Purdue men’s tennis star Aleksa Krivokapic competes in China for his native Montenegro

The tears welled up as the music played. Aleksa Krivokapic couldn’t hold back as the national anthem of Montenegro — his national anthem — played during the Davis Cup in January.

“It was special,” he says. “It made me feel proud.”

Krivokapic takes a deep sigh and looks at the ceiling as he gathers his thoughts about one of the most significant events of his life.

Who can blame him for getting emotional?

Krivokapic grew up in Montenegro, swatting tennis balls against anything, dreaming of being paid to play tennis one day. With each batted ball, a young, scrawny Krivokapic got better. And better. Good enough to the point where the notion of one day being a pro didn’t seem out of reach. The dream could be reality … maybe.

Playing in the Davis Cup gave him a taste of facing off vs. pros. For now, Krivokapic polishes his trade at Purdue.

“I ended up deciding to play college tennis instead of going pro,” he says. “We didn’t have the finances to go pro.”

After winning the Big Ten Individual Championship in November, he has earned his keep as Purdue’s No. 1 singles player, forging a 4-3 record thus far. But his junket to China to represent his homeland in the Davis Cup still resonates.

What a thrill.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “To be there and to compete. It was an experience I never will forget.”

While in China, Krivokapic got to play against top competition, as Krivokapic took part in singles and doubles.

Montenegro came up short and failed to advance. But that wasn’t the point. The big takeaway was the opportunity to play on that stage against that level of competition. It’s about getting better.

“It was tough,” he says.

Krivokapic shrugs his narrow shoulders and leans against a wall inside Purdue’s Schwartz Tennis Center. Fellow tennis players whirl by to workouts on a frigid February morning in West Lafayette.

“We battled hard, and I got confidence playing against some good players, enough confidence to believe I could one day play professionally,” he says.

The pros can wait. Krivokapic still has runway ahead of him at Purdue. He is just a junior, still authoring his story in West Lafayette. How will it end?

“I am enjoying my time here,” he says.

It’s a long way from mid-north Indiana to Krivokapic’s home in Podgorica, Montenegro, the nation’s capital and largest city that teems with over 100,000.

Across the ocean, Krivokapic’s father is a television producer, while his mother is a lawyer for a bank. Young Krivokapic was a thin whip-of-a-kid living in a nation that adores soccer, water polo, handball, tennis and basketball. Oh, how it loves basketball.

Krivokapic was splitting his time between tennis and basketball when, as a 10-year-old, his father sat him down for a talk. It was time to choose a sport and path: What’s it gonna be, Aleksa? Basketball? Tennis?

“My father guided me to continue with tennis,” he said.

But Krivokapic still wonders … what if? What if he had gone with basketball? When the 6-foot-5 Krivokapic closes his eyes, he can envision himself draining 3-pointers, euro-stepping in the lane and finishing with a reverse layup.

“Yes, I do think about that,” Krivokapic says, flashing a toothy grin. “I’m still pretty good when I play.”

What team couldn’t use a 6-5 wing shooter with an impossibly long wingspan?

Exactly.

But, Krivokapic’s hoop dreams have become hardcourt dreams. And he hasn’t looked back.

“I have no regrets,” he says.

It’s a long way from Montenegro, a country in southeastern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula, to the United States. He misses his family in Montenegro, across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. Oh, how he misses their embrace.

And when Krivokapic feels especially sentimental, he yearns for some of his grandmother’s cooking. Any go-to dish “Baba” serves is anchored by potatoes and meat.

“Whenever I am home, Baba asks me what I want to eat. ‘What do you want?’ she says. “I love her. She takes good care of me.”

By the looks of Krivokapic, he could use more of Baba’s home-cooking to thicken up his stretched-out carriage.

“Look at me,” he says with a soft Montenegro accent, holding his arms up.

But Krivokapic needs to remain nimble and able to cover the entire court with a game highlighted by a strong serve that caught the attention of talent scouts and recruiters.

“Those are things I do well,” he says. “Those are the strong points for me.”

Those traits have taken Krivokapic a long way. He first touched down in America in Chicago at DePaul, where he spent his 2023 freshman season.

“I didn’t take an official visit,” he says. “So, the first time I ever stepped in America, it was when I got off a plane in Chicago and went to DePaul. There are a lot of distractions in Chicago.”

Krivokapic smiles. It’s something he does often.

“He’s a very nice guy,” says Purdue tennis coach Geoff Young. “He’s got a good sense of humor, and I think he’s fun to have on the team. He brings a lot of life to the locker room; he’s funny, and he really wants to be a good tennis player.

“He’s been very open to learning and trying some new things, and it’s really helped him improve, even in the short time he’s been here at Purdue.”

But his growth hasn’t just been individual – his impact on the team has been just as important. “Aleksa is a kind of teammate who you can always count on,” says teammate and freshman rising star Maj Premzl. “He leads by example with his work ethic end competitiveness and pushes everyone to be better. Off the court he is supportive and brings great energy making sure we stay motivated and stay connected as a team.”

After a year with the Blue Demons that saw Krivokapic earn Big East Freshman of the Year honors after going 10-4 in singles play and 4-0 in Big East action, he entered the transfer portal and moved on to Purdue, where he has been the last two years.

“I was looking to develop my game and play at a higher level,” he says. “Purdue has been a good choice for me. I like it here.”

Krivokapic’s game is highlighted by his aggressive style, which often involves him attacking and being the aggressor at the net.

“He’s got a very good serve, and he’s very tall, and he has good touch, good feel for the ball,” Young says. “He’s pretty good on the volley, but really good at the net. He’s good on ground strokes, as well.

“But I think he’s learning that to maximize this game, he has to move forward as much as possible and finish the points at the net.”

Krivokapic’s Purdue debut last year was muted by an abdominal injury that limited him, but he still managed to notch seven wins across the fall and spring seasons before succumbing.

“That was tough,” says Krivokapic, pointing to his midsection. “But I am OK now.”

Is he ever. Krivokapic is the anchor of a surging Boilermaker men’s tennis program that will get tested when it treks to southern California this weekend to take on USC and UCLA in the Big Ten opener.

Krivokapic folds his arms, nodding hello to a passerby as he gathers his thoughts.

“The Davis Cup was an amazing experience,” he says. “It is a very prestigious event. It’s like the World Cup for soccer. To get a chance to compete in it was special. We didn’t do well as a nation but battled and played hard.”

Back home in Montenegro, Krivokapic’s family watched on TV. Even Baba.

“Pretty neat,” he says.

“When they raised our flag and played the anthem, it made me so proud of my country and where I am from. It was such an honor to be on that stage and to play and compete on that level. I’ll never forget it.”

Written by Tom Dienhart

It takes careful planning and extensive teamwork to create a memorable fan experience at Mackey Arena

It mirrors Coach Matt Painter’s renowned men’s basketball program.

The behind-the-scenes crew that makes the Mackey Arena experience unique for Purdue fans through its thoughtful game presentation follows the exact credo of the 20-year Boilermaker coach: Build a great team with experience and youth, trust one another, dare to be creative, communicate and, most of all, DO YOUR JOB.

“You are surrounded by creative and innovative people that do their jobs at the highest level,” says Marlee Thomas, game host for the past four seasons. “It makes you always want to be at your best.”

Being at one’s best is an everyday task. And for the award-winning team of dozens of video, audio, musical and graphical talents that help make Purdue’s 58-year-old facility vibrant and fresh, it is a challenge accepted with an eye for constant improvement.

And there’s more.

“We have learned to be the owner of our space,” says Andrew Stein, director of photography services, who travels with videographer Andrew Bay to all road games. “Trust is a big word that helps us perform as a team.”

Painter is a master delegator

Much like with his coaching staff, Painter is a delegator. He has no interest in delving into the details of the marketing and presentation of Boiler Ball.

“Coach Painter doesn’t want to be involved in the minutiae of what we do,” Bay says. “He knows it matters. He sees the value. For example, he is comfortable letting me in the huddle to shoot during a crucial timeout, letting me do my job while trusting I will always have the best interests of his program at heart.”

As Purdue’s associate athletics director in charge of marketing and fan experience, Chris Peludat is the ringleader of what the Mackey faithful see, hear and feel. He says Painter doesn’t say much about the job his crew does, but when he does, it makes an impact.

“There’s a recent quote that says it all,” Peludat says. “He said that in the past 10 years, our team has been able to make every game in Mackey at a level like only big games in the past used to be. The coach knows that is what we’re shooting for and how we base every decision on how we proceed.”

And the coach couldn’t be more spot on.

Like Painter’s team, it’s all about the process for the game-day folks. Director of men’s basketball operations and administration Elliot Bloom, who is attached at the hip to Painter, has been integral in setting the vision and tone for the game-day experience. A Purdue graduate, Bloom saw the best of the best men’s hoops environs with stints at Kansas and Duke before returning to Purdue 23 years ago, spending the first seven in a sports information role. Bloom knows it when he sees it and has seen it from the Boilermaker bench for the past 16 years.

We never take for granted that attending games is a time and financial commitment for our fans.

elliot bloom director of basketball administration and operations

“Winning at an elite level is the most important thing,” Bloom says, “But nearly as crucial is creating an atmosphere where fear of missing out for people is real.”

“You have to create magic in that building and do some things that people think, ‘Do I want to go to that Wednesday game that tips at 8:30 p.m.?’ When they pick up social media the next morning, we want them to say, ‘I knew I should have gone. What was I thinking?’”

Purdue will complete the 2024-25 season on a streak of 88 consecutive sellouts, dating to 2019, so it works like a charm on all fronts. The process of creating and cultivating is both planned and organic.

