The Last Time…

On New Year’s Day In 2010 I made the drive down to West Lafayette for a top ten matchup between Purdue and West Virginia. I remember how excited I was for this game. Purdue was undefeated and maybe they were on the way to a number one ranking. This was a special team, and anything was possible. Of course we now know that the court in Minnesota ruined the National Title dreams, but man this was a fun team to watch. A game like this one was a prime example of that. I started going to Purdue games in 2005 when I moved back from Iowa. I had been to a few before, but the 2005-2006 season was my first as a season ticket holder. Those first Painter teams were not the best. They showed flashes of what we would see later, but they needed some help. This 2009-2010 season seemed like it was meant to be. This was a great team full of juniors and seniors that could take it all the way. A huge matchup in Mackey was a great way to prove that to the country. I would never guess with the way that things were going that it would be 14 years until the next top ten matchup in Mackey. I plan on being at the game, but I have work that might not let me see much of pregame. I can’t wait to see those first big plays though. Mackey is going to be rocking, and that is the best Mackey.

The Old Gear

Looking at these photos I couldn’t help but laugh. For this huge game I made 84 total photos. My Canon Rebel with the 75-300mm lens on it was my only real combo to use at the game. I had no idea what to do with camera settings, but I let sport mode take the wheel. Sometimes it was good, and sometimes there was some motion blur. Below are a few of my photos from the 84 that I liked. You can see some good moments, but I didn’t have the shutter speed to freeze the action. I really liked seeing some familiar faces on press row in one of the photos. I wasn’t making art back then, but I was documenting some of my history. Tonight we get to do it all again. This time I have a much better seat. The final photo is one that I am glad that I made. It was a simple photo of the final score. It did show off the old scoreboard though which brought back a lot of memories.