Back in the spring of '97, my finals week was pretty slow. I was a Senior Industrial Design major. Most of my projects were complete and I only had one final left...So I headed over to the Co-Rec to play some basketball.
Not surprisingly, the place was pretty empty, so I shot around on court one on the main level where most of the good players usually played...I usually wouldn't have been welcome to play there. After shooting around for a half hour or so, some other guys came onto the court and started shooting around- they had 9 players. So, they asked if I'd run with them...I obliged.
I met my team and looked at the opposition and noticed I was among 9 of Jim Colletto's players. Isaac Jones was the other guard on my team. Joe Hagins and others on the other team. My natural match-up was LB/RB, Lee Johnson. I say that very tongue and cheek... Johnson was at least 5 inches taller than me, 60 pounds heavier and just a touch more athletic.
Early in the game, I just fed Jones who seemed to hit everything. I guarded Johnson pretty well as he didn't want to post me up and my perimeter defense was pretty good back then. But on each of our possessions, Johnson would remind me I wasn't going to score.
After setting up Jones so many times, Johnson laid off me a bit. So I faked a pass over to him on the right wing, and hit a three with the space. Then it was my turn to let Johnson know I had scored...but, more than me, all of Johnson's football teammates reminded him of this as well. Needless to say, I didn't score again, but my team won.
From the silly to the ridiculous
Guarding Johnson was a challenge...but it wasn't physically-brutal- my next assignment was.
My intramural team played a team, and we weren't the most-physically-imposing bunch. Our bigs were all sub-6'2"...and none wanted to guard the other team's point-center. Sure, he wasn't a great basketball player, but he was a monster inside 10 feet.
Back then, I didn't back down to anybody on the basketball court, so I guarded the future Indianapolis Colt, Chukie Nwokori. On the drive, he bulled people over...while the intimidated Intramural refs didn't want to call charging on him. So, I started pressuring the ball at 90 feet. He didn't like that. So, he used his 100 pound weight, and one-foot height advantages by lowering his shoulder all the way down the court time and time again.
I fouled out of the game, got a tech called, nearly got into a fight with Chukie (woulda been a good move)...and our team lost.
Anonymous
I'm not going to name names in the next few quick stories- First, I ran into a former shooting guard at Taco Bell at 3:00am after taking a friend of mine to the emergency room. While my buddy had just gotten 20 stitches, he was in much better shape than Coach Keady's old guard.
-One semester, I took a class in which I was study partners with a Purdue cornerback. He assured me that he wouldn't be at Purdue too long- he'd be heading to the NFL as soon as the rules would allow. He ended up staying for the full four years...but eventually got to the league.
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19 comments:
I once got in a pickup game with Brian Cardinal on my team. Needless to say, the floor was ours 'til we got tired.
Vinny Southerland sat next to me in a horticulture 101 class the first day... until realizing that most of the girls track team was also in the class.
I vividly remember Russell Cross walking into the stands at a home football game my freshman year. Being a child of the Lebanon cornfields, I had never seen anything that tall..expect mayber for a row or two of Pioneer Hybrid!
My last year at Purdue, I lived in the upstairs of a crappy house on Williams that seems to be no longer there ... I was heading to a nearby park, I think, to shoot baskets, but there were already some guys playing a pickup game there. They were a man short and invited me to play (which was appropriate, given that I'm short; I also lack skillz, but they didn't know that).
It turned out that one of the guys on my team was Chuckie White. So our offense was pretty easy to run; I distinctly remember feeding him in the post with a nice pass through traffic. (I remember pretty much all my good plays; it's easy when there aren't many.)
He was a nice guy, probably just out during the summer hanging around and playing casually. I don't really remember much else from the game, just that it was funny that I was actually on the same court as an actual Purdue player, lol.
Oh, and I think Marvin Rea won the NCAA pool that I ran in 1990 or 1991. I think he was in one of my CS classes that year.
I watched Justin Jennings play pick up with Baby Barkley back in '94...he literally didn't move from mid court until a shot was up...then he'd time it and flush put backs or try each miss. Plus, he hit about three half court shots...he wasn't even a good shooter either (so I thought).
Had a H&S class (CPR) with Willie Fells and Mike Robinson. MR rarely showed up for class, so I got to talk with Kendrick quite a bit that year as he stalked the classroom to see if Mike would show up. Willie and I were often partners... no, I never got mouth-to-mouth.
Woody Austin bought me a pitcher of beer at Kilroy's after the 1997PU f-ball win over IU!
I was at Purdue in the mid to late 80's. Once while playing pick-up basketball at the CoRec, I had to cover Brock Spack, the former first team all-Big Ten middle linebacker. I gave up a couple of inches and 40 or 50 pounds, so naturally Brock posted me up. When he backed me down, it was like being hit by a moving brick wall. After being "walled" a few times, I tried fronting him which caused his teammates to either throw a lob or take a shot. If they missed, Brock boxed me out for the easy put back.
