Purdue Wreck

Purdue Wreck

The first coach of the Big Four special, where the Purdue football team was seated, lies crushed underneath the third coach and a coal tender.
Date	October 31, 1903 (1903-10-31)
Location	Indianapolis, Indiana
Coordinates	39°47′31″N 86°10′01″W / 39.792°N 86.167°W / 39.792; -86.167Coordinates: 39°47′31″N 86°10′01″W / 39.792°N 86.167°W / 39.792; -86.167
Type	Train wreck
Deaths	17

The Purdue Wreck was a railroad train collision in Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 31, 1903, which killed 17 people, including 14 players of the Purdue University football team.^[1][2][3][4] Future Indiana governor Harry G. Leslie was initially thought to have died in the accident, but was later revived.

Contents

• 
  1 History
  


• 
  2 Harry G. Leslie
  


• 
  3 Memorials
  


• 
  4 Site today
  


• 
  5 See also
  


• 
  6 Notes
  


• 
  7 References
  

History

Two special trains operated by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (the "Big Four Railroad") were chartered to carry over 1,500 passengers from Lafayette to Indianapolis, Indiana for the annual Indiana University / Purdue University rivalry football game. It was to be played for the first time at a "neutral" field at Washington Park in Indianapolis. Seventeen passengers in the first coach were killed when the lead special collided with a coal train after rounding a curve at the Mill Street Power House near 18th Street in Indianapolis. Thirteen of the dead were members of the Purdue football team. A fourteenth player died of his injuries in November 1903. During the collision, one member of the team miraculously landed on his feet and was unharmed after being thrown out a window.

Due to a breakdown in communication, the crew of the coal train was not aware the specials were approaching. They backed their train onto the main line just before the lead special arrived. The engineer of the special was able to throw the engine into reverse, set the brake, and jump clear of his engine, but he was not able to prevent the collision.

After the impact, the uninjured passengers in the coaches further back wasted little time in coming to the aid of the wounded up ahead. According to Joseph Bradfield, then a Purdue student riding in the procession, “We began carrying the people out, the injured ones. There was a line of horse-and-buggies along the whole stretch there for half a mile. We didn’t stop for ceremony; we simply loaded the injured people into the buggies and sent the buggies into town, got them to a hospital [….] There was no ambulance, no cars…”^[5] As the survivors of the wreck, including Purdue University President Winthrop E. Stone, comforted the injured and dying, others ran back up the track to stop the next special 10 minutes behind, thereby preventing an even greater tragedy.

Harry G. Leslie

One of the passengers was future Governor of Indiana Harry G. Leslie. While at Purdue, Leslie was captain of both the school's football and baseball teams and became one of the school's "immortal" players. As one of the school's star players, his team was on course to win the state championship in 1903. Initially seventeen victims, including Leslie, were pronounced dead at the scene and taken to the morgue.^[6] Another victim died of his injuries a day or two later.

A few hours later at the morgue, as the morticians prepared to embalm Leslie's body, they discovered he still had a pulse and immediately rushed him to the hospital. Barely alive, he needed several operations and lingered near death for several weeks. His recovery was slow, but he eventually regained his health, although he walked with the aid of a cane for the remainder of his life. He returned to school at the end of 1904 and after another year he graduated with a degree in law. His survival of the Purdue Wreck received significant attention across the state and he became a famous folk hero.^[7]

Memorials

Memorial Gymnasium (renamed Felix Haas Hall in 2006) was constructed in 1909 on the Purdue University campus to honor the memory of those who perished. The stairway leading to the front door has one step for each of the 17 victims. To mark the centennial of the wreck in 2003, a tunnel in Purdue's Ross–Ade Stadium was dedicated to the victims. The Purdue football team passes through the tunnel at the beginning and end of each home game.

Site today

Although the section of railroad no longer exists, satellite photographs still show traces of the rail bed leading to the accident site. From the northwest, the rail bed passes through the Riverside Golf Course and crosses the White River near North White River Parkway East Drive and Rivershore Place. The rail bed continues southeast between Burton Street and the Central Canal Trail. The rail bed crosses to the east side of the canal at Fall Creek Parkway North Drive and continues southeast onto the property of the Republic Waste Services facility.

The present-day accident site is bounded on the north by West 21st Street, on the south by West 16th Street, on the east by Senate Boulevard, and on the west by West Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, West 18th Street, and Mill Street. Prominent landmarks include Methodist Hospital to the east, the Peerless Pump factory to the north, and an electrical substation on the site of the former Mill Street Power House. After crossing West Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street just south of the entrance to the Peerless Pump factory, the rail bed passes between the factory grounds and the electrical substation. It then begins a right turn to the south until reaching Interstate 65. Beyond this point, the rail bed is no longer visible, being covered by the interstate and the west lawn of Methodist Hospital along Senate Boulevard. A map of Indianapolis from 1916 shows the tracks continued south across West 16th Street at Lafayette Street, then along Lafayette Street into the downtown area to Union Station.^[8][9][10]

See also

• List of accidents involving sports teams

Notes

1. 
   ^ Purdue Boilermakers: Purdue Dedicates Ross-Ade Tunnel To Victims, Survivors Of Train Wreck
   


2. 
   ^ GenDiasters: Indianapolis, IN Purdue University Football Team in Train Wreck, Nov 1903
   


3. 
   ^ Photographs of the accident
   


4. 
   ^ Indianapolis Journal November 1,1903
   


5. 
   ^ The Purdue Train Wreck of 1903: A Football Rivalry Touched by Tragedy
   


6. 
   ^ Gugin, p. 281
   


7. 
   ^ Gugin, p. 282
   


8. 
   ^ Indianapolis Baist Atlas Plan, 1916. The site of the Purdue Wreck is in the southwest corner of Section 9
   


9. 
   ^ Indianapolis Baist Atlas Plan, 1916, Section 9. The 18th St. crossing is in the southwest corner.
   


10. 
    ^ Mill Street Power House circa 1955, view looking southeast. The 18th Street crossing is visible just beyond the power house.
    

References

• 
  Gugin, Linda C.; St. Clair, James E., eds. (2006). The Governors of Indiana. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87195-196-7..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
  

v t e Purdue Boilermakers football
Venues	Stuart Field (1892–1924) Ross–Ade Stadium (1924–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Chicago Illinois (Purdue Cannon) Indiana (Old Oaken Bucket) Notre Dame (Shillelagh Trophy)
Culture & lore	Boilermaker Special Cradle of Quarterbacks Holy Buckeye Purdue Pete Purdue Wreck "Hail Purdue!" All-American Marching Band
People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

v t e Railway accidents in 1903 (1903)
Location and date	Glasgow, Scotland (27 July) Paris, France (10 August) New York, United States (23 August) Virginia, United States (27 September) Indiana, United States (31 October) Pennsylvania, United States (23 December) Michigan, United States (26 December)
1902 1904

This page is only for reference, If you need detailed information, please check here