Editor’s note: This story is the seventh in a series related to Purdue’s 2000 football season.
Thirty-four years had passed since Purdue football‘s 14-13 victory over USC on Jan. 2, 1967.
Boilermaker fans who opted not to travel west for that game in anticipation of attending Purdue in future Rose Bowls knew not to make the same mistake ahead of the Jan. 1, 2001 game against Washington.
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That, and generations of new Purdue fans since Jack Mollenkopf’s team won in the program’s only previous Rose Bowl appearance, meant Pasadena was packed with plenty of old gold and black during the holiday season.
“Purdue has great fans. All they want is to see a little success,” safety Ben Smith said. “There were so many people who went to that Rose Bowl. There’s so many Purdue people all over the country who wanted to go to the Rose Bowl and we were able to give it to them.”
Times have changed since 2000, but the Rose Bowl, coined the “Grandaddy of Them All” by legendary sportscaster Keith Jackson, was the marquee event of bowl season.
“Growing up, the Rose Bowl was the pinnacle of college football for me,” tight end Pete Lougheed said. “And growing up in Indiana, Big Ten football was always the conference I paid the most attention to. So being able to get to the Rose Bowl was just amazing. A great dream come true growing up in the Midwest.”
Several thousand Purdue fans join in the fun on December 30, 2000 near Los Angeles. The football team was given a massive pep rally at Century Plaza in Century City, CA. before playing in this Monday’s Rose Bowl.
“Playing in the Rose Bowl is something everybody dreamed of,” cornerback Ashante Woodyard said. “If you get the opportunity to play in the Rose Bowl, as a kid you see it on TV, it’s like a dream. You actually get there and it’s like, man, I get to play in the Rose Bowl. That’s a big stage.”
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“It was a lot for a kid like me from Lebanon (Indiana) to be in Los Angeles and see stuff like that for the first time,” defensive tackle Craig Terrill said.
For a bunch of guys in their late teens and early 20s who spent the school year in West Lafayette, Los Angeles in December was a luxury away from the Indiana winter.
And it offered experiences beyond football.
“One thing that definitely sticks out, we went to the Jay Leno show and they had a warm-up comedian for Leno that came out and started pumping the crowd up,” punter Scott Kurz said. “He was kind of their hype guy. He was making football jokes, but he kept taking digs at punters. So he finally said let’s get Purdue’s punter up here. They had me come up on stage. I don’t remember exactly what happened but they played some music and we all had to do some dances with it. There was cheerleaders or whoever dancing on stage. I’ll never forget that moment in front of a studio audience. It was never on air, but that’s something unlike I’ve ever been a part of.”
Purdue’s Vinny Sutherland, left, feels the pressure from questions asked by Jay Leno as he tapes a segment of Jaywalking after the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Dec. 27, 2000 Burbank, CA. The Purdue players were in attendance for the taping of the show.
As guests of “The Tonight Show,” Purdue players got to meet Leno, as well as Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton. Some remember “The Price Is Right” or Disneyland or various other non-football activities, including the first taste of fast food on the west coast.
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“The thing I remember the most was how excited we were to eat an In-N-Out burger,” defensive end Shaun Phillips said. “We’d never had In-N-Out.”
Phillips wasn’t the only player who left impressed, but when it came to dining, the most memorable is the Lawry’s Beef Bowl, an annual prime rib eating competition between the Rose Bowl’s participating teams. It’s a memory that still doesn’t sit well with some, given some Purdue players believe the contest was fixed.
“That was the the most I’ve ever eaten in my life, to be honest. They cut me off after four of the 18 ouncers,” offensive lineman Josh Kirkpatrick said. “I can’t remember who ate five. It might’ve been Max Miller. All the O-linemen were sitting at that table. Combined, we ate about 40 pounds of meat that night. It was an atrociously high number.”
“I think we ate the significance of a full cow between the two teams,” safety Tim Upshur said.
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“They told us it was a competition. Here we go. We’re from the Midwest. Prime rib in front of us, we’re going to go,” offensive lineman Kelly Kitchel said. “I think Max Miller put down about 10 prime ribs. I didn’t get that many but I was pretty full coming out of there. We ate them out of prime rib that night. They said we can order no more. Then they said Washington ate more. You cut us off. I would’ve eaten myself ’til I couldn’t even move to win a competition.”
“They said Washington out ate the Boilermakers. Hey, wait a second. We were asking for more and you said you were out,” fullback Jacob Rowe said. “We came into that thing and the Rose queens are sitting at your table talking to you. They are of course beautiful girls and you have a bunch of meathead college kids who are like I am eating all the steak I can eat.”
But there was a game to be played and the moment was lost on no one.
Purdue’s Max Miller gets in a few minutes of sun bathing in the 70 degree warmth of southern California on the field at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Dec. 23, 2000. The Boilers will play the Washington Huskies on Jan. 1, 2001 in the Rose Bowl.
Purdue practiced in the LA Memorial Coliseum.
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“Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve always wanted to take the weight room with me,” strength coach Jim Lathrop said. “We were there for 10 days. You’re trying to develop a training program, so you want to make sure that’s emphasized.”
