Purdue University was founded in 1869, as such it has a long and storied history. This
history has left us, the current students and faculty of Purdue, with traditions
that we are aware of but do not fully understand. This project is our attempt to
unearth some Purdue history, the origins of our traditions. With this goal in
mind, we selected which traditions to target from a list of the most known or
iconic Purdue traditions. We selected five traditions: the Boilermaker Special,
Purdue Pete, the Bell Tower, the name Boilermakers, and the phrase “Boiler Up!”
Each of these Traditions were selected for separate reasons. The Boilermaker Special
was selected because, although it is the official mascot of Purdue, not many
people know how or why a train became our mascot. In fact some people believe
Purdue Pete to be our mascot. This is why Purdue Pete was selected, to clarify
the existing confusion regarding his status and origin. The Bell Tower was
selected because it is likely the single most recognizable landmark on campus
and is associated with numerous traditions. Although we recognize that pinning
down the exact origin of these traditions will be hard, and in some cases
potentially impossible, we can acknowledge the Tower’s history, and possibly
shed light on the myths related to it. The name Boilermakers as well as the
phrase “Boiler Up!” were both selected for similar reasons, they are words we
associate with our sports teams, although this is not always the case. We were
simply curious as to the origin of the phrase and name and believed it to be
knowledge that should be more widely known.