‘A tight family’

It starts with preseason meetings involving Bloom, Peludat, Bay, men’s basketball strategic communications director Chris Forman, director of in-venue production Brad Sommer and others.

“Coach Painter has a tight basketball family, and in the planning process we don’t need too many cooks in the kitchen,” says Forman, who leads much of the planning process with his weekly notes that provide key statistics for team storylines to the group.

The group is often around one another, and they talk and brainstorm. It is how ideas like the “Elf” video featuring senior Caleb Furst, bobblehead night and various video themes are hatched. But many of those ideas first come from students involved in video production, the Boiler Brass (Purdue’s pep band) and other areas surrounding Purdue basketball.

“Our Boiler Brass band members are always suggesting songs,” says Matt Conaway, who directs Purdue’s 90-member musical group and sits at the table in the preseason planning process. But that is only part of the story, as the common theme among all the Purdue students involved with the Mackey game-day production is that they are always thinking about improving things. For example, there are about 90 songs in the Boiler Brass repertoire, but a dozen or so get retired yearly.

The key to all facets of the game-day production is that everyone must be ready immediately. The backbone of marching orders from Peludat and the entire crew is “no dead air.” Something must be happening at all times. There can be growing pains early in the season as the rhythm of game day is crystallized, but it is a well-oiled machine by the end. The Boiler Brass is just an example of the diligence that permeates the operation and the need to stay focused despite being a fan of the team on the floor.

“They can’t be high-fiving each other and be ready to play,” Conaway says of his band members who are also part of the student group The Paint Crew. “I was most proud that we didn’t have a single misfire in the IU game, which was a heated environment. Everyone knew their job and where they had to pivot from being a spectator to being a very important part of the atmosphere in less than a second.”

It comes down to winning

Ideas emanate from every level of sports, including the NBA. The expectation is to have a pro-quality level of entertainment.

“We have high expectations, and that comes from studying what the pros do,” says Sommer, who has been part of the video production in Mackey for 20 years and directs the content on the video board. “We are always looking for cool ideas that we can incorporate.”

Yet, in the end, it comes down to winning games in Mackey.

“We want our fans to feel that they are part of the game and helping the team,” Sommer says. “We need to do everything we can to make them feel part of it.”

Public address announcer Carson Tucker concurs with Sommer. Since Tucker is courtside at the scorer’s table and Sommer is in a studio in the bowels of Mackey, Tucker is an essential set of eyes and ears.

“Naturally, I am very aware of how things are going, and I will tell Brad we need to get the crowd going if things are dead,” says Tucker, who has been handling the public address since Painter’s second season as head coach.

Tucker knows that a long-drawn-out “threeeeeeee’ following a Boilermaker triple is just one of the ways he can have an effect.

“My duties range from crowd safety to public information, but if I can get in the opponent’s head a little bit, I will do that,” says Tucker, who does PA work for numerous sports at Purdue. “But I always try to remember what (former Purdue athletics communications director) Jay Cooperider told me when he hired me 19 years ago: There is always someone in the stands that is experiencing their first game in Mackey.”

Forging a forever bond

The Mackey experience isn’t complete when the game is over. For Bay, it means hours of work for him and his staff breaking down video. It is an extra challenge when he is the lone videographer when the Boilermakers are on the road, but it can be like putting a puzzle together for home games with a handful of videographers.

“Fans can be at the game and see everything from the stands, but they can’t be in the huddle or the locker room,” Bay says. “I always talk about parasocial relationships; when you watch and listen to someone, you create a different bond level.”

The hype videos posted on the @BoilerBall social media account a handful of times per season for “big games” take planning and storytelling. The video postgame recaps are much more than highlighting the game action; they are also about forging a strong alliance with fans.

However, that partnership with the team and coaches comes from strong faith and freedom by the coaches. And it makes the 16-20 hours it takes to put some of the videos together worth it for Bay and his staff.

“The confidence our coaches have that we know what we’re doing is evident because they let me show some of the inside stuff, and we know where the line is,” Bays says. “The videos are for our fans, our ticket holders. And we want those videos to convey, ‘Hey, look at this team. You love this team. Keep coming back. Follow us to Detroit. Follow us to Phoenix. Follow us wherever we go.’”

But in storytelling, the main thing is the main thing. The players also must have trust in the work. A case in point was when junior guard Braden Smith agreed to have a little kid slide across the conference table to represent Smith in the “Elf” video poking fun at Smith’s boyish size and persona.

“We always tell them we’re gonna have fun with this, but we’re not going to embarrass anybody,” says Peludat, who said it didn’t take much, if any, convincing Smith to have some fun at his expense. “We have great players to work with.”

Chris Johnson, a graphics guru who is part of Paul Sadler’s crack creative services staff, starts by being a fan in the stands. When the final buzzer sounds, it morphs into using images and texts to tell the story.

“I sit in the stands and cheer as loud as I can,” says Johnson, who started with Sadler and company in his undergraduate days nearly a decade ago. “I feed off the photographic work of Andrew (Stein), and his work makes my work come to life.

“I want people to see the graphics and want to be part of it all. It can be about stats and records, but a key is to put it in a way that impacts our fans.”

Yet, in the end, it is all about building relationships with fans and each other. And Painter leads by example, always going the extra mile to make everyone feel important. A case in point was when he presented Tucker with a Big Ten championship and Final Four ring at the end of last season.

“The rings came in late, and Carson wasn’t available when they passed them out to the team,” recalls Peludat. “But Coach called Carson down to the locker room so that he could present the ring himself.”

It meant a lot to Tucker, and Peludat believes numerous examples of such moments make the difference and keep this group working so hard together.

Trust, freedom and fun all come together, building an experience for fans and players alike that isn’t replicated any better in any sports venue in the United States.

And if history is a teacher, it will be bigger and better in 2025-26. After all, that is the expectation.

Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com

Anneliese Williams raises awareness of accessibility concerns and patient care for the rare disease community 

Overnight, Anneliese Williams went from playing sports as an active Purdue sophomore to lying immobile in an intensive care unit. She was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune condition that attacks the nervous system. Paralyzed from the neck down, she fell into isolation and uncertainty. 

As COVID-19 restricted hospital visits, she battled the unexpected disorder without concrete causes or prognoses. Doctors tried to combat the Guillain-Barré complications, but the rare syndrome has no cure — only methods of slowing its progression and managing its symptoms.  

Relying on breathing support to live, she realized she had to find a way to give herself hope. Alone, afraid and angry, she had to choose from three options. She could give up, fight physically but succumb to the sadness of her circumstances, or do her best to face the physical and emotional challenges of her diagnosis head-on.  

I chose to hold on to who I am. And I think that’s what this award is all about: I refused to quit.

Anneliese Williams

Master of Public Health student

“I chose to hold on to who I am,” says Williams, the 2024 recipient of Purdue’s Tyler Trent Courage and Resilience Award. “And I think that’s what this award is all about: I refused to quit.”  

The university honors Tyler Trent, a Boilermaker who embodied perseverance. Trent was a Purdue student and cancer activist who inspired the nation with his faith, drive and compassion. After his death in 2019, President Emeritus Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., unveiled the Tyler Trent Memorial Gate and announced the Tyler Trent Courage and Resilience Award. Trent’s legacy is a permanent part of Purdue. 

“Tyler Trent was the epitome of Boilermaker spirit,” says President Mung Chiang. “He breathed old gold and black and was such an inspiration to our community. It is exciting and fitting to recognize Anneliese Williams with this year’s Tyler Trent Courage and Resilience Award — a distinguished honor for those who never give up, who continue fighting in the face of adversity and for those who provide hope to others despite the incredible hardships they are enduring.” 

“Tyler’s story is incredible,” Williams says. “He demonstrated a fight for life and was a strong advocate even in the face of hard circumstances. Being honored in this way is incredible.” 

Bravery and dedication are principles Williams persistently promotes. She helped pass a bill in the Indiana General Assembly — while studying for her classes at Purdue and interning with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  

“Now I know how much power each of us has,” she says. “Anyone can recognize a problem and realize that change is possible.”

Finding power during paralysis 

When her parents suggested that she take a medical leave of absence from Purdue, Williams broke down in tears for the first time since her diagnosis.  

“I didn’t want to lose my sense of being a Boilermaker,” she says. “Going to Purdue meant so much to me, and I told everyone I couldn’t leave. They thought I was crazy, but I kept up with two of my classes that semester.” 

With nurses’ help, she listened to virtual lectures. As her condition improved, she dictated answers. But she wasn’t just passing classes. She was also forging an impressive path for the future, including interviewing for an internship with St. Jude.  

“Toward the end of my time in the ICU, I had a virtual interview for this dream internship,” she says. “I was connected to a heart machine, and it kept beeping because of how anxious I was. I knew I had to try. I fought for my dreams and St. Jude said yes.” 

Following a passion for advocacy  

After being released from the ICU, Williams went to physical therapy — she regained some movement but now had to navigate life with a wheelchair. She became the first wheelchair user to intern in the St. Jude Pediatric Oncology Education program in its 20-plus years of existence.  

During her internship, she discovered a career path that combines pediatric clinical practice with global medicine research. She still works with the team at St. Jude remotely while she pursues a combined master’s 4+1 program at Purdue. 

Part of giving herself hope for the future was finding her voice and utilizing her experiences, which is where rare disease advocacy became a beacon. Williams also grew up with a rare form of vascular malformation and has a twin sister, Amelia, with a different rare disease diagnosis. Amelia was involved in the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases, which advocates for life-changing national policies and access to diagnoses, treatments and cures.