During the summer of 1987 with the Boilers fresh off a Big Ten b-ball championship, I was doing laundry at the Levee coin-op laundromat when Todd Mitchell walked in with a hottie on each arm. I just happened to be wearing my 1987 Big Ten champs tee shirt that evening. When he walked past me, Todd remarked "nice shirt buddy." Another brush with greatness!
My roommate in college (not me) saw Tim Stratton drive by in a car with his window rolled down. Hey hollered, 'hey, what's up Tim?!' and the car stopped. Tim got out, started yelling at him and while my wimpy roommate was trying to explain how he was not being facetious about what he had said, Tim clocked him right in the face. This sent my roomie straight to the ground, hitting the back of his head on the pavement and sending him to the hospital for some stichwork.
Chris Clopton was in many of my classes - very nice guy with a lot of class.
Although I was a classmate of Mr. Brees, I didn't really have much of an encounter with him, except for saying 'hi' to him at the Black Cultural Center in 2000. Still pretty cool to be a classmate of a Super Bowl champ.
Clopton is a cool guy- we talked to him in Houston back in March.
Didn't Timmmmmmay get in trouble for hitting someone at a bar, or am I confusing him with someone else? Regardless, that's an awful story- sounds like he should have been arrested.
BG, long time no talkie. Woody was a bad man and I think "The Hit Man" (Fels) played in that game I referenced.
Prowling campus the day before classes began in my Junior year, an Old Gold and Black 240Z with Texas plates pulled up next to me and my buds, and this hottie called out "Y'all know where Peirce Hall is?" While my dork roommate was about to put his moves on the driver and her equally attractive passenger, I mentioned "Oh yeah, I have a class there tomorrow morning, so here's how you get there..." After my directions, she asked what class I would be in, I told her, she happily told me that she was in the same class, and she'd look for me. I told her I'd be wearing my blue Converse High Tops, so look for them, and I asked for her name. She said it was Stacy, and that's the last time I ever saw Stacy Akers-- Football Coach Fred Akers' daughter. That class was huge, and my choice of footwear was likely too much for a southern belle.
So I do have a story but it wasn't on campus. To begin this off I graduated from Purdue in Spring of 2007 and that summer of '07 I enrolled in a Master's program at IU School of Medicine along with another guy from Purdue, a guy from Wabash College and a girl from Spelman College in Atlanta. Well one saturday night we did what most 20 something people do in Indy on a saturday night. We went out and hit Broad Ripple. We were just chilling at the gyro place when when we see two guys (a big guy and a short guy) start to holler at our girl that was with us. The tall guy was trying to spit game at her while the short guy who looked familiar to me was like chill let her talk the guy. The girl wasn't really feeling the big guy so we weren't gonna allow him to talk to her like that. Well the short guy started to talk sh*t to us and my friend from Wabash like you don't want to get in a fight with us we'll f- you up. When that happened 3 other guys came from nowhere. Of the 3 guys one was a 6'11 incoming freshman from Franklin Central, another was a 6'3 incoming freshman from East Chicago, and the third was a soon to be Junior from Chicago. Yes the 3 guys coming up were JaJuan Johnson, E'Twuan Moore, and Marcus Green. The short guy talking major garbage about messing us up was Tarrance Crump and the guy trying to spit game at the girl was Gordon Watt. We got things situated and nothing major happened and then I told them I was a Purdue Alum and told them that the girl was from Huntsville Alabama, which got Crump's attention cuz he was from Decatur, not that far from Huntsville. Anyway long story short, I almost got into a fight with JJ, 3'Twaun, Green, Crump and Watt... lol
@Boilerdowd...
Yes, I believe that Stratton got in trouble when I was there 97-02 for hittinng someone inside of Stacks (Wabash Yacht Club) - I'm sure Mitrione was with him as those two, along with the rest of the O/D lines also hung out there and liked to beat up on fraternity guys who were well-marinated and over confident (and somewhat deserving, probably). I witnessed a borderline riot at that place between a fraternity and the football team that ended up being pretty ugly in the parking lot... needless to say, that was the last time I hung out there.
Oh, which to choose?
- wife stopping me from approaching all-time favorite baller, Matt Waddell, at the Capital Grille last month?
- Seeing Jason Loerzel piss in a sink at the Cactus?
- my roommate's group project with Brian Cardinal hosted at our apartment?
- nephew calling me from his valet job and handing phone off to Gene Keady (sadly it got my voicemail)?
- brother calling from a plane and handing phone off to seatmate Matt Frickin' Waddell (I answered that one)?
- watching Purdue beat Wisconsin at Wisconsin from Craig Riley's living room?
Nah, we'll do this one.
