During his lifetime, former Purdue quarterback and coach Bob DeMoss declined to rank the best QBs in Boilermaker history even thoughhe had coached or observed every one since 1950.
He also wouldn't take credit for being the man who launched Purdue's Cradle of Quarterbacks tradition.
YouTube: Purdue's Cradle of Quarterbacks
"I can't say that," DeMoss responded."I think we've been very fortunate getting outstanding quarterbacks. We've had some outstanding individuals to work with. That really helps."
Relying on impact and my observations of every Purdue quarterback since Mike Phipps in 1969, we'll take a shot at ranking the 12 official Cradle members as determined by the Purdue athletic department in 2010.
We'll go in reverse order, starting with DeMoss.
From 1945 to 1948, DeMoss led Purdue to a pair of victories over Top 5 opponents: at No. 4 Ohio State his freshman year and at home against No. 5 Illinois in 1947. While his career statistics aren't impressive by today's standards (2,739 yards, 23 touchdowns), keep in mind that Purdue's emphasis on the passing game was the exception in those days.
DeMoss laughed when asked what he remembered about that 1945 Ohio State game: "I was scared to death!"
"I was playing against guys that I had read about in the paper all the time. I wondered what I was doing there. I still think it's one of the greatest victories because we won there. The next greatest victory in my mind was the 1950 Notre Dame game."
Speaking of that Notre Dame game, that upset of the defending national champions in South Bend made the No. 11 quarterback on my list, Dale Samuels, a household name.
The late Bernie Flowers, who caught quite a fewof Samuels'260 completions over three seasons, wasn't surprised that the Chicago native overcame his 5-foot-10 stature to lead Purdue to a share of the 1952 Big Ten Conference championship.
"Smart, very cool person as a football player," Flowers recalled. "As an athlete, you won't find any better."
Head coach Stu Holcomb and DeMoss came up with a rolling pocket out of the T-formation to allow Samuels to see his receivers downfield.
"He was a student of the game," DeMoss said. "He was intelligent. He was a competitor. He could throw the ball. He won the job because he was consistent. He was a good leader."
The last quarterback DeMoss coached, Gary Danielson, endured numerous injuries during his career but still nearly led Purdue to a Big Ten title in 1972 after an 0-3 non-conference start. He owns the school record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a game (213 vs. Washington in 1972) and went on to play for the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns in the NFL.
"Everything would be going great and then he'd get hurt," DeMoss said. "It's such a shame because who knows what would have happened.
"He was very knowledgeable about the game. He could throw the football. He wanted to throw it 90 times a game, but we also had some good running backs he had to share the ball with."
Curtis Painter could throw the football, too, but never seemed to win any popularity contests with fans. Perhaps it's because he had hard acts to follow in Drew Brees and Kyle Orton.
But the facts are that Painter is the most recent four-year starting quarterback in Purdue history, a stability at the position that has been lacking since his graduation in 2008. Also, among his records are single-game passing yards (546 in the Motor City Bowl victory over Central Michigan in 2007) and single-season passing yards (3,985 in 2006).
Scott Campbell also suffered in comparison to his predecessor behind center, Mark Herrmann, mostly because his Purdue teams in the 1980s just weren't as talented overall. But when Campbell was hot, even the Big Ten's best had to respect him.
DeMoss wasn't close withCampbell, but one game stuck out in his memory. In a 45-33 loss at Ross-Ade Stadium to Ohio State, Campbell threw for 516 yards, a record that stood for 17 years.
"I thought he played a perfect game," DeMoss said. "When Scotty was hot, he was hot."
Kyle Orton trails only Brees, Painter and Herrmann in career passing yards (9.337) and touchdown passes (63). His four consecutive starts in bowl games at the time was a distinction equaled by only 12 quarterbacks in college football history.
What the numbers didn't tell you about Orton was his toughness. No better example of that came in the Capital One Bowl against Georgia following the 2003 season. Playing with a dislocated thumb, a sprained toe and a cracked rib, Ortoncompleted 20 of 34 for 230 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for two touchdowns in the overtime loss.
Even though DeMoss retired from coaching in 1972, every so often a player would seek advice. Jim Everett did that in the months before the 1984 season opener against Notre Dame in the dedication game of the Hoosier Dome.
"He came in to see me one day and asked what do I have to do to get better," DeMoss said. "I told him the only thing you need to do ... is get more consistent in practice. You've got to throw every ball like you're playing in a ballgame."
The 6-5 Everett also lacked the confidence after spending a redshirt season and his freshman and sophom*ore years behind Campbell.
"I thought he threw the ball very well for a big, rangy guy. He could see the whole field; he had a good arm," DeMoss said. "I think early in his career he didn't have as much confidence as he would like to have. But he finally got that and his breakout game was the dedication game in the Dome."
Everett believes the 23-21 victory over Notre Dame was the turning point of his career.
"it just solidified where I'd come from, all the experiences I'd gone through and finally realizing, 'Yeah! I can play. I can do it.' There's no more wishing I could get it done."
Everett went on to lead Purdue to victories over Michigan and Ohio State that year, the first time the Boilermakers defeated the Fighting Irish, Wolverines and Buckeyes in the same season. He also became the first Purdue quarterback to throw for more than 3,000 yards in the regular season and led the nation in total offense in 1985.
