The "Other" Love

Most everyone who knows me, knows my wife and I are best friends. When you’ve been around someone for over 40 years, you tend to know even the smallest of details about that person. Having been married over 35 years, Cindy & I can read each other’s body language to know how the other is feeling before they say a word. We’re one of those couples who can finish each other’s sentences. Maybe we get along so well because we married rather young and grew up together, growing to like, and love, one another more as the years passed. And just maybe, we continue to get along so well because we each have ‘another’ love.

No…not that. Our other love is “Purdue University Basketball”.

Having moved to Lafayette from southern Indiana, where most folks grow up cheering for Indiana University, we eventually grew to love our local university team, the Purdue Boilermakers.

Cindy & I got our first season tickets, nearly 30 years ago and have been going to games ever since. As our daughters were born, going to games became our ‘date night’ for just a little chance to get away, if only for a few hours. In fact, we still laugh about those early years, when Cindy was pregnant with our 2nd daughter, Julie. I can remember tugging, pushing and coaxing Cindy up those Mackey Arena stairs to the next-to-the-top row of seats with a belly that looked like she was sneaking in her own basketball. Many of the folks we passed on our way up, especially the sympathetic women on the end of the aisles, would comment, “we thought maybe we wouldn’t see you tonight, that you’d be having that baby instead”. But no, we had important matters to attend to first….cheering on our Boilers.

We still occasionally recall some of our favorite players we cheered for over the years …Scooby Scearce…Steve Scheffler…Ricky Hall…JJ (Justin Jennings) and Bryan Cardinal…just to name a few. But some of our most favorite, are the kids that are playing now. Keaton Grant, E’Twaun Moore, Robbie Hummell, JuJuan Johnson, Chris Kramer and Lewis Jackson. To them, we’ll add a few promising freshmen and sophomores this year and Cindy & I can hardly contain our excitement.

Cindy is crazy about Chris Kramer. She even has his jersey to wear to some of the games. Chris is one of those in-your-face defensive players with a little swagger to his walk. The kind of guy you love-to-hate when they are on the opposing team, but you love-to-love when he’s playing on your team.

In a 10-year span, from 1987-1996, Purdue won 5 league championships and should have won a 6th if not for a terrible call from the referees. Then came some lean years. At the end of Gene Keady’s coaching career, our teams really struggled, finishing near, or at, the bottom of our league. That was hard to take after enjoying such great success earlier. But each game Cindy & I made that long walk to the arena, in those lean years, we’d assure one another that ‘one of these days’, we’ll be good again and those other teams better watch out.

Well, ‘one of these days’….is here !

After coach Keady retired, Purdue hired former player-turned-coach Matt Painter as the new coach. Matt had a great 1st and 2nd recruiting class, players who are now juniors and seniors on the team. Not only are they good players athletically, they are good academically. They go to class, they do things in the community, they enjoy being together both on and off the court, and they will graduate with degrees. They are kids you just can’t help but cheer for. Not all schools can say that. Many have poor graduation rates. Some schools go after players who are great athletically, but don’t do well in the ‘school aspect’ of school. They are the so-called, ‘one-and-done’ players. Players who will play one year, then leave college at age 19 to go to the pros in hopes of making it big. Purdue doesn’t have that type of player. Players like Robbie Hummell and JuJuan Johnson (both juniors this year) will likely end up in the pros, but hopefully after they’ve played 4 years of college ball and received a degree. They may not need it, but it’s a great feeling to walk across the stage and have the school President hand you the diploma that you earned.

Cindy & I are excited for our Boilermakers this year. Ranked as a likely top 10 team, we can’t wait to see them play, and hope that those dreams we shared during those long, cold walks in those lean years, truly turn into that something special we hoped for.

Our ‘other’ love…has got us as excited as that first love…long, long ago.

Go Boilers! Boiler Up!!