I teach at a great school that sadly makes an annual field trip to Notre Dame. Regardless, last fall we're walking near the stadium and I see a very familiar face - alone, mind you - moving toward us on the sidewalk. I bit my tongue, exchanged a smug but casual, "Howya doin?" and then couldn't dial my phone fast enough.
When my wife answered, I said, "You'll never guess who I just passed on the sidewalk at Notre Dame."
Wife: "Vince Vaughn!"
Me: "Even better. Scott Martin."
Wife: "Was he limping? You should have said something."
Me: "Couldn't. The kids were around."
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Fate intervenes again. The word verification for this comment: matin.
in 1996 I was 14, I was hanging in the lot next to Mackey after a Purdue Football game. As I was playing pass with my dad, Roy Hairston walked up the loading ramp and asked me to throw the ball to him. We continued to play catch for a few minutes, great guy..
So my last name is White, my nickname is Whitey. I was buddies with Kenny Lowe in my OLS major. Upon arriving at Brothers Bar one night, Kenny saw me walk in, and yelled, "Hey, there's my boy Whitey!", oddly enough his friends looked at him like he was crazy. Kenny bought me some drinks, and we high fived at the bar.
My roommate my senior year met a girl at the laundry mat, he started talking to this girl and eventually started dating her. Come to find out it was Kyle Ortons girlfriend. She left Kyle for my roommate. A group of football players (remain nameless) gave my roommate so much shit every night at the bar, so I decided not to hang with him in public any more. He graduated in December and the relationship ended, I saw her and Kyle at the bar together in the spring. Obviously she saw the $$ coming as he was drafted a few weeks later.
The first few weeks of my 1st semester sophomore math (I'm pretty sure it was MA261) lecture I kept noticed this guy walk in with this big hairy thing on his face. It wasn't till one day when he happened to sit next to me and I noticed he was wearing a '97 Alamo Bowl ring that I realized who he was. Needless to say, the wimp I was didn't even say hi or anything....
Ok, so like Ross... so many to choose from. My two favs:
As a 4th grader at Purdue Basketball camp - walking back from Lambert to the Dorms. The parents (and probably the staff too) had told us not to take rides anyone, so when this little POS hatchback pulled up and offered one, my buddies and I refused while a few others jumped in. Yeah, that was Stephen Sheffler, and I have no idea how he fit in that little car.
Many, many years later as a Boilermaker I worked on campus for the Computing Center as a lab assistant - you know, that dorky guy who would fix the paper jams, push in the chairs and ask you not to use the phone in the lab.... yeah, I was one of them. A very boring job until I was assigned to the IAF lab. If you don't know, that's the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility - my best stories come from here. Helping a guy with a frozen computer, then seeing his login was something like 'colvinrosevelj' - Rosevelt Colvin, he was in the NFL the next year. He seemed quite intelligent. Surrounded by linemen and cheerleaders, in walks this guy who seems to have no earthly business there. He's my height (~6' 1") and size (~180 lbs), thick head of hair, really doesn't even seem all that athletic. He'd spend hours and hours typing. No books, no papers, he'd just sit down, login and type. Found out at midnight madness that he was our new transfer guard - Carson Cunningham. He trimmed the hair and turned out to be an incredibly entertaining player. He now has his Ph.D in History and is a Prof. at DePaul, I think. The best, the absolute best stars none other than our boy Drew. It was exciting enough to be at Purdue with him leading the football team... But to meet him when he'd come into the lab, now that was cool. I worked there a couple times a week and would pick up extra hours there from time to time. Whenever I worked the closing shift, there he'd be. Some guys were in there goofing off with teammates just punchin the clock, others would saunter off with their entourage after checking email for 20 minutes. Not Drew, there he was working away. Everybody and their brother was trying to get him to ditch the books and go party. They all got the big brush off. "yeah, I'm leavin' soon". He wasn't. So much so, that he made me late - every single time I had to close. Killed me to kick him out because he was actually trying to do his work. Even better was when a group of wanna-be's was trying to coax him out of the lab. They had gotten the brush, but were waiting, thinking that he actually would be 'right there' (He wasn't going to be). While waiting, one gal piped up, "oh, you should have been at the bar with us last night! This girl ran up to Drew and did this -" Then she re-enacted someone wetting their thumb with their tongue (like mom used to) and and proceeding to try to wipe off Drew's mole. (If you don't know, he's got an inch long mole on his cheek). It was all I could do to keep a straight face.
Some friends and I were sitting toward the front of Where Else, on a weeknight no less, and we noticed Dorien Bryant stroll up. This wasnt unusual, as he was out every night it seemed. He had about a 30 second conversation with the door man and then proceeded to wave on about 10 lovely coeds to come in. No IDs checked, no thought paid that half of them looked 18. Later in the night, he came over to the bar for a drink. The bartender started to walk over and help him but Dorien waved him off as if to say, "nah bro, im good", reached over the bar and helped himself to a few cold ones.
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