I was there in 1997.
On September 13, 1997, I walked into Ross-Ade Stadium the fan of a dead football team. Purdue had only won 11 games in the previous three seasons, had not had a winning season in 12 years, and in that time never had more than four wins in a year. Their formula was beat a MAC team, lose to Notre Dame, lose to a major conference foe like Washington, beat another bottom feeder Big Ten team or two, then hope we win the Bucket.
That is the way it went, year after year.