The downside? Lathrop had to drag five platforms, power racks and benches to the field, setting up a makeshift weight room facility inside tents along the field.
As 2000 turned to 2001, anticipation was at an all-time high for Purdue players living out a vision coach Joe Tiller put in their heads two seasons earlier.
“But there is nothing better than waking up in the hotel the day of the game,” kicker Travis Dorsch said. “You hear the parade. You get on the bus and have multiple ‘CHiPs’ motorcycles escorting you to the stadium.”
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For those who saw the Rose Bowl that day after the 1998 season opener at USC, this far trumped what they remembered.
“We get off the bus and coach Tiller didn’t want the small guys getting off the bus first,” cornerback Chris Clopton said. “We made sure we were going to be the first ones on that game field when we came out. It was me, Vinny Sutherland, Donald Winston, all the short guys were the first ones to run out in the stadium.”
“You walk on that field and it’s just history,” safety Brady Doe said.
“The thing that I tell people when they’ve seen it on TV and never have been there before, the colors of the teams painted on the field are so vivid,” defensive end Warren ‘Ike’ Moore said. “When you walk out and see it, and then you see San Gabriel Mountains in the background, the view was just unbelievable.”
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“As a kicker, I’m like a golfer. I am always interested in the grass,” Dorsch said. “Walking out on that field that is manicured like a putting green coming from our 3½ inch bluegrass at Ross-Ade Stadium at the time to that beautiful Bermuda field was awesome.”
Purdue’s Sedrick Brown rumbles for a fourth quarter touchdown in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA on January 1, 20001.
“As a kid when you’re watching the Rose Bowl from home and the parade and everything that went along with it, the ‘Grandaddy of Them All’ and hearing that all the time,” running back Montrell Lowe said. “Even as a kid in Texas, you watched the Rose Bowl. No matter what happened with the Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl was the ‘Grandaddy of Them All.’ To be able to walk through that stadium and all the successful people who have graced and laced that field, and you’re a part of that forever. In the moment, it meant a lot. As a football player, to walk through that tunnel and stand on that field and be a part of all the legendary people who played on that field, that’s what you go to college for. That’s what you play for.”
“This is my last chance to prove I can play at the next level. It’s the ‘Grandaddy of ‘Em All.’ The peripheral stuff, the getting there and the Jay Leno show and the parade, all that stuff was great memories,” center Chukky Okobi said. “The thing to me was how it was connected to everything that we had been through, especially those guys that were seniors and wanted to make this last time working together and playing together count.”
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“I haven’t walked on the clouds of heaven yet, but boy, I felt really close then, because it was just like a magical place,” receiver A.T. Simpson said. “Man, I’m really stepping on the field. And it’s just like everybody says. You start the game when the sun is shining and nothing beats the Rose Bowl sunset. It just kind of disappears.”
As for the game, errors that put Purdue in early season holes against Notre Dame and Penn State returned. On the first play, Drew Brees rolled right and slipped for a loss of 7 yards, setting up a three-and-out. Sutherland was flagged on the punt for interfering with the catch. Tim Stratton’s punt snap on Purdue’s second series sailed over Kurz’s head.
“I will always think about that until the day I die,” Kurz said. “I tipped it and ran back and got it and my plan was to pick it up. As I was turning I was able to pick it up and my plan was to do a sidewinder kick down the field similar to what I had done in the Michigan State game. My cleat gave out and the turf gave out. That was a huge momentum change. Washington got the ball deep in our territory. We were unable to dig out of that hole.”
Those two early miscues put Purdue in a 14-0 hole. After settling down, the Boilermakers outscored Washington 24-20 over the final three quarters, but the early damage proved costly in a 34-24 loss.
Purdue’s Montrell Lowe was a bright spot in the first half with 71 yards rushing for the Boilers in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. on Jan. 1, 2001. Purdue lost to Washington 34-24.
“That was not a tough game,” guard Ian Allen said. “It was not. We just got behind.”
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“As a player at Washington State, I never went to the Rose Bowl. At that time, it was the hallmark of college football. It was the bowl,” defensive backs coach Ken Greene said. “The only bad part about it was we went against the Huskies and they beat us. Competitively, as far as talent, it was two closely matched teams. If we played three times, I think we could have won two or they could have won two. It was a very closely matched game and they were the better team that day.”
“Purdue has the best fans. They just deserve a big one,” Sutherland said. “It broke my heart that we couldn’t get that Rose Bowl win.”
“There’s nothing I wish more than for every football player that puts on a Purdue uniform than to be able to experience what we experienced that year,” Brees told the Journal & Courier in 2015. “That unbelievable feeling of togetherness and accomplishment.”
Five offensive starters from Purdue’s Big Ten championship team would be selected in the 2001 NFL Draft, a recurring theme over the next three years for members of that roster, and beyond for those who followed.
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After coming up just short while also finally breaking through, Purdue was no longer satisfied getting to the Rose Bowl. The Boilermakers vowed to return. And win.
“I’ve played in two Super Bowls and I lost both of them,” linebacker Niko Koutouvides said. “You return the next year and you say, look, we can get back. And it’s so damn hard.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue football 2001 Rose Bowl Game loss to Washington, trip memories
