B1G 2014 // Welcome to the B1G Smoking Room: Boilermaker Edition

Good afternoon OTE. I hope you all have been enjoying the work babaoreally has been putting out to kickoff B1G 2014. The things you learn about Purdue, right? Right...

Anyhow, I wanted to add something just a little bit different this year to the week. One of the things I absolutely love about our annual preview series is the discussions and passions about your specific school, city, area, etc. The B1G has some pretty amazing hidden gems of bars, restaurants, traditions, regional foods, bands, and all of those other things that make up culture. And really, what better place to talk about all of those things than right here at Off Tackle Empire, the Big Ten's quintessential Smoking Room.

That said, even as a diverse writing team, I think it would be naive of us to believe that we have the corner on everything to do with our school and state. So, to alleviate that issue - and hopefully give a slight break to whoever has to write three+ articles in a week - I want to introduce you all to the B1G Smoking Room. Grab a nice Single Malt, get a nice cigar, and settle in for a nice chat.

So here's how it's going to work. I'll put the general profile up each week with some things I know about a school and city, and then we'll open up the comment section for Q&A. A lot of times our internal writer for that school will try and answer questions, but the best part is that we have fans of every school who can answer those questions too. We want this to be the place where you learn that Purdue has a really big drum or that West Lafayette actually exists. We want you to ask hard hitting questions like Green Akers' thoughts, "Pur-dooooo, why come y'all are good at trains, and good at space, but we ain't got no SPACE TRAINS!!! PAWWWWLLLL!!!" Actually... on second thought, maybe not those questions, but we do want you to chat about what bars you should drink at and where you can/can't tailgate. Maybe even questions about football. It's all really open here. Basically, we want these threads to be an archive for future reference for anybody wanting to know about your school and state. With all the new people coming on board, I think that will prove to be pretty awesome.

Alright, does that all make sense? Good. Let's get going with Purdue!

Purdue

Founded: May 6, 1869

Size: 39,000 or so

Hometown: West Lafayette, Indiana (Population: 30,419 in 2012)

Land-Grant: Yes

B1G Since: Founding Member, so... forever

Nickname: Boilermakers, which is a train thing. This is probably a good question for the masses

Mascot: Purdue Pete, Boilermaker Special

Rival: Indiana, MSULAXER

Relevant Memes: [redacted], file does not exist

Trophy Games: The Old Oaken Bucket (Indiana) and The Purdue Cannon (Illinois)

Known for: SPACE... and a big drum.

Oh, and one more thing: Purdue OTE T-Shirts are a great Mother's Day Gift to yourself

Okay, so that's about all I know. I'll leave the rest of the conversation to you all. Consider this a fairly open thread on Purdue.