"A boilermaker is a trained craftsman who produces steel fabrications from plates and sections. The name originated from craftsmen who would fabricate boilers, but they may work on projects as diverse as bridges to blast furnaces. "
Historya
"The moniker 'Boilermakers' goes back to 1891 when the Purdue football team, just starting out, defeated regional powerhouse Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana 44-0. A reporter from the Lafayette Sunday Times wrote "As everyone knows, Purdue went down to Wabash last Saturday and defeated their eleven. The Crawfordsville papers have not yet gotten over it. The only recourse they have is to claim that we beat their 'scientific' men by brute force. Our players are characterized as 'coal heavers,' 'boiler makers' and 'stevedores..."
Over the years Purdue's football team were called 'grangers', 'pumpkin-shuckers', 'railsplitters', 'cornfield sailors', 'blacksmiths' and 'foundry hands', but ultimately it was 'Boilermakers' that finally stuck.
Purdue's athletic teams typically wear old-gold-and-black or old-gold-and-white ensembles, colors that have identified Purdue since 1887.
The Purdue Boilermakers competed as 'Independent' till 1889. In 1890, they joined the 'Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association', and finally the Big Ten Conference in 1896. The Purdue Boilermakers have been Big-Ten Conference Champions in 1918, 1929, 1931, 1943, 1952, 1967 and 2000. The last two conference wins gave the Boilermakers berths in the Rose Bowl - the "grand-daddy of them all". The Boilermakers, under NFL hall-of-famer Bob Griese defeated the University of Southern California Trojans 14-13 in 1967 to win the Rose Bowl, but went down to the University of Washington Huskies 24-34 in 2000, under Drew Brees.
Purdue has traditionally been called the 'Cradle of Quarterbacks', having graduated NFL hall of famer Bob Griese, Superbowl MVP Len Dawson, Mark Herrmann, Jim Everett, Drew Brees and Kyle Orton."
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdue_Boilermakers
HTH