The history of Purdue pete
Purdue's athletic mascot Purdue Pete appeared the first time in 1940, when the University Bookstore hired and artist to draw a logo for them. The finished logo is the muscular man with the mallet and the hat that you can see on the right.
A few years later, in 1944, the Purdue Debris yearbook showed many drawings of the logo, calling him "Boilermaker Pete", which resulted to the first where a student wore a Pete costume before a football game in 1956. Back then the costume was incredibly heavy (the head weighed 36 pounds) and uncomfortable, for example soaking up water when it was raining. Over its history the head has been lost multiple times and got replaced by new heads that were still to heavy, leading to many attempts and new design to improve the head. The foam rubber got replaced with fiberglass in 1976, which made the head more comfortable and also removed problems like getting soaked up in rain. In 1980 the design of the head completely got changed to a more grownup look and only weighing 10 pounds. Also the old logo had been replaced by a new one because many fans wanted their mascot to look tougher and more intelligent. In 1983 the head went trough another change, making Pete look more friendlier and also being able to wiggle the eyebrows up and down. The last big change happened in 1989, when the aviation technology department build a five pound head out of composite materials. Until now there have been over 70 male Purdue students that have played Pete, while currently four students are playing Pete. |
the planned redesign in 2011
In 2011 the Athletic Department of Purdue was planning on a new design for Purdue Pete for multiple reasons, one being that the fiberglass head was frightening to the younger fans. By accident some of the footage of the new design was leaked and the fans were disappointed. It was a full body suit and a previous Pete said that the new design is a complete embarrassment and also being way to heavy, telling that one of the Pete's he talked with said that he was out of breath after 15 minutes.
In the football game where the new Pete was shown first, the students booing the mascot was the loudest reaction of the entire event.
Bill Donovan, a long time John Purdue Club member, had been contributing a lot of money to fund Purdue Pete, but after he saw the new design he stopped his contributions, saying that the new design is neither in Purdue's nor Pete's best interest.
In the football game where the new Pete was shown first, the students booing the mascot was the loudest reaction of the entire event.
Bill Donovan, a long time John Purdue Club member, had been contributing a lot of money to fund Purdue Pete, but after he saw the new design he stopped his contributions, saying that the new design is neither in Purdue's nor Pete's best interest.