Without Len Dawson, there may not be a Golden Girl tradition at Purdue. Nicknamed the "Golden Boy" after throwing four touchdown passes in each of his first two games in a Purdue uniform -— victories over Missouri and at No. 1 Notre Dame in 1954 — Dawson inspired the wife of Purdue band director Al G. Wright to suggest his star baton twirler be dubbed "Golden Girl."
At the time, Dawson didn't realize what a big deal a victory over Notre Dame was in those days.
"I guess I was too young, or too dumb, to know that it was a big, big game; agame that everybody across the country would be talking about afterward," he recalled."I remember afterwards there was a parade in West Lafayette. People came and got me and said I had to go to the parade and pep rally. 'Parade and pep rally? What for?' We beat Notre Dame!"
Dawson threw 15 touchdown passes as a sophom*ore. While injuries limited him to 14 touchdown passes as a junior and senior, he still was a first-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1957. But it wasn't until reuniting with former Purdue assistant Hank Stram with the AFL's Dallas Texans — which later becamethe Kansas City Chiefs — that Dawson displayed the talent that would earn him a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"He was a natural," DeMoss said of Dawson. "You just drew the plays up, and he'd go out and run them. Very, very accurate thrower. I never saw him throw an uncatchable ball in practice."
Mark Herrmann has a special place among the Purdue football players I've watched over the past 47 years and not just because he was the quarterback during my first two years as a student.
He was smart, likable and a winner. Three bowl games, three victories, three bowl MVP awards.
Herrmannwas the first college quarterback to pass for 8,000 and then 9,000 yards. His College Football Hall of Fame credentials include finishingwith a then-NCAA record 9,946 yards (not including bowl games) and a school-record 71 touchdown passes, a mark broken by Brees in 2000.
"For not having a real strong arm, into the wind he was one of the most accurate throwers I've seen because he threw such a real good spiral," DeMoss recalled."The wind never bothered him, which amazes me."
Neither did pressure. Perhaps Herrmann's finest moment in gold and black came on New Year's Eve 1979 in Houston. Purdue trailed 22-21 with 3:42to go in the Bluebonnet Bowl against Tennessee. Not wanting to rely on a field goal, Herrmann marched Purdue 80 yards in just over two minutes to the end zone, hitting fellow All-American Dave Young with a 17-yard touchdown pass.
"I was very confident," Herrmann said. "When I stepped in the huddle, there weren't any anxious faces. We felt we could move the ball on them."
Perhaps the only Purdue quarterback with more physical toughness than Orton was Mike Phipps, the third of three consecutive Boilermakers to finish second in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
An imposing (at the time) 6-3, 220 pounds, Phipps not only had a powerful arm but was more than willing to throw blocks downfield for Leroy Keyes, Perry Williams and other running backs.
Phipps, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame,was also the first quarterback to lead a team to three consecutive victories over Notre Dame.
"I'm very proud of it, but I was just the quarterback," Phipps recalled. "We had great players on offense and defense. We expected to win; Notre Dame just happened to be in the way."
If Dawson was a natural, Bob Griese was anything but. When he arrived from Evansville in 1963, DeMoss and head coach Jack Mollenkopffeared they would have to move him to defensive back.
Enter DeMoss' first head coach at Purdue, Cecil Isbell, a Boilermaker alumnus who starred for the Green Bay Packers in the late 1930s and early 40s.
"He would set up correctly, he picked the right receiver but the ball was goofy," DeMoss said. "The ball got there but it didn't spiral very well. We were trying to figure out what the devil was wrong with him, and we finally got it figured out with the help of Cecil Isbell."
Isbell only needed to see a couple of Griese's passes on film.
"Turn if off," Isbell said to DeMoss. "Here's what's wrong with him. He's not turning his wrist out."
DeMoss continues: "So I took him the next day and put him in front of a mirror, showed him what we wanted him to do. He went home and worked on it all summer and came back and started the next year.The rest is history."
In the 1972 book Great Quarterbacks, Griese thanked DeMoss for not giving up on him.
"To Bob DeMoss, I feel I owe my football life. ... He taught me how to throw. Really. Without him, I'd still be a side-armer playng catch with my son on Sunday mornings."
It would take a special quarterback to displace Griese atop Purdue's all-time list. Drew Brees was the right man at the right time in West Lafayette.
Brees headed what was unanimously regarded as the Big Ten's worst recruiting class in 1997, a group that new head coach Joe Tiller and his staff quickly put together. Written off by Texas and Texas A&M — and others — when he suffered a knee injury as a high school junior, Brees showed the first signs of a competitive spirit that motivates him to this day as a future Pro Football Hall of Famer for the New Orleans Saints.
"He never thought he was beat," DeMoss said. "He made big plays when he had to."
I could spend several paragraphs breaking down the numerous big plays he made as a three-year starter but Brees will be best remembered for the 64-yard touchdown pass to Seth Morales that lifted Purdue past Ohio State.
The Ohio State victory capped a four-game October stretch — victories over Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Ohio State — that saw Brees pass for 12 touchdowns and 1,255 yards and pave the way for Purdue's first Rose Bowl in 34 years.
When Brees threw his final pass in Pasadena, he left Purdue withtwo NCAA records, 13 Big Ten Conference records and 19 school records.
He won the 2000 Maxwell Award as the nation's outstanding player and the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the Big Ten MVP, while also being named Academic All-American of the Year.
He remains the Big Ten record-holder in virtually every passing category, including completions (1,026), yards (11,792) and touchdowns (90).
Thompson is the Journal & Courier's sports editor. Emailhim at kthompson@journalandcourier.com