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Together, the Williams sisters became Young Adult Rare Representatives for the EveryLife Foundation and learned about rare disease advisory councils — statewide committees that better lives for the communities they represent. Indiana didn’t have a committee. 

They started talking to councils in other states to identify what aspects of their legislation were successful. The more they learned, the more stakeholders they met, leading to them forming the Indiana Rare Coalition. The group — including representatives from hospitals, nonprofits and pharmaceutical companies — came together to advocate for House Bill 1201, which would formally establish the Indiana Rare Disease Advisory Council to address the needs of rare disease patients, caregivers and providers.  

Williams testified in the Indiana House of Representatives and Senate health committees to help pass the bill.  

“Find something you’re passionate about and you’ll make an amazing difference,” she says. “I was so shy, but when I found my voice, I was able to change legislation in Indiana.” 

The council can now explore new directions for improving the lives of those affected by rare diseases in Indiana.

Continuing to create change  

While working with St. Jude and the EveryLife Foundation, Williams has made headway for underrepresented students on campus.  

“When I came back to Purdue as a wheelchair user, I realized how crucial accessibility is for everyone,” she says, “not just for those with physical disabilities, but for a diverse range of learning disabilities and barriers.” 

She joined the Purdue Student Government’s Ad Hoc Committee on Disability and Inclusion and helped draft an action plan to address accessibility opportunities on campus.  

Gradually, she’s been able to get back to what makes her happiest: being active. Along with wheelchair basketball, she’s found a sense of belonging at CrossFit West Lafayette, where the staff has worked with her to find ways to move.  

Williams looks forward to learning about health equity in her classes and what it takes to develop public health interventions and theories. After graduating with a master’s degree, she’s interested in taking a gap year, then attending medical school and eventually conducting clinical practice and research.  

“I’m grateful for the perspective I’ve gained,” she says. “You can’t change what happened in the past, but you can do your best to impact the future. I think that’s been powerful.” 

Strong leaders highlight the half-century of women’s athletics at Purdue

Carol Mertler’s timing couldn’t have been better.

A high school and college coach in several sports, Mertler decided to earn a doctorate at Ohio State in the early 1970s. At the same time, Title IX was enacted, prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any school or educational program that received federal funding. Suddenly, universities around the country needed to start women’s programs from scratch, and they needed experienced administrators to launch them.

Mertler interviewed with several universities, including Ohio State, Iowa, Iowa State, Northwestern, and Purdue. In 1975, athletics director George King offered her a position as assistant athletics director, and she accepted.

A half-century later, Boilermaker women’s sports are still making their mark. Over the past 50 years, the programs have produced two national titles — women’s basketball in 1999 and golf in 2010 — along with six individual NCAA champions, 32 Big Ten team championships, 227 first-team All-Americans and 23 Olympians.

Rocky start

But there were rough times in the beginning. Mertler, who passed away in 2020, told the Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal in 2014 that administrators in her position weren’t always met with open arms.

“They didn’t want us there, and suddenly the government said you had to have us,” said Mertler, who was inducted into the Leroy Keyes Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013. “The presidents turned to the athletic directors and said you have to have these programs, but we’re not going to give you any money.”

She pointed to the early days when women’s cross country meets were held on the golf course with a gas station across the street with one restroom. Runners would line up to use it before the race, angering both them and the station owner. When Mertler suggested a portable toilet might alleviate the problem, she was told it wasn’t a problem for the men.

“You would have thought I asked for the moon. There’s a little difference there,” she said.

Restrooms were the least of Mertler’s challenges, though. She had to find coaches for all the sports Purdue simultaneously would offer. Since she had experience in field hockey, she decided to coach that team herself at the beginning. Two-time Olympian Jo Ann Grissom was hired for the track team, Laura Pfohl for swimming, Paul Snider for golf, Jocelyn “Cissy” Monroe for tennis and Deborah Gebhardt for basketball.

Mertler went to El Paso, Texas, to find her volleyball coach. Carol Dewey, a native of Brecksville, Ohio, had been a member of the E Pluribus Unum club team that won two national championships and was a member of the U.S. national team in 1974. The following year, Dewey was serving as a statistician for the El Paso-Juarez Sol in the International Volleyball Association when she saw a story in the local newspaper that Mertler had been hired to start women’s sports at Purdue.

Dewey was familiar with Mertler, having played at Muskingum College when Mertler was a coach there. Mertler called Dewey to gauge her interest in the volleyball job.

“She offered me the job and said $5,000 would be the salary,” Dewey recalls. “Growing up in the Midwest, I knew about Purdue and knew that it had a good academic reputation. I told her I needed to think about it for a few days.

“I called her back later and said I would do it sight unseen. She said she had talked to George King, and the salary was going to be $3,000 and not $5,000. Still, I drove to campus and took the job.”

Dewey had no scholarships to offer in 1975 but still found enough talent in campus tryouts to finish 15-16, earning a 5% ($150) raise for the following season. She gave 10 $200 scholarships the following year and then 10 $4,800 scholarships in 1977. Among the first group to receive the major offers was Mary Fischl Wise, the longtime successful head coach at Florida, who recently retired after a 43-year career with more than 1,000 wins.

Under Dewey’s leadership, the Boilermakers won Big Ten championships in 1979, the first year volleyball was a revenue sport, and 1980. In 1982, Purdue made the NCAA regional finals, squeezing out a comeback five-set win over Nebraska to reach the final eight. In 20 years as coach, Dewey posted a 469-256 mark, won four conference championships and was named Big Ten Coach of the Year three times.

I treated the players as I would like to be treated and gave them responsibility, and I thought the game should be fun.

Carol dewey Former head coach of Purdue Volleyball

Just as impressive, every player who stayed at Purdue for her full four years of eligibility obtained a degree. Dewey was inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2005 and joined Mertler in the LKPAHOF class of 2013.

“Teaching has been my passion my whole lifetime,” Dewey says. “I believe in teaching and education. I treated the players as I would like to be treated and gave them responsibility, and I thought the game should be fun.”

Multitasking needed

Ruth Jones replaced Deborah Gebhardt as women’s basketball coach in 1976, and she also served as field hockey coach. Jones came to Purdue from Ashland College, where she led her team to a 50-10 record over three seasons. One of her players was Nancy Cross, a native of Walpole, Massachusetts. Cross joined Jones at Purdue in 1977 as a graduate assistant, and after leaving for a year to coach at Ashland, she returned to Purdue in 1979 to be an assistant coach for both sports.

The teams shared more than coaches; they also used the same warm-ups. Cross was promoted to head field hockey coach in 1981 while still serving as assistant basketball coach. She made $5,000 and was also allowed to work outside camps, where she recruited talent to play for the Boilermakers.

In 1984, she traded her basketball gig for the role of promotions coordinator for women’s athletics. Her crowning achievement came on Oct. 29, 1985, when she led the promotion of “Pac Mac,” a match against Western Michigan that drew an NCAA attendance record 10,645 fans to Mackey Arena.

“Carol Dewey had come to me and said she wanted to break attendance records. It was a real grassroots effort, including me wearing a sandwich board outside (local restaurant) Digby’s. We tried to replicate the atmosphere of a home men’s basketball game, and it turned out to be a great night,” Cross says.

Cross led the field hockey program to a 66-60-16 record and was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1987. However, field hockey was dropped as a program at Purdue the following year, and Cross accepted a job as an assistant director in the John Purdue Club. She was elevated to director in 1993 and then associate athletics director of marketing and development. She served as the senior woman administrator from 2000 until she retired from the athletics department in 2022.

“I’m incredibly proud of what the athletics department has done in the last 50 years,” Cross says. “Many people predicted that Title IX would be the demise of men’s programs, but we’ve brought more donors and more recognition to the table. We have loved the opportunity to represent Purdue.”

Musical chairs

Before Mertler left Purdue in 1998, she performed a couple of tasks that may have helped accelerate the meteoric rise of the basketball program. A Mansfield, Ohio, native, Mertler met with a fellow alum from her high school and walked through Mackey Arena, singing the school fight song along the way. The recruit turned out to be Purdue’s first All-American in the sport, Joy Holmes-Harris.

And Mertler gave in to a mother who asked if her daughter could attend a summer basketball camp, even though she was in fourth grade and not the required fifth. As long as your daughter won’t get homesick, fine, said Mertler. That camp attendee was another future All-American, Stephanie White. 

Just as Mertler’s timing was impeccable, Joni Comstock found a similar fortune. She started her career as women’s volleyball and men’s tennis coach at Lincoln College in Illinois before heading to the University of Illinois for a doctorate in education. She had received it and worked as associate athletics director for the Fighting Illini when Purdue was looking for Mertler’s replacement.

“I wanted to stay in the Big Ten because I think it’s the best conference in the country for its combination of athletics and academics,” Comstock says. “I thought it was a fantastic opportunity.”

Comstock joined Purdue in 1989, just at the time the women’s basketball program flourished under coach Lin Dunn’s leadership. While there was initially some hesitance to include women’s athletics at the university, Comstock found that the department had its share of prominent supporters.

“When we hired Morgan Burke as the new athletics director (in 1993), Gene Keady spoke to the search committee and said we needed an AD who would back all the teams. Coach Keady wanted what was best for all the programs. And Morgan was a great advocate for women’s sports,” Comstock says.

As Keady won titles and awards with the men’s squad, the women’s team won its first Big Ten championship in 1991 and went to the Final Four in 1994 under Dunn. At the end of the 1996 season, though, Burke and Comstock decided a change was in order, and they hired Nell Fortner, an assistant from Louisiana Tech. Despite mass defections following Dunn’s departure, the Boilermakers shared the Big Ten championship in 1996-97, largely aided by freshmen Ukari Figgs and camp attendee White.

