College Football

Game 12 Prep: B1G West, Old Oaken Bucket on the Line for Purdue Football

Game 12 Prep: B1G West, Old Oaken Bucket on the Line for Purdue Football


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – After closing out the home slate with a win over Northwestern, Purdue Football travels south to face Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket and a chance to win the Big Ten West. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on BTN.

The Boilermakers won last season’s matchup 44-7 in West Lafayette, the largest margin of victory in the series since a 62-10 win in 2008.

Purdue enters Saturday’s contest tied atop the B1G West with Iowa at 5-3. A win would secure a share of the first divisional crown in program history, and if the Hawkeyes lose to Nebraska Friday, a victory would advance the Boilermakers to the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis.

The Boilermakers limited Northwestern to only 240 yards of total offense, their fewest allowed in a B1G game since holding Indiana to 205 yards in last year’s Bucket game.

OLD OAKEN BUCKET HISTORY

• While Saturday’s game will be the 124th meeting between the Boilermakers and Hoosiers, this year’s matchup will be just the 97th edition of the Old Oaken Bucket Game.

• Since 1925, Purdue and Indiana have played annually for the Old Oaken Bucket. The Boilermakers lead the Bucket portion of the all-time series 61-32-3, including 16 wins in the last 24 showdowns.

• Purdue has won three of the four matchups under head coach Jeff Brohm (game was not played in 2020 due to COVID-19).

• The Chicago alumni groups of both schools came up with the idea for a traveling trophy, and Russell Gray of Purdue and Clarence Jones of Indiana were given the task of finding an appropriate object. They recommended that “an old oaken bucket would be a most typical trophy from this state and should be taken from a well somewhere in Indiana.” Purdue’s Fritz Ernst and Whiley J. Huddle of Indiana found the fabled bucket, in a bad state of repair, covered with moss and mold, on the Bruner farm between Kent and Hanover in southern Indiana.

• The Bruner farm was settled in the 1840s, and family lore suggests the bucket might have been used by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his soldiers during their incursion into Indiana in 1863 during the Civil War.

• George Ade, distinguished humorist from Purdue, and Harry Kurrie, president of the Monon Railroad, representing Indiana, formally introduced the Old Oaken Bucket in 1925. The Boilermakers and Hoosiers subsequently battled to a…

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