Indiana football coach Tom Allen could be competing to retain his job with today’s game at Purdue.
Submitted photo
Skeptics will promote it as a pillow fight.
Or worse, they’ll talk about how these Indiana and Purdue football teams could combine rosters, select the best 60 players, square off against a dozen regular-season opponents and still not be considered for a lower-tier bowl game.
You know, the ones played before Christmas.
But if you are a fan of either the Hoosiers or Boilermakers, today’s 98th Old Oaken Bucket get-together guarantees no less than three hours of frayed nerves.
But … but …
Yes, both teams enter Purdue’s recently refurbished Ross-Ade Stadium with identical 3-8 records and have bid farewell to any chance at bowl eligibility.
IU struggles on offense, Purdue springs leaks defensively. Now flip the two and it remains every bit as accurate.
The Boilers are led by the stoic Ryan Walters, who basically just arrived in West Lafayette. Indiana’s main man is the perpetually glass-half-full Tom Allen, who if his Hoosiers lose this afternoon might well be on his way out of Bloomington.
And yet we’ll watch either in person or on television because bragging rights are a cherished commodity — and generations of history, no matter how unsightly at times, remain a powerful magnet.
Purdue holds a commanding 62-32-3 series advantage since the Bucket officially became the prize in 1925 and is up 76-42-6 overall.
Kickoff today signals the start of IU-Purdue game No. 125. That, in and of itself, is worthy of celebration.
To be honest, it’s been a minute or two since I last attended an Old Oaken Bucket game in person.
However, thinking back, I’ve attended clashes back to a young Lee Corso — yes, the former IU coach was young once — wearing all-red attire and rocking the ’70s sideburns while matching strategies with Boilers coaches Alex Agase and Jim Young.
Pont vs. Mollenkopf, Mallory vs. Burtnett, Cameron vs. Tiller, and so on.
And though none of us were anywhere near being alive at the time, the rivalry once played out at a neutral site — the Boilermakers blanking the Hoosiers, 27-0, in Indianapolis in 1904. Beyond that, the game has been sole property of the two campuses. The way it should be.
In the early 1970s, Corso’s players took the field at Purdue with “Beat Purdue” on their white road jerseys. The 1986 clash at Ross-Ade saw the home squad take the field in black pants and eye-catching gold jerseys, the latter featuring a miniature Old Oaken Bucket likeness on the sleeves.
That was the time senior free safety Rod Woodson went legend by accumulating 236 all-purpose yards, making 10 tackles on defense and leading the Boilers to a 17-15 victory.
Leon Burtnett, who passed away in 2021 two days after his 78th birthday, once called it the greatest individual performance he ever witnessed.
Keyes played here. Brees played here.
Indiana, too, has featured its share of stars in this rivalry. Harry Gonso, Jade Butcher, Mike Harkrader, Tim Clifford, Tim Wilbur, Anthony Thompson, Antwaan Randle El and more.
Kickoff today is at noon, and hopefully a capacity crowd filters into Ross-Ade.
Tensions will be high for a game between two squads with a combined six wins this season.
Records, as the saying goes, can be thrown out the nearest window.
Nothing is at stake, yet everything is at stake. Welcome to Bucket week in Indiana.
Mike Beas is a sportswriter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