But Fortner’s stay was short. She was lured away after one season to coach the U.S. national team. Purdue elevated assistant coach Carolyn Peck to the head coach position, but she, too, was hired away to coach the Orlando Miracle. Although Peck was going to leave at the end of the season, the decision was made to allow her to stay, and the result was a national championship in 1999.

Comstock takes great pride in the championship and in the addition of two sports during her tenure. Softball, under coach Carol Bruggeman, was added in 1994, and soccer, with coach Rob Klatte, made its debut in 1998.

“Finding the right coaches was the key. Carol and Rob were perfect fits to get those programs off the ground,” Comstock says.

Comstock led the women’s sports programs at Purdue until 2000, when she left to become the athletics director at UNC Asheville. She then served in the same role at American University until 2006, when she began an 18-year career at the NCAA as senior vice president of championships, retiring in 2024.

She has fond memories of her days as a Boilermaker.

“The years I spent at Purdue were some of the most significant of my life,” she says.

Building on tradition

Tiffini Grimes spent some of her most enjoyable hours at Purdue in Mackey Arena and Ross-Ade Stadium.

“I was in school at the same time as Katie Gearlds, and I loved to watch her as a player,” says Grimes, who was named deputy athletics director and senior woman administrator in 2022. “Now I get to work with her every day.”

A native of Fort Wayne, Grimes followed her Purdue undergraduate degree with a master’s in sports administration and a law degree, both from Valparaiso University. She worked as a law judge, compliance director at Georgia Tech and Penn State, and assistant director of enforcement for the NCAA before spending eight years at Alabama, where she served as deputy AD and senior woman administrator.

That background has helped her navigate the current collegiate structure, including revenue sharing and NIL (name, image and likeness). They are different issues than those that her predecessors faced, but Grimes appreciates the foundation they built.

“When you think of Carol Mertler, Joni Comstock and Nancy Cross, you think of integrity and the prioritization of student-athletes,” Grimes says. “Almost every time I speak to an alum, they bring up at least one of those amazing women and role models.”

Despite the current challenges of collegiate athletics, Grimes believes that Purdue is in a good position under the leadership of athletics director Mike Bobinski.

“Leadership starts at the top. I’m proud to work for Mike. The student-athletes are our why, and part of the privilege of working at Purdue is we never get away from the concept of the holistic student-athlete,” she says.

Grimes is pleased to see her programs’ outreach efforts, including efforts by softball coach Magali Frezzotti to get out into the community and around the state in youth programs. She’s also thrilled when she looks in the stands and sees male and female children wearing their favorite players’ uniforms.

“Our student-athletes wow me. They are spectacular, and I hope our fan base continues to support them,” she says. “Not only are they great athletes, but they leave here as dynamic people who make life-changing, world-shaking accomplishments. And that’s due to the great pioneers who have gone before us and paved the way.”

By Tim Newton, tnewton@purdue.edu

This story highlights one of the many ways Purdue teams up with corporate partners to create solutions for complex global challenges. Learn how your organization can collaborate with us.

Leaders in academia and industry are advancing aerospace research together

Who knows how to stay one step ahead?

From state-of-the-art facilities in West Lafayette, Purdue and Rolls-Royce are leading the world in what’s next for aerospace research. 

“Purdue is a world-class research institution and a top university in the U.S. for engineering aeronautics and astronautics,” says Warren White, head of assembly and testing at Rolls-Royce. “Our partnership is strengthened by an aligned interest in transformative technologies in civil and defense aerospace.” 

For over 70 years, this partnership has safeguarded national security and provided innovative solutions. Today, it continues to lead progress in critical fields, including advanced manufacturing, compressor and turbine technologies, and hybrid-electric and hypersonic propulsion.

What the partnership prioritizes

While technological capabilities have advanced significantly since Purdue first used Rolls-Royce engines for a post-World War II project, one thing has remained constant: the Purdue and Rolls-Royce partnership has remained at the forefront of futuristic feats.  

The two organizations are pioneering the next iterations of U.S. military aircraft. In 2003, Purdue was designated as the first Rolls-Royce University Technology Center (UTC) partner in the U.S.  

“Giant leaps in aerospace happen here,” White says. “We are proud to be working with Purdue to advance these efforts.”

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Those giant leaps include forging a more sustainable future in aviation by employing hybrid-electrical technology instead of relying on fossil fuels; overcoming challenging operating environments with improved high-altitude testing; and helping aircraft reach high speeds with hypersonic systems. 

Where collaboration takes place

Boilermakers don’t have to travel anywhere to find extraordinary opportunities — because of Purdue’s status as a UTC, students have access to top-tier facilities, a network of notable leaders plus work-study, co-op and intern positions.  

“I chose Purdue because our chemical propulsion and combustion research is unmatched,” says Tristan Shahin, a PhD student in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Students are given ownership over the design, fabrication and operation of experiments that utilize pressures, temperatures and flowrates. Our work has direct relevance to government and industry partners.”  

“The competition for engineering resources has never been fiercer,” White says. “Our relationship with Purdue has been instrumental in developing a strong pipeline of talent. Today more than 700 Rolls-Royce engineers have a degree from Purdue.”

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In 2022, Purdue and Rolls-Royce signed the largest industry-academia deal in the university’s history: a 10-year, $75 million strategic alliance. Since then, major investments have benefited Purdue’s Zucrow Laboratories — the largest academic propulsion laboratory in the world — as well as the Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility (HARF), home to the only Mach 8 quiet wind tunnel in the world and the hypersonic pulse (HYPULSE) reflected shock/expansion tunnel. 

“I work right alongside other Boilermakers,” says Tonya Munevar, a testing outsource manager at Rolls-Royce who earned a master’s degree in technology and research from Purdue in 2011. “A personal highlight for me is supporting the students as they transition from theoretical thinking to industry practice while helping them understand and adapt to the new expectations.”

When security matters most

Ever-evolving capabilities place even more pressure on not only being prepared for today but being able to anticipate the challenges of tomorrow. Global rivals’ attempts at ensuring dominance have led the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to seek new opportunities with academia and industry partners.  

Research between Purdue and Rolls-Royce aligns with critical technology areas designated by the DOD, including the implementation of innovative and cost-effective hypersonic systems. Advancements in the field of high-speed flight will further bolster the nation’s air, land and sea operational forces.    

Purdue’s Hypersonics Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center, located within HARF, hosts the only vertically integrated prototyping center in the U.S. Researchers can complete the designing, manufacturing, joining and testing of hypersonic components in one location. There, new systems can be developed quickly — long before competitors.

Giant leaps in aerospace happen here. We are proud to be working with Purdue to advance these efforts.

Warren White Head of assembly and testing at Rolls-Royce

Students and researchers regularly test components for Rolls-Royce that end up in industry-changing aircraft, like the V-22 Osprey that combines the vertical performance of a helicopter with the speed of a top aircraft. Teams in West Lafayette work on Rolls-Royce engine lines fit for tiltrotor, rotorcraft and energy applications.

Why we persist

Every year, new projects in West Lafayette propel the world forward. The Discovery Park District at Purdue is a launch pad for businesses, from Fortune 100 companies to early-stage startups. Rolls-Royce has involved those on campus, in the West Lafayette community and across the state of Indiana to strengthen a global network.  

“Working with partners like Rolls-Royce highlights Purdue’s involvement in shaping the future of aerospace propulsion,” Shahin says. “It’s easy to see the broader impact of our work when we’re turning wrenches on hardware that actively flies in aircraft.” 

“Over the next decade, we’ll continue to explore transformative technologies in civil and defense aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and materials science,” White says. “Together we will help define the future ways to power, protect and connect people everywhere.”

This story highlights one of the many ways Purdue teams up with corporate partners to create solutions for complex global challenges. Learn how your organization can collaborate with us.

Innovative collaboration sparks game changer for sustainability — an energy recapturing trailer

Taking the next giant leap in eco-innovation 

The transportation sector is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. according to the EPA. Brent Yeagy (BS environmental engineering science ’94, MS safety engineering ’98), president and CEO of Wabash, wants to change that. So, he’s partnering with Purdue. 

Wabash — one of the largest trailer manufacturers in the nation — will spend the next three years collaborating with Purdue on an R&D project resulting in a device that enables trailers to recapture their own electricity from vibrations, heat and airflow. 

Such an energy-harvesting machine could transform the industry. And Yeagy credits Purdue with accelerating and driving this innovation.  

“Purdue brings world-class expertise in engineering and research that complements Wabash’s deep industry knowledge,” he says. “Through this partnership, we can explore groundbreaking ideas and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Purdue’s state-of-the-art facilities and talent pool accelerate our ability to innovate, making what might seem impossible, achievable.” 

As the transportation industry moves toward decarbonization and electrification, projects like the energy recapturing trailer are critical to achieving clean energy goals.  

“This collaboration allows us to approach the project with a level of technical depth and academic rigor that wouldn’t be possible on our own,” Yeagy says.

Blue-sky thinking leads to practical solutions

A key deliverable in this project is data. Through retrofitting the trailer with displacement sensors, accelerometers, anemometers, pressure gauges and many other measurement tools, the research team will measure how much energy is wasted and how much of it can be recaptured.   

Principal investigator James Gibert, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, says that when the project is complete, Purdue will have fully studied and characterized the Wabash trailer.  

“We will know where the sources of energy are in the trailer,” Gibert says. “And we will be able to share that knowledge with Wabash. This information will pave the way for commercially developing devices that can offset some of the load that the trailer sees.” 

