Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/620595
GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 26, ISSUE 3 79 He played a role in recruiting stars like Billy Keller, Joe Sexson, Dave Rankin and a guard from Martins- ville, Ind., named John Wooden. Campbell was a founding director of the Purdue Alumni Scholarship Foundation in 1944, a precursor to the John Purdue Club, which began about 15 years later. He was on former Purdue athletic director Guy "Red" Mackey's short list of closest friends. It wasn't as if Campbell was passing out cash to prospects, but he would do all the little things to help within the rules of the time. Purdue football might have been his biggest passion. Even more amazing than the amount of resources he spent was Campbell's ability to attend nearly every Boilermaker football game for 50 years. From 1928- 78, Campbell didn't miss a game played in Ross-Ade Stadium and he missed just four road games during the span. He saw Purdue play in Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl and just about every place else. In the game of trying to persuade prospects to attend Purdue, Camp- bell had a good batting average, but it didn't always go as planned. His greatest disappointment in "re- cruiting?" Basketball legend Oscar Robertson, a native of Indianapolis, was homesick in the middle of fresh- man year at the University of Cincin- nati and was interested in transferring to Purdue. Campbell, who had spent a great deal of time trying to convince Robertson into becoming a Boilermak- er right after high school, caught wind of this after talking with Oscar's older brother Bailey. The mistake Campbell made is he sent Bailey down to Cin- cinnati instead of going himself, and Robertson was talked into staying. "Dad always said he should had gone over then and taken him right up to Purdue," Bob Campbell said. "But dad was the perfect role model for a son. He always handled things with class." And the Campbell legacy is alive and well at Purdue. Five generations have attended the West Lafayette campus and Verle's great-granddaughter is a current student. "It was the relationships he built with the athletes that make his legacy last," Bob Campbell said. "He at- tended practices and games, but it was the interest that he displayed in the individual that made my dad special. "Very special." j Home of Boilermaker Hospitality