Siblings Cookie and Bruce Hazell taught
younger brother Darrell to play chess
when he was 5 or 6. But the board sitting on a shelf behind his desk isn't an
old one: He got it because it has Purdue
colors. "It's something I love to play, but
it really symbolizes seeing how other people think, how other people are going to
move and how you're going to move three
moves ahead. Those are critical components of being successful."
It seems odd, the blue glass vase
shining against the dark wood backdrop.
But, as with everything in Hazell's office, it has a story and a purpose. "The
Go-Getter," first published in 1921, is
the story of a quest to grasp the elusive
blue vase and charges its main character to overcome obstacles to gain it.
"Whenever you say, 'Did you blue vase
it?' it means you do whatever you have
to do to get it done," said Hazell, who
first heard the story in 2004.
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IllustrateD volume 24, issue 1
The team's theme for 2013 is "one brick
higher," the inspiration coming from former
Purdue president James Smart, who had
that rallying cry after Heavilon Hall burned
down in the 1894. Hazell heard about
the story from David Tate, the director of
medical laboratory sciences and alumni
relations in the School of Health Sciences.
Tate painted a brick and gave it to Hazell to
display, and Hazell had Tate speak to the
team when it reported to training camp on
Aug. 2.
Whenever Hazell is seated at his desk, takes a moment to
think and turns his head to right, he's staring at a wall full
of Rose Bowl reminders. There's a framed panoramic shot
from Purdue's appearance there against Washington in
2001 and two large plaques designating the Boilermakers'
two trips to Pasadena. "It's a constant reminder," said Hazell, who admits he didn't plan it that way. "Serendipitous,
it really was."
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