Gibert leads a team of three colleagues and six graduate students through this multiphase work. Senior Wabash engineers are involved too, meeting biweekly with the Purdue team and accompanying them on experimental runs.

Work on the data acquisition system is being driven by Purdue students like Karthik Boddapati, a fifth-year PhD student in mechanical engineering.  

“In a typical U.S. Class 8 truck,” says Boddapati, “aerodynamic power losses account for nearly 25% of the total power consumption. I focus on analyzing airflow around the truck body and developing aeroelastic energy harvesting devices to capture energy from these aerodynamic losses.” 

Measuring how vibrations can be harvested is a crucial aspect of the research project, with mechanical engineering doctoral students Yeongeun Ki analyzing the truck bed and truck wall and Karsten Hilgarth exploring the side panels.  

Eric Williamson, a second-year doctoral student in mechanical engineering, who also has a BS and MS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue, primarily focuses on the suspension and the analysis of experimental data.  

This confluence of creativity makes Purdue an especially attractive research partner for companies like Wabash. “We have a talent pool of ideas and a fresh set of eyes,” Gibert says. 

He also points out that an advantage to working with Purdue is that the university operates with a different set of constraints than industry partners.  

“Our timetable and the commitment we can put in our projects are different than those of Wabash,” he says. “They’re busy running a business, delivering products. We can provide them with a more focused brand of research because that’s what we’re tasked to do all day. We’re not worried about the other aspects of running a business.”

Long-standing partnership leads to new approaches

Wabash’s connection with Purdue dates to the company’s founding in 1985 by Purdue alumni, and those ties remain strong. 

“Several of us on the executive team are proud Boilermakers,” Yeagy says. “Over the years, we’ve collaborated on initiatives ranging from manufacturing Boilermaker Specials to student research projects and employment opportunities.”  

In 2021, Wabash formalized a five-year R&D agreement through Purdue’s Office of Industry Partnerships. This expanded collaboration strengthened the company’s relationship with the Daniels School of Business and the College of Engineering. Yeagy says this creates “incredible synergy between Purdue’s cutting-edge research and Wabash’s industry expertise to tackle ambitious challenges together.”

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Wabash is constantly thinking about how energy is used and generated in logistics in the hopes of paving the way for more sustainable solutions. “By investing in innovation,” he says, “we’re not just meeting today’s demands — we’re shaping the future of our industry and ensuring that Wabash remains at the forefront of transformative change.” 

Applications for the technology could include powering the refrigerated part of the trailer or the auxiliary systems. “It all goes back to helping the trailer be more energy efficient,” Gibert says. “And there are many different avenues to approach this from.” 

For Gibert, one of the most appealing aspects of a partnership like the one between Purdue and Wabash is it enables people who are not part of the university system to see the expansiveness of Purdue’s influence and how it directly affects them.  

“There is a growing sentiment that academic work is ivory tower and not useful,” he says. “But we’re able to tangibly demonstrate how the research we can do is making an impact.”

This story highlights one of the many ways Purdue teams up with corporate partners to create solutions for complex global challenges. Learn how your organization can collaborate with us.

Celebrating the history and future of a transformative collaboration built on Indiana soil

History has shown that when Purdue University and Eli Lilly and Company join forces, lives are transformed. 

Together, these Indiana institutions are driving critical breakthroughs in drug discovery and pharmaceutical research, tackling some of the most complex challenges in modern health care and preparing the next generation of industry innovators. 

Today’s efforts are built on a partnership that spans more than a century, united by a shared mission to build a better world.

A legacy of collaboration

In 1854 Eli Lilly, future founder of the company that shares his name, began an apprenticeship at the Good Samaritan Drug Store on Main Street in downtown Lafayette. Just 20 years later, Purdue welcomed its first class of students a few miles across the river. Two years after that, Lilly founded his company in a small building on Pearl Street in Indianapolis.  

Both organizations sprang up during a transformative era in U.S. history, growing alongside a nation brimming with ambition and innovation, each striving to shape lives in ways that still resonate today. Early on, both organizations recognized that the other would be a critical partner in their shared pursuit of a better, healthier world.

Lilly scientists and Purdue faculty and students have a tremendous opportunity to turn bold ideas into game-changing medicines, giving more people around the world a chance at better health.

Dave Ricks BS industrial management ’90 

In 1886, Eli Lilly and Company hired its very first chemist, Ernest Eberhardt — Purdue’s top graduate from the then-new School of Pharmacy — to lead the company’s first research program. Eberhardt helped shape the early days of drug discovery at Lilly, opening the doors for countless Purdue students to learn, grow and work at the company, including current Eli Lilly and Company CEO Dave Ricks (BS industrial management ’90). 

“As a Purdue graduate, I am proud of the university’s success and even more proud to see how the partnership between Lilly and Purdue strengthens both institutions,” Ricks says.

Continuing the momentum

In 2017, Purdue and Lilly entered a strategic collaboration to accelerate the discovery and development of new medicines. Today, over 50 researchers and more than 60 graduate students collaborate with Lilly scientists in the Eli Lilly and Company and Purdue University Research Alliance Center (LPRC). Current focus areas for the LPRC include: 

• genetic medicine — using our own biologic building blocks to unlock new pathways to treatment and potentially cures 

• intrathecal drug delivery — delivering medications directly into the spinal fluid to treat central nervous system conditions 

• nanoparticle drug delivery — using microscopic particles to improve the delivery and effectiveness of drugs in the body 

Kurt Ristroph and his lab work within the LPRC on developing nanomaterials and nanoparticle formulations — extremely small carriers that move medicine throughout the body (about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair). Ristroph and his team of 20 postdoctoral scholars, graduate students and undergraduate students are especially focused on scalability and manufacturability in nanoparticle development. 

“We’re working to develop reproducible large-scale manufacturing techniques for these nanoparticle formulations for a lot of different drugs, for a lot of different diseases and for a lot of different routes of administration,” Ristroph says.

This focus on real-world application allows researchers like Ristroph and scientists at Lilly to create next-generation drug products that can be manufactured at scale. “That’s what makes Lilly a great partner for my group, because the work is so industry-oriented,” Ristroph says. 

Lilly has also collaborated with Purdue to build out tomorrow’s workforce in drug development. The Lilly Scholars at Purdue program is supported by a $42.5 million investment that awards up to 100 scholarships each year for talented undergraduate students who are interested in driving innovation in pharmaceutical research and manufacturing.  

Companies like Lilly can help researchers define the scope for real-world hard problems. If we come up with a solution for a properly defined problem, that maximizes the chance that it can be translated by the company into a product that helps the patient.

Kurt Ristroph Assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, chemical engineering (by courtesy)

These Lilly Scholars have the unique opportunity to complete a paid Lilly internship, participate in coursework on pharmaceutical careers and engage with Lilly leaders for networking, mentoring and professional development.

“This partnership for talent development is essential for Lilly as we embark on unprecedented growth that requires expertly trained professionals,” Ricks says.

Purdue, Lilly and pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Inc. recently collaborated to announce the launch of the ⁠Young Institute Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Consortium. The consortium is a collaborative effort to pioneer advances in making medicines with a focus on developing manufacturing technologies that will ensure quality, safety and compliance.

Making life better for millions around the world

Both Purdue and Lilly recognize that collaboration between academia and industry is essential for turning research into real-world impact that contributes to the evolution of medical science. 

“One of the ways giant leaps happen is when research gets translated. Companies like Lilly are the ones that do that translation,” Ristroph says. “My academic research can be as industry-oriented as I want, but unless a company picks it up and runs with it and is willing to take a risk on it, at the end of the day, the work we do isn’t going to help patients.”  

Purdue’s strengths in both pharmacy and engineering, along with support from Lilly, uniquely position the collaboration to support every phase of drug development — from the discovery of a molecule to the creation of effective formulations that turn that molecule into medicine and finally to the development of methods to manufacture and deliver the drug at scale.

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“Companies like Lilly can help researchers define the scope for real-world hard problems. If we come up with a solution for a properly defined problem, that maximizes the chance that it can be translated by the company into a product that helps the patient,” Ristroph says. “That’s a recipe for giant leaps, I’d say.” 

By continuing to pursue collaborative research, scientific expertise in biology, pharmaceuticals and engineering, Purdue and Lilly hope to make life better for millions more people around the world.  

“Together we’ve helped turn scientific discoveries into practical, lifesaving therapies,” Ricks says. “With demand for our groundbreaking medicines continuing to grow, we’re forging ahead to advance scientific research and attract top talent here in Indiana. 

“Lilly scientists and Purdue faculty and students have a tremendous opportunity to turn bold ideas into game-changing medicines, giving more people around the world a chance at better health,” Ricks says.

Celebrating the top feats, milestones and moments of the year in Purdue Athletics

College athletics – and the competition it brings – is a collection of moments: some inspiring, some mundane, some frustrating, some exhilarating. For the student-athletes and fans alike, they become a collective set of memories.

So, by that measure, Purdue Athletics had a memorable 2024. From the winter and early spring run of men’s basketball to the Final Four to the December hiring of Purdue’s 38th head football coach, it has been a remarkable year.

To bring it all to a close for the year that was, here are some top moments in quasi-chronological order that unforgettably touched each Purdue team.

For the fourth time in school history, Purdue hosted the Big Ten Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center. The women’s diving crew had standout performances when it came time for the NCAA championships in mid-March. Sophie McAfee finished fourth in the 3-meter. McAfee, Daryn Wright and Maycey Vieta accounted for three of the top eight in platform diving at the meet held in Athens, Georgia.

