College Football: Boiled by the Boilermakers

After nine years at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., Coach Jack Mollenkopf has every right to be a pessimist. Purdue got its nickname (“the Boilermakers”) from opponents who meant it as a term of derision. It copied its school colors from Princeton’s. It has been playing in the Big Ten ever since the ten were still seven, but in all those 70 years it has never once been to the Rose Bowl, and the last time it won an undisputed conference championship was in 1929. For that matter, Purdue has rarely even been the best team in the state of Indiana; Notre Dame is located just 104 mi. away in South Bend.

But last week, as his No. 6-ranked Boilermakers prepared to take on the No. 1-ranked Fighting Irish, Coach Mollenkopf was curiously optimistic. “The main difference between our boys and Notre Dame’s is weight,” he told newsmen. To his players, Mollenkopf said simply: “You are a better team than they are.”

Hitting Targets. The experts picked Notre Dame to win by 41 points. True, Purdue has 24 lettermen back from last year’s team — but last year’s team lost to Notre Dame 34-15. Purdue had walloped Miami of Ohio 38-0 in its season opener, but Notre Dame had beaten a bigger school (California) by a bigger score (48-6). And Mollenkopf had to admit that his running attack stood little chance against an Irish defensive line that averaged 225 Ibs. per man. “We’ll have to pass,” he said. “I’d sure hate to pass 50 times in one game—but if we have to, we will.”

They didn’t quite have to—not the way Purdue Quarterback Bob Griese was hitting his targets. A 185-lb. junior who originally wanted to go to Notre Dame but was turned down “because I was too small,” Griese threw eleven passes in the first half and completed nine—five of them to his favorite receiver, Left End Bob Hadrick. Notre Dame responded to that threat predictably, by double-teaming Hadrick. That left nobody to cover Right End Jim Beirne. Twice in the second quarter Beirne got loose in the Irish secondary. Both times Griese laid the football into his waiting arms for touchdowns.

Goal to Go. At halftime, Purdue’s lead was 12-10, and Quarterback Griese wondered aloud whether he ought to be doing something different out there. Lord no, gasped startled Coach Mollenkopf, “Just keep passing!” Griese did: in the third quarter, he flipped a 12-yd. bullet to Fullback Randy Minniear that put Purdue in front 18-10. Then Griese got greedy. Trying to hit Halfback Jim Finley, he hit Notre Dame’s Tony Carey instead; on the very next play, Irish Halfback Bill Wolski sprinted 54 yds. for a TD, and a two-point conversion tied up the game. Another Griese mistake—this time a fumble—gave Notre Dame the ball again, and a field goal put the Irish in front 21-18, with only 6 min. left in the game.

All that Griese kid stuff just made him mad. Exactly one minute, three passes and 64 yds. later, the Boilermakers found themselves on Notre Dame’s three-yard line with a first down and goal to go. Griese handed off to Halfback Gordon Teter for the touchdown, then coolly kicked the extra point himself that gave underdog Purdue a 25-21 victory. “Unbelievable,” said Notre Dame’s Coach Ara Parseghian. And so it was. Quarterback Griese’s record: 19 of 22 passes completed for 283 yards and three touchdowns.