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42 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com T he origin of Purdue's official colors goes back to 1887, just 13 years after the university began offering classes. The decision to adopt Old Gold and Black is attributed to the captain of the Boilermakers' first football team, John Breckenridge Burris. And it was a decision that came together quick- ly. In fall 1887, the school's first foot- ball team had practiced together for about a week before it was sched- uled to face Butler in Indianapolis on Thanksgiving Day. The day before the game, the team members real- ized that Purdue did not have dis- tinctive colors. A self-appointed committee of students and faculty called an emer- gency meeting in University Hall to debate the matter. Burris, who admired Princeton's ath- letic success — its football team was akin to modern day Ohio State or Alabama in terms of being a power- house — suggested using that school's colors, which were orange and black. Not everyone on the committee, however, supported that choice. Several members wanted Purdue's colors to be distinctive, and so after some discussion, the group selected Old Gold and Black. According to the 1914 De- bris (Purdue's yearbook), the decision to adopt Old Gold and Black was made in three minutes. As for Burris, he continued to make his mark on Pur- due during his time on campus. In addition to being an editor of The Purdue, which was the student newspa- per that preceded The Exponent, Burris was a founding member of the student Athletic Association, the student organization that is the foundation of all Purdue sports. Burris later served as an agriculture lecturer at Purdue for 14 years. It is unclear, however, exactly what caused Burris to back off of his position of wanting the Princ- eton colors. Whether there was ever any additional discussion on changing the colors is uncertain, but one thing seems clear: It was another event in Indianapolis that occurred 16 years that forever linked the color black to Purdue. On Oct. 31, 1903 on the north side of Indianapolis, 14 members of the Purdue football team were killed in a train wreck on the way to a Purdue-Indiana football Purdue John Burris, the second from the left in the third row of Boilermakers' first football team, is credited for Purdue's Gold and Black colors. PRESENTS: PURDUE'S GREATEST STORIES AND TRADITIONS Why Old Gold And Black? Tracing the roots of Purdue's official colors