The following week at the NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships in Indianapolis, Purdue continued to excel in diving. Three Boilermakers earned All-America status: Max Miller (1-meter), Jordan Rzepka and Holden Higbie (platform). Rzepka earned his third career All-America honor with his fourth-place finish, helping the Boilermakers land in the top 25 at the NCAAs for the 15th time since 2005.

Also in March, coach Katie Gearlds’ women’s basketball team finished the 2023-24 season on a positive note with its third consecutive postseason experience, earning a quarterfinal spot in the WNIT while also enjoying a couple of capacity or near-capacity crowds in Mackey Arena.

Coach Matt Painter’s men’s basketball team’s magical NCAA tour through Indianapolis, Detroit and Phoenix was not only the event of 2024, but the Boilermaker team sporting accomplishment of the 21st century – with all due respect to the 2001 Rose Bowl and 1999 NCAA Women’s Final Four. Zach Edey becoming the first two-time national player of the year since the first term of Ronald Reagan was spectacular, possibly only matched by the fervor of the Boilermaker fan base throughout the entire season. The tens of thousands of Purdue fans in Phoenix provided a lifetime of sports experiences and camaraderie wrapped up in just one long weekend.

Later in the spring, Purdue baseball got everyone’s attention with a program record 11-game Big Ten winning streak and left a lasting impression on Chicago-area fans by visiting the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field and pasting Northwestern on a rainy Chicago evening. Ultimately, the diamondmen posted their top win total in six years and a nine-win improvement from 2023.

Softball also progressed under first-year head coach Magali Frezzotti, posting the most Big Ten wins in 10 years and setting a school mark for consecutive wins in conference play.

The tennis teams were buoyed by strong individual play at the No. 1 spots. Stefan Simeunovic was named second team All-Big Ten, the first Boilermaker in five seasons to earn a spot on the all-league team. In the fall, Carmen Gallardo Guevara was the first Boilermaker to reach the NCAA Singles Championship since 2019. It was the sixth appearance ever by a Boilermaker in the singles tournament.

The golf teams accomplished something that both programs hadn’t done in seven years, with both qualifying for the NCAA Championships. The women’s squad finished the second season under coach Zack Byrd by producing two wins and four Top 3 finishes in 2023-24. The men were led by the highest individual finish in the NCAAs in 20 years, as Kent Hsiao placed 34th.

Highlighting the close of the 2023-24 sports season was Praise Aniamaka earning first team All-America honors in the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. It was his third All-America performance in as many years. Aniamaka, sprinter Cameron Miller and discus thrower Seth Allen all won Big Ten crowns earlier. Purdue made a mark at the NCAA Cross Country championships in the fall, with Douglas Buckeridge becoming the first Boilermaker to run sub-30 minutes, the ninth to finish in the top 50 of an NCAA Championship, and the third in five seasons.

Purdue track & field was well represented at the Olympic Games in Paris as Devynne Charlton was sixth in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, while Chukwuebuka Enekwechi placed sixth in the men’s shot put.

The highlight of the 12 Boilermakers competing in the City of Light was volleyball’s Annie Drews winning her second Olympic medal, as Team USA won the silver after winning gold three years earlier in Tokyo. The 3-meter synchronized diving duo of Tyler Downs and Greg Duncan took eighth, while women’s divers Wright, Jaye Patrick, and Vieta all finished in the top 25. The divers had the extra help for four-time diving medalist David Boudia, who served as an assistant coach for Team USA.

When the fall semester commenced, the soccer program was under new direction as Richard Moodie’s first Boilermaker squad. The improvement was noticeable as Purdue’s seven victories in 2024 were more than the program had in its last two campaigns combined (six). It was the most significant year-to-year improvement in seven seasons, providing much promise.

Wrestling’s big moment in 2024 came late, with No. 3-ranked Matt Ramos becoming just the fifth Boilermaker in school history to win the prestigious Cliff Keen Invitational. The 125-pounder also became the first four-time place winner at the event and hopes to make a run at becoming the first Boilermaker conference title holder in the rough-and-tumble Big Ten since 2004.

Speaking of a competitive conference, with the possible exception of wrestling, volleyball is as tough as it gets. And once again, coach Dave Shondell’s volleyball program capped off a highly successful season with their fifth NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance in six years, spending much of the season ranked in the top 10 nationally. But what will make the 2024 campaign most memorable was the record-setting capacity crowds in Mackey Arena on consecutive Saturdays in late October against Indiana and Wisconsin, shattering the attendance mark for conference matches.

Hope and promise were keywords as the Purdue sports season ended in 2024. Hiring new football coach Barry Odom gave the Boilermaker faithful just that. Odom led UNLV to one of the surprise seasons in 2024 and a No. 20 ranking before taking the reins in West Lafayette. The gritty, no-nonsense coach knows there is work to keep Ross-Ade Stadium filled with fans, but his recent experiences in Vegas have the Boilermaker faithful optimistic as the calendar turns to 2025.

Written by Alan Karpick, a 1983 Purdue graduate who has served as publisher of GoldandBlack.com since 1996.

Students from any major can bring their creative gift ideas to life at the Purdue makerspace — and they can do it for free

The gifts Silas Owen gave last year are going to be hard to top this Christmas.

He gave his basketball-fanatic dad an engraved wall hanging that featured an outline of Purdue’s Mackey Arena, adorned with historical facts about the iconic building.

He gave his mom an ornate cutting board made from four different types of wood arranged in an eye-catching chevron pattern.

He gave his girlfriend Lex’s parents a wall hanging in the shape of their home state, Alabama, that featured logos of the college sports programs they root for — Alabama and Auburn.

All were thoughtful, personalized gifts. And here’s the best part for a college student on a tight budget: They cost virtually nothing because Owen made them by hand at Purdue’s Bechtel Innovation Design Center.

“I think it’s more meaningful for people to get something that you spent time working on, but it’s also a really good financial decision,” says Owen, a peer mentor at the Bechtel Center who graduated in December with a degree in mechanical engineering technology and a certificate in entrepreneurship and innovation. “Thinking that I’m going to spend $30 on a gift is not crazy at all. That’s a very normal amount of money to spend. Well, I spent $0 on most of the gifts that I made last year, and I was able to give them something personalized.”

Owen estimates that he is among roughly 20 to 30 Purdue students who make holiday presents for family and friends each year using the array of tools available at the Bechtel Center. He says the center has the capacity to accommodate many more if students have time available at the end of a busy semester.

Owen and the other peer mentors are happy to help fellow Boilermaker students learn how to operate the equipment, which they then use to create anything from 101-level items like cutting boards, bowls and jewelry boxes to more elaborate objects like furniture or chess pieces.

I think it’s more meaningful for people to get something that you spent time working on, but it’s also a really good financial decision.

Silas Owen

Bechtel Center peer mentor

Operation manager Dan Bollock (BSME ’87, MS forestry ’24) has even seen a student create a handmade engagement ring — no word on how that proposal turned out — during his time overseeing the 100 student workers who directly assist visitors to the campus makerspace.

“I love helping the students anyway,” Bollock says. “But when they’re making a present for their mom or dad, it’s just even more fun to help them.”

It’s important to note here that students do not need to have prior experience operating the equipment to use the tools available in the Bechtel Center. In fact, it’s more common for visitors to have no experience at all.

“I would say two-thirds of them come in here and don’t know too much, and that’s OK,” Bollock says. “We’re willing to train them.”

But once they walk through the doors for the first time, many are blown away by what they encounter. There are tools for woodworking, welding and composites manufacturing. There are 3D printers and laser cutters. There’s a fabrics lab to make and repair clothing. There is an electronics lab to make custom components.

Starting in the spring, there will even be blacksmithing equipment available, the result of two years of effort by Owen to get grant funding for the necessary materials.

“As the Boilermakers, I think we have an absolute need for blacksmithing,” Owen jokes.

And again, students can complete their projects at no cost thanks to the generosity of Bechtel Center sponsors who provided free or discounted equipment and the materials available in the facility’s stockroom.

“I’m still amazed every day that I can go downstairs and get a 4-inch round of stainless steel and it’s just free for me to use when it might be $150 for me to buy,” Owen says. “I think it amazes other people too because when folks come in here for tours, we’ll go in the stockroom and I’ll say, ‘And anything in here, you can use for any project, completely for free.’ And everyone’s always like, ‘What? Really?’ It’s a super cool reaction. I think that makes it even more accessible than it already is.”

Of course, the Bechtel Center was not created to be a place for students to make free holiday gifts. Named in honor of 1946 civil engineering alumnus Stephen Bechtel Jr., the former chair of the Bechtel Group LLC, the $18.5 million facility opened in 2017 to provide Boilermaker students — no matter what they may be studying — with a space to make anything they can imagine. They can build prototypes, implement innovative designs and even test ideas for new products that might someday become the centerpiece of a business venture.

Owen says student groups like the Purdue Orbital team and Purdue Space Program regularly use the Bechtel Center’s equipment to build essential pieces like carbon-fiber nose cones for rockets.

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The facility’s array of resources so impressed Owen as a high school student that he says it was a primary motivator when he chose to attend Purdue.

“It’s tough to find any makerspace, really anywhere in the world actually, that is student-run to the level of the Bechtel Innovation Design Center,” Owen says.

A week before Thanksgiving, the facility’s various disciplinary labs were packed with students working on capstone projects. Owen was among them, having spent most of his recent free time working on his final project before graduation in December. His goal was to finish with enough time to spare that he’d be able to work on some of the Christmas gift ideas he’s had percolating lately — and he predicted that some of his fellow peer mentors would be in the same boat as fall semester neared its conclusion.

