Boiler Football

I had never been to a college football game before coming to Purdue. Naturally, I had some idea of what it would be like, but not fully. I knew that going to a big ten school that the football games would be extremely fun and high-spirited. First off, tailgating is pretty insane; people are everywhere; students, parents, alum, and others all gather early before the games to cookout with fellow boiler fans. One of the many popular spots is the intramural fields, maybe I only think this because it is right across from my dorm and I consistently see massive amounts of people and tents set up there. People set up games, one of the most frequent seen ones being bags, or also known as corn hole. Mainly this is parents and alum or just fans that come to the games that gather here, but students do also.

On game days it is very hard to try and sleep in. Especially living in Owen, which is located right next to the stadium. People get up pretty early and start screaming in the streets. Then there’s also the breakfast club, who get up as early as 5:00 am to go to the bars and dress up in funky costumes. When I first saw these people dressed up all weird I was extremely confused and had no idea what was going on. When a friend explained the reasoning behind it, then it made a little bit more sense. People will go to the football games in these outfits and it always makes me laugh to see some of the goofy outfits people come up with. I have never seen the campus more busy than when there is a Saturday home game. You walk outside and people are everywhere! A football game is an all day event I have found out. It’s nice though that everyone has so much spirit.

Saturday marked another victory for the boilermakers. The weather was much nicer than the last game and it was also parent’s day, so the fan turnout was phenomenal. The student section was pretty rowdy and everyone really helped cheer the boilers on to victory over Central Michigan. The half time show was also great on Saturday. The band, twirlers, gold dusters, and cheerleaders all gathered on the field and performed. It was very entertaining. The crowd also mastered the wave on Saturday; I think it went around the stadium about five or six times. It was pretty exciting, the crowd even at one point would slow it down and then speed it up, it looked really cool and it was fun too. I like the idea of people being thrown up in the air after we score a touchdown; it’s kind of funny looking. I also liked how they played the song shout after the third quarter. Things like this make it easy to really get into the game! I can’t wait to the next game; hopefully we can keep up this winning streak!