Reamer club
The Reamer Club is a Purdue tradition oriented organization whose goal is to boost the Purdue spirit of the students that was found in 1922. They are the organization that is taking care of the Boilermaker Special, the train that is the official Purdue mascot. Whether Purdue has a home or away game, the Reamer Club always takes the train with them and drive on the field when the Purdue players enter the stadium during the pregame show.
The Reamer Club is also presenting the flags at the beginning of the pregame show and is also helping the band in general. On game days they gather at places around the campus, for example at the Lion fountain and are singing old cheers.
The Reamer Club is also presenting the flags at the beginning of the pregame show and is also helping the band in general. On game days they gather at places around the campus, for example at the Lion fountain and are singing old cheers.
Rowdy
The current mascots of Purdue are the Boilermaker Special and Purdue Pete, but there used to be a third one which most people don't know about. From 1997 to 2007 Purdue had 10 foot tall inflatable mascot called Rowdy. He had a childish look and was representing the "future Boilermakers". The children really liked him as a mascot but in 2007 the condition of the costume was too bad and there was no attempt made to repair it since there were no complaints made when he disappeared from the stage.
Origin of the Name Boilermaker
Purdue students have been called Boilermakers for a very long time, but most people have no idea where the term Boilermaker is coming from. In 1891 Purdue had a football match against Wabash College, but their football team very small, so they recruited officers, workers etc. as students so that they can play in the football team. After Purdue won the game against Wabash College, Wabash College wrote a newspaper article where they were calling Purdue mean names because they did not like the way Purdue recruited football players. One of the names was Boilermaker and when the Purdue students heard about the article they really liked the name Boilermaker, so they took the name and used it for themselves ever since.