Chariot Auto Group Monday Night Memories: Purdue legend Verle Campbell

Bob Campbell shares his memories of his dad and all that is Purdue athletics over the last century in the above feature.

Purdue legends Leroy Keyes, Stephanie White, Glenn Robinson, Bob Griese, John Wooden, Rick Mount, Drew Brees and Verle Campbell.

You might ask yourself: Which person doesn’t belong among the greats of Boilermaker athletics?

The correct answer is all of them do.

Verle Campbell was the ultimate behind-the- scenes booster to Purdue athletics, in a day when boosters had a huge effect on recruiting. Modern day Boilermaker fans may only know the name if they have attended a Purdue football postseason banquet. At the annual event, the Verle Campbell Award is given to the outstanding Boilermaker scout team player from the season.

How fitting.

Campbell was a Boilermaker scout extraordinaire, in a day when the NCAA had yet to legislate against involvement from boosters like Campbell. Most of the rules didn’t change until the early 1970s.

But like so many boosters of the day, there was usually a reason for the affinity to the school. And Campbell was no exception. Growing up in Indiana, he was an international-caliber track athlete as an un- dergrad, competing for the Boilermakers. Two years after graduating from Purdue, he medaled in the 1919 Allied Games in Paris, the games that replaced the Olympics, cancelled due to World War I.

Campbell’s impact on the history of Boilermaker athletics, however, was just beginning. He turned from athlete to recruiter not long after he left Purdue. After he had firmly established himself in the property and casualty insurance business in Indianapolis, his avocation became recruiting top-level athletes to Purdue.

And he did it with his time and his treasure.

In those days, boosters were almost akin to what assistant coaches are today. They would travel to see prospects, watch them compete and befriend parents and family members. They would go the extra mile (because rules didn’t prohibit it) by providing transportation for prospects and sometimes job opportunities for parents or family members.

“Dad was a man’s man, and Purdue was his family,” said Verle’s only child Bob Campbell, who lives outside of Tucson, Az. “He loved Purdue and he was successful enough in business to have enough time to devote his life to it.”

Verle Campbell

Campbell Recruiting 103 Purdue Boilermakers

According to Bob Campbell, his dad helped or single-handedly recruited 103 student-athletes to Purdue from the late 1920s to 1970, driving 917,000 miles, burning $92,000 in gas and wearing out 18 cars, all from his own pocket.

He played a role in recruiting stars like Billy Keller, Joe Sexson, Dave Rankin and a guard from Martins- ville, Ind., named John Wooden.

Campbell was a founding director of the Purdue Alumni Scholarship Foundation in 1944, a precursor to the John Purdue Club, which began about 15 years later.

He was on former Purdue athletic director Guy “Red Mackey’s (1942-71) list of closest friends.

It wasn’t as if Campbell was passing out cash to prospects, but he would do all the little things to help within the rules of the time. Purdue football might have been his biggest passion. Even more amazing than the amount of resources he spent was Campbell’s ability to attend nearly every Boilermaker football game for 50 years. From 1928-78, Campbell didn’t miss a game played in Ross-Ade Stadium and he missed just four road games during the span. He saw Purdue play in Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl and just about every place else.

In the game of trying to persuade prospects to attend Purdue, Campbell had a good batting average, but it didn’t always go as planned.

His greatest disappointment in “recruiting?” Basketball legend Oscar Robertson, a native of Indianapolis, was homesick in the middle of freshman year at the University of Cincinnati and was interested in transferring to Purdue. Campbell, who had spent a great deal of time trying to convince Robertson into becoming a Boilermaker right after high school, caught wind of this after talking with Oscar’s older brother Bailey. The mistake Campbell made is he sent Bailey down to Cincinnati instead of going himself, and Robertson was talked into staying.

“Dad always said he should had gone over then and taken him right up to Purdue,” Bob Campbell said. “But dad was the perfect role model for a son. He always handled things with class.”

And the Campbell legacy is alive and well at Purdue. Five generations have attended the West Lafayette campus and Verle’s great-granddaughter is a current student.

“It was the relationships he built with the athletes that make his legacy last,” Bob Campbell said. “He at- tended practices and games, but it was the interest that he displayed in the individual that made my dad special.

“Very special.”

This article appeared in Gold and Black Illustrated in January 2016.

A story of Verle Campbell’s “recruiting” prowess

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