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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 5 44 BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com P urdue was given little chance. The Boilermakers were a 15-point underdog walking into the Alamodome on Dec. 29, 1998 to face No. 4 Kansas State. The Wildcats just had come within an eyelash of play- ing in the first BCS national champi- onship game, only to have their 11-0 record ruined in a controversial dou- ble-overtime loss to Texas A&M in the Big 12 title game, and KSU was relegated to the Alamo Bowl against unranked Purdue. The Boilermakers, who just two months earlier were saddled with a 3-4 record under second–year coach Joe Tiller and first-year starting quar- terback Drew Brees, had fought their way back to respectability with five straight wins to close out the regular season. "Everyone has a breaking point, you can be humble, but when you are on the receiving end of a certain dis- respect, that is why football is a great stage to have your melee," defensive end Chike Okeafor said of the game during his visit to campus for a din- ner honoring the "Den of Defensive Ends" the day before the spring game. "There is a line, the line of scrim- mage. Show me (is what the oppo- nent has to do). "I do not want to say anything about our talent level because we had talent, we had great talent. But it is a team game. We played as a team that whole year. And when it came down to crunch time, we treated it as a Super Bowl." Talking about the game "to this day still sends cold chills up my spine," said Rosevelt Colvin, who was oppo- site Okeafor on the defensive line. Kansas State and legendary coach Bill Snyder led the nation in scoring in 1998. And it managed 34 points against the Boilermakers, but 14 came on two botched punts. In the end, the Wildcats and Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback Michael Bishop managed just 308 yards in total offense. The KSU offense didn't produce a touch- down until three minutes into the fourth quarter in a 37-34 loss. And Okeafor and Colvin were "re- lentless," as described by defensive coordinator Brock Spack. Okeafor ended up with nine tack- les, including 3.5 sacks and four tack- les for loss. Colvin, who separated a shoulder in the first series of the game but played on, had five tack- les, including a sack, and blocked the fourth field goal of his career in earning MVP honors. Both and were constantly harassing the cat-quick The Den's Greatest Bookends Okeafor, Colvin re-live great performance against KSU Tom Campbell The genesis of the "Den of Defensive Ends" may have started with Colvin's (59) and Okeafor's performances in the 1998 Alamo Bowl. PRESENTS: PURDUE'S GREATEST STORIES AND TRADITIONS