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ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 115 f BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com P urdue's school colors of Gold and Black were established before Oct. 31, 1903, but the color black took on even greater meaning after that date. On that Halloween morning, a joyous occasion of the Purdue-Indiana football game turned to tragedy. En route to the game in Indianapolis, a horrific train crash killed 17 people associated with Purdue and its football program. There was so much buildup and fanfare leading to the game. And consider: There were only 1,100 stu- dents at Purdue at the time, losing that 17 people in such a catastrophic event touched the lives of many. Some Purdue historians call the burning of Heavilon Hall in 1894, when no one was killed but a building four days old was destroyed, the worst disaster in school history, but the train crash seems to dwarf it. There were nearly 2,000 people who traveled to the game from Lafayette alone, in a game that was billed as the greatest sporting event in the history of the state. Purdue, which was 4-2 to date that season, had lost three out of four games to IU after winning the first six games in the series. The Boilermaker faithful couldn't wait for the game, as it was a solid opportunity of revenge on the football field. The Big Four Railroad decided to run two spe- cial trains to the game, in addition to extra cars at- tached to the first, which transported the team and left at 8:15 the morning of the game. The headline of the Lafayette Morning Journal put the euphoria surrounding the contest in perspective. The phrase "Rah, Rah, Rah!" was in its headline. The team train, which consisted of 14 cars, was P R E S E N T S : P U R D U E ' S G R E A T E S T S T O R I E S A N D T R A D I T I O N S Why Black Is Part Of Purdue's Athletic Heritage Tragedy in 1903 a dark moment The Triple XXX Family Restaurants Route 66 Diner Salute Purdue's Great Traditions, like Duane Purvis Indiana's Oldest Drive-In On the Hill, But on the Level Since 1929 Triplexxxfamilyrestaurant.com Of these 24 front-line players on the 1903 football squad, 20 were killed or injured in the wreck at 18th Street of the first of two "football specials" on Oct. 31, 1903, bound for Indianap- olis' Union Station.