While the Bechtel Center might not have been introduced as a facility to be used for this purpose, it provides an unbeatable value proposition for students during the holidays or any other point on the calendar. If they’re willing to learn, their time is the only investment required to bring their ideas to life.

SpaceKids Global’s active-learning opportunities encourage children to consider careers in STEM — and in space

Sharon Hagle still recalls the excitement of the moment in 1961 when an administrator announced over her West Virginia school’s public-address system that Alan Shepard had just become the first American to travel into space.

She never imagined at the time that she would also go to space someday, much less that she’d get there aboard a rocket bearing Shepard’s name.

But as she and her husband, Marc (BS electrical engineering ’71, MS industrial administration ’72), stared out the windows of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in 2022 during the NS-20 suborbital flight, they were inspired to share this awe-inspiring experience with others.

“When you have the opportunity to look down on Earth and see how fragile it is, it really does take your breath away, and it changes you,” says Sharon, founder and board chair of SpaceKids Global, an organization that encourages elementary students to consider careers in space exploration and technology. She and Marc are now two-time space travelers, having participated in Blue Origin’s NS-28 flight in November 2024.

“If you talk to any person that has left this planet and had that unique opportunity, every one of them would say that it changes you, and you just have this need to come back and make the Earth better.”

Addressing a societal need

So that’s exactly what she did, interacting thus far with nearly a million students globally through speaking engagements and SpaceKids Global activities focused on STEAM+ (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics and environment) learning.

Her goal is to inspire schoolchildren, especially young girls, to help meet the ever-growing need for workers in STEM disciplines. And she wants them to consider the career options that will exist in the future — perhaps on the moon, on Mars or beyond.

Many jobs that will exist in the future have not been invented yet due to anticipated technological advances. Before long, many of these types of jobs will exist far away from Earth, as well.

“How do we prepare these kids for all these new careers that are going to be presented by being in zero gravity or on another planet?” Sharon asks. “That’s something we need to think about.”

As a child in West Virginia, I had no idea that I would have this opportunity so early on in space exploration, and then to have a second chance at it.

Sharon Hagle

Founder and board chair of SpaceKids Global

Who can become a space explorer?

She also wants schoolchildren to think differently about what it means to be a space explorer, often repeating the mantra that space is for everyone.

When thinking about space jobs, some might instantly picture the scientists and engineers who historically have become astronauts, but future space travelers will come from every walk of life. They will be cooks who prepare food for fellow settlers in their habitat. They’ll be doctors responsible for keeping residents alive and healthy. And they’ll be welders whose expertise is necessary to construct vehicles capable of traveling safely through space.

“Every trade you have here on Earth will one day be duplicated off planet,” says Marc, president and CEO of Tricor International LLC, a real estate development firm based in central Florida.

The space explorers of the future will be single people as well as couples — an important aspect of the Hagles’ own space story, as they are the first married couple to travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere aboard a commercial spacecraft.

Their NS-20 flight — Blue Origin’s fourth crewed commercial spaceflight — hurtled the six-person crew into space at a velocity of more than three times the speed of sound and reached a height of 66.29 miles above Earth. It was such a mind-blowing experience that the Hagles elected to do it again, if only to retain more of what they witnessed when peering into the vast expanse of space.

“You’re looking out these windows at the darkness — everybody describes the darkness of space being darker than anything they’ve ever seen — and you’re looking back at Earth,” Marc says. “And you’re looking at how thin the atmosphere is over the edge of Earth and how fragile that is. And guess what? Your energy level, your excitement level, is so high, you just don’t remember everything that’s going on.”

The Hagles returned to space Nov. 22, 2024, aboard Blue Origin’s ninth human spaceflight. The voyage made them the first married couple to travel to space twice.

“I would do it 100 times if I could,” jokes Marc, who as a former percussionist in the Purdue “All-American” Marching Band brought along a stuffed replica of the band’s Big Bass Drum on the NS-20 flight.

The experience also strengthened the Hagles’ resolve to remind children that when they say “space is for everyone,” the “everyone” could include them or any of their classmates.

The SpaceKids Global mission

Sharon had already founded SpaceKids Global by the time she and Marc first traveled to space — the organization debuted in 2015 — but her status as a Blue Origin astronaut creates a more powerful message when she tells children that they could travel to space someday, too.

“A point that I want the children to recognize is that you have no idea what you’re seeing today and how that’s going to propel you into whatever you do in the future,” she says. “As a child in West Virginia, I had no idea that I would have this opportunity so early on in space exploration, and then to have a second chance at it.”

SpaceKids Global encourages children to consider the exciting career opportunities that await them through a wealth of active-learning opportunities. To list a few:

• The organization has sponsored field trips for Florida Title I public school fourth graders to visit Kennedy Space Center.
• It collaborated with Blue Origin’s Club for the Future on a project that let participants of all ages send postcards to space aboard the New Shepard rocket.
• Two winners of SpaceKids Global’s “Why I Want To Go to Space” national essay competition were able to take a zero-gravity flight aboard a special Boeing 727 airplane.
• And most recently, eight children from across the country became members of the SpaceKids Press Squad, which allowed them to act as reporters while touring Blue Origin’s rocket manufacturing facility, visiting Kennedy Space Center, watching the Hagles’ recent Blue Origin launch from Mission Control and then interviewing the commercial astronauts afterward.

“This is what excites me: getting the kids involved,” Sharon said ahead of the flight.

Assisting in this endeavor is an honorary member of the NS-20 mission crew, the Hagles’ Pomeranian — Saba the Space Dog. Saba might have remained on Earth when the couple made their suborbital flight, but he’s often the star of the show when Sharon brings him into an elementary school classroom wearing his special astronaut uniform.

“Remember, my demographics are 5 to 12 years old,” she says, “and they are such sponges. They listen to everything. The room is quiet. You could hear a pin drop. And then we go into Q&A and the first question is always ‘Can we see your dog again?’ Blue Origin was kind enough to make Saba a spacesuit to match Marc’s and mine, so he was treated just like a dognaut.”

The Hagles have ambitious plans for SpaceKids Global’s future, expanding its reach far beyond the couple’s home base in central Florida and creating partnerships that will enable the organization to provide educational opportunities in students’ middle and high school years up through college entrepreneurial and internship programming.

“As we set those programs up, our geographic reach is going to increase,” Marc says. “We’ve done a very good job locally because we have the presence here and we have the capability here. We’re going to be able to expand that presence and that capability across the country.”

Expanding their legacy

When performing with the marching band during Purdue’s 1967 Rose Bowl victory, Marc could not have expected to someday contribute to the university’s budding reputation as a leading institution for space exploration. And yet he’s doing that very thing more than 50 years after graduation.

But even without space travel, Marc’s Boilermaker legacy would be secure thanks to his and Sharon’s commitment to paying it forward. Their philanthropic spirit is exemplified through their lead donation for the construction of Marc and Sharon Hagle Hall, the home of Purdue Bands & Orchestras, their funding support to the Purdue Astronaut Scholars, and Marc’s continuing role as a guest speaker in the Mitch Daniels School of Business’ real estate finance program.

And it’s most certainly evident in Sharon’s ongoing efforts to help others recognize that they can also travel among the stars.

SpaceKids Global became a primary sponsor of Purdue’s “Boilers to Mars” short film for precisely that reason. The Purdue-produced short film features three Boilermaker students who become the first explorers to travel to Mars — with the characters’ extremely different paths leading to the mission that reinforces the Hagles’ message about the wide range of roles humankind must fill in space.

“I’ve always told people when I’m speaking: going to space is the most emotional and spiritual journey you will ever take, and I think this film pokes you in how emotional it is and how it’s so exciting,” Sharon said on an episode of the “This Is Purdue” podcast recorded at the “Boilers to Mars” premiere.

In one scene from the film, a character named Bobbi works on a laptop adorned with a SpaceKids Global sticker, hinting that her interest in space originated with an early interaction with Sharon’s organization.

At the film’s premiere, Marc encouraged the Purdue students in attendance to follow through on their own ambitious interests and dreams. “It said in the [film] not to be afraid to be first,” he said. “[Virgin Galactic founder] Richard Branson said it a little differently: ‘If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough.’ So, think of what the future could be for you. Think what the opportunities are and what the benefits could be with an education that you get from such a wonderful university.”

Tina Smith wanted to donate a Purdue Memorial Union Christmas tree. Tina’s husband, Darrell, helped fulfill that wish.

“She’d just be ecstatic. She’d want to be there. She’d want to see it cut down. She’d want to be at the Union to see it come in. She’d want to be there to watch it being decorated. She loved all holidays, but Christmas was her favorite.” 

Darrell Smith, a maintenance technician at Purdue for the last 33 years, knows exactly how his late wife, Tina, would have reacted to the news that her wish had come true. Tina loved visiting the Purdue Memorial Union Christmas tree each holiday season — so much so that she dreamed of contributing to the tradition herself someday. 

Eight years after Tina passed away, the Purdue Student Union Board accepted Darrell’s offer to donate a 32-foot spruce from his backyard that he and Tina picked as a potential Purdue Christmas tree more than a decade ago. 

The Smiths’ tree was the featured attraction when Purdue kicked off its holiday festivities with a tree-lighting ceremony on Nov. 25, in the PMU Great Hall. 

“I was pretty happy when I heard,” Smith says. “I’m really an emotional guy. It makes me so happy that my wife’s getting what she wanted.” 

The PMU Christmas tree holds a special place in many Boilermakers’ holiday traditions, but that is especially the case for the Smith family. For most of the past three decades, Smith has taken care of the massive trees that have resided in the Union’s Great Hall during the holidays. 

