place ranking.

The reversal of fortunes in Boilermaker athletics is nowhere more evident than in the football program, where Tiller has transformed a perennial underachiever into a contender that toppled Michigan and Ohio State in 2000 on the way to a second-ever trip to Pasadena to play in the Rose Bowl.

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