He’s helped yank them in the front door. He’s helped raise them into standing position. He’s helped students decorate them. And he’s spent untold hours watering them in an effort to keep them looking beautiful all season. 

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It can be a thankless job, but his Purdue colleagues are well aware of the special care that Smith takes to make sure the season is merry and bright for the Boilermaker community. So when Smith’s boss, Luke Versprille, learned about his desire to donate a tree in his late wife’s memory, he made Smith’s goal his own. 

“Luke and I hit it off from the day I met him. More than being my boss, he turned out to be a friend who saw something I wanted and tried to make it happen,” Smith says. “He said it was one of his goals that, before I retire, he wanted to get one of my trees in there.” 

It was an easy decision for Versprille, Purdue’s director of auxiliary services operations. 

“For over three decades, Darrell has poured endless amounts of effort and energy into helping mold the Purdue Memorial Union into what it has become today,” Versprille said. “His love and care for the building and, more importantly, the people who visit embodies the spirit of Boilermaker hospitality. Having Darrell’s tree as the centerpiece for the holidays is such a beautiful way for us to recognize what makes this place so special: its people.” 

One of Smith’s favorite responsibilities at Christmastime is helping students decorate the tree, preparing it for the tree-lighting festivities. Of course, that work is a bit more meaningful this year. 

When the lights flickered on for the first time, Darrell and his children were in attendance to see Tina’s dream finally realized. 

“It was her idea after going there for so many years and looking at them and seeing that we actually had that type of tree out here in our backyard,” Smith says. 

“She really wanted to be able to donate one. I just wish she could be here to see it.” 

She’d just be ecstatic. She’d want to be there. She’d want to see it cut down. She’d want to be at the Union to see it come in. She’d want to be there to watch it being decorated. She loved all holidays, but Christmas was her favorite.

Darrell Smith, on how his late wife, Tina, would have reacted when Purdue selected their tree as the Purdue Memorial Union Christmas tree 

This Purdue fan cave features visual evidence of a family’s memorable interactions with famous Boilermakers

Rob Stanley has lived and worked all over the world, and yet visiting one particular location always elicited childlike enthusiasm.

Stanley (BS technology ’88) relished any opportunity that he and his wife, Cheryl (BA education ’88), could take their daughters, Laura and Beth, to Purdue, where they met as undergraduate students.

“We used to take the girls when they were younger back to Purdue whenever we could,” says Rob, who grew up in Kokomo, Indiana, before attending Purdue on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. “We were hardly ever in Indiana, and it was really special to us to go back and show them where we grew up and where we met and tell them the stories. They could tell that both of us just came to life anytime we’d go back to Purdue. I’d get so excited that I’d do some pretty stupid things.” 

More on those things in a moment. Years later, the most important aspect of those stories is not whatever light trespassing might have occurred, but the memories that remain for the Stanleys and their daughters. Those moments are memorialized on the walls of Rob and Cheryl’s Purdue-themed fan cave in the upstairs rec room of their Rockwall, Texas, home. Affectionately known as “The Boiler Room,” it houses memories and mementos from their time at Purdue and from Rob’s 25-year career in the Air Force.

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There are photos of family members with Purdue luminaries like President Emeritus Mitch Daniels and C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, the university alumnus for whom the School of Communication is named. And like many Boilermaker fan caves, there are pictures featuring numerous Purdue football and basketball coaches. 

But what sets the Stanleys’ fan cave apart from others like it are the questions visitors might be inspired to ask after viewing some of the photos on display.

For starters, how did the Stanleys wind up in legendary Boilermaker basketball coach Gene Keady’s office during a visit to campus? 

Or, a few years later, how did they meet current Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter and essentially enjoy a private viewing of a Boilermaker basketball practice at Mackey Arena? 

Or, in perhaps the story that beats them all: During her own days as a Purdue student, how did Beth and a friend manage to spend the night in the guesthouse of former Purdue football coach Joe Tiller and his wife, Arnette, after the Tillers retired to Wyoming? 

To answer a couple of those questions, it’s time to explain those “stupid things” Rob referenced.

‘Where are you gonna go to college, little girl?’

The Keady story starts innocently enough. On a 2004 trip to Purdue, Rob and Beth — over Cheryl and Laura’s protests — decided to sneak onto the field at Ross-Ade Stadium to grab a few blades of grass from the football field that are still on display in their Boiler Room. Rob then decided to test his luck further, trying multiple doors at Mackey Arena until finding an open one that provided access to the basketball arena. 

The family wandered around the darkened building for a bit. The girls posed for a pic in front of the women’s basketball team’s locker room door. Rob found the spot on the playing surface where he figured Keady might sit during a game and took a seat. All the while, Cheryl was none too pleased by her husband’s willingness to trespass with their girls in tow.

Eventually a maintenance person came across the Stanleys and ushered them toward the exit, but on their way out of the arena, they bumped into Todd Foster, who had played basketball at Purdue several years earlier. Foster chatted with the family about what they were doing in town, then posed for a photo with them and made an offer that even an angry Cheryl couldn’t turn down. 

He asked if they’d like to visit Keady’s office and meet the future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. 

“We’re standing in the office, and I looked over to my wife and wink at her because she is so mad at me, but she’s gonna get to see Gene Keady now, which she’s super excited about,” Rob recalls with a laugh. “We just love Gene Keady.”

Once the longtime Boilermakers coach completed a meeting with a player, he turned his attention to the family waiting outside his office door — specifically the smallest member of the group.

“Gene Keady makes a beeline directly for Beth,” Rob says. “She’s just this little, short thing, and she’s got big old glasses on and her Purdue baseball cap pulled down so her ears are kind of flopped out. And he gets right in her face with the Gene Keady scowl and goes, ‘Where are you gonna go to college, little girl?’ And she looks up at him and said, ‘Uh, Purdue?’ And he says, ‘Come on in.’ So we all got to go into Gene Keady’s office, and he talked to us for about 30 minutes. He was just the nicest guy.”

Perhaps that fortunate turn of events influenced the Stanleys to wander into Mackey again on a visit several years later.

This time, they were camped out in the otherwise-empty arena watching the Robbie Hummel-era Boilermakers practice. All of a sudden, a door opened right behind the Stanleys and out walked Painter, Keady’s former player and successor, who has coached the Boilermakers for the last 19 seasons.

“There’s not another soul in that building except the basketball team, us — who snuck in — and now Matt Painter,” Rob says. “So he came over and talked to us, and that’s how we got a picture with Matt Painter.”

As for the photo of Beth and her friend in front of Tiller’s fireplace, that involves only one of several memorable interactions she had with the former Purdue football coach.

Beth was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, when her dad was stationed at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, so she always felt a special connection to Tiller, who coached at the University of Wyoming before Purdue and later retired to the state. 

They could tell that both of us just came to life anytime we’d go back to Purdue. I’d get so excited that I’d do some pretty stupid things.

Rob stanley BS technology ’88

Just before the start of their sophomore year, Beth and a friend planned to travel from Great Falls, Montana — where Beth graduated from high school when her dad was 341st Missile Wing commander at Malmstrom Air Force Base — back to Purdue. The drive would bring them close to Buffalo, Wyoming, where the Tillers lived, so Beth took a chance. She sent a letter to the couple telling them that she would be traveling through town and inviting them to lunch.

“She never expected to hear back from him, but she put her phone number in there,” Rob says. “So I’m fixing breakfast one Saturday morning, and I can hear the phone ring upstairs. All of a sudden, I hear this rumbling down the stairs, and it was Beth, and she had Joe Tiller on the phone. He invited her and her friend to come stay with him and Arnette there in Buffalo on their way back to Purdue. Sure enough, they put Beth and her friend up in their little guesthouse, and they stayed up and played euchre with them all night. Joe took them to lunch, and then Beth treated them to ice cream afterward.”

‘It’s our happy place’

Maybe you have to be a Boilermaker to fully appreciate these stories, but boy, are the Stanleys ever some Boilermakers. Not only are Rob and Cheryl alumni, but so are Laura (BS apparel design and technology ’12) and Beth (BA mass communication ’16). And so are Laura’s and Beth’s husbands, Vinny and Zach.

Vinny proposed to Laura under the Purdue Bell Tower after her graduation. They were married on a snowy December day in 2013 at University Lutheran.

Meanwhile, Zach and Beth met at Greyhouse Coffee near campus while Beth was working toward her bachelor’s degree and Zach was finishing his PhD, awaiting his Air Force flight training assignment. 

“We’ve got a bunch of Boilermakers, and hopefully our granddaughters will go there, too,” Rob says.

Their professional lives may have taken the Stanleys all over the world, but nothing compares to their bond shared via Purdue — a place where they have a common connection as well as their own individual memories.

They didn’t need to sneak into Mackey for that connection to exist, but thankfully they had a camera on hand when they did so that Rob has visual evidence to back up the Keady story he still loves to tell 20 years later. Same with the time they met Painter or when Beth and her pal snapped a shot with Tiller at his home.

Photographs help folks recall the important events in their lives and happily reflect on the good times they shared. As the photos in the Stanleys’ fan cave indicate, Purdue has been part of many of those family moments.

“It’s our happy place,” Rob says of their Boiler Room. “Our lives started at Purdue, as far as I’m concerned, as far as our marriage. Cheryl and I have been married since 1988. Everything goes back to Purdue. We certainly wouldn’t have been able to do some of the things that we were able to do had it not been for the wonderful education, the tough stuff that Purdue does to you. It’s not a gimme school. When you come out of that place, you can feel proud that you’ve actually accomplished something.”

We’ve got a bunch of Boilermakers, and hopefully our granddaughters will go there, too.

rob stanley
BS technology ’88