For Jim Everett, Purdue’s 1984 season still glows with magic 40 years later

Wanna see Jim Everett smile? Ask him about the 1984 season. It was 40 years ago, but the memories remain fresh from one of the most magical seasons in program history.

It was a fall filled with the unexpected for Everett and the Boilermakers, a season the likes of which hadn’t been seen in West Lafayette before or since … a season that saw Purdue beat Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan. (Michigan State is the only team to pull off that giant-killing trifecta in the same season.)

“I want to know who was scheduling this stuff,” said Everett with a laugh.

Everett and his Boilermakers were up to the task, guiding the program to an out-of-nowhere 7-5 season that culminated with a trip to the Peach Bowl.

“I think it still lives on as part of my legacy and for all the guys on our team,” said Everett. “The sum of the parts was greater. We all came together. It was Leon Burnett doing his stuff, the guys committing …

“I’ve never seen a more mentally tough team that had zero expectations. The next year, we had higher expectations and we actually didn’t do as well and we should have done way better (5-6 record in 1985). But it was a wild time. There were guys playing the best they possibly could.”

There was talent. Future NFL players like Rod Woodson , Ray Wallace , Fred Strickland , Donnie Anderson , Rodney Carter , Bruce King and Cris Dishman dotted the roster.

But the best of them all in the 1984 season was Everett, who was in the fight of his life to win the job in training camp.

There were no guarantees for Everett, who was entering his fourth season on campus and had thought of transferring. He was the most veteran signal-caller on the roster for a program trying to replace standout signal-caller Scott Campbell .

Burtnett—who was on a bit of a hot seat as he entered his third season still looking for winning campaign with a 6-15-1 overall record—had brought in two highly-decorated quarterbacks in the 1983 recruiting class and they were ready to compete: Doug Downing and Jeff Huber .

“Leon told me, ‘If you’re tied with these guys, we’re going with the young guy. And so that’s kind of how it was,” recalled Everett, who was signed by Jim Young in 1981. “I wasn’t Leon’s guy.”

Everertt eventually became Leon’s guy.

“It was not easy,” he said. “It was very difficult.”

Everett won the job in camp, but he still was on a short leash as Purdue opened the season vs. No. 8 Notre Dame in the inaugural game of the Indianapolis Hoosier Dome. The Boilermakers were big underdogs to Gerry Faust’s Fighting Irish.

“I knew I was going to start,” said Everett. “Now, if I went in there and laid an egg, I would have immediately been pulled.”

Everett was sharp, hitting 20-of-28 passes for 255 yards with two TD tosses in engineering a 23-21 upset of Notre Dame.

“That was job security right there,” said Everett. “But I still didn’t want to go out and keep looking over my shoulder.

“Leon was happy with it. He had the win. Of course, he didn’t want us to be satisfied with just one big win. He wanted us to continue on, which we did.”

That was a prelude of things to come. The next shocker came in Ross-Ade Stadium on an October afternoon, when the Boilermakers knocked off No. 2 Ohio State, 28-23. Everett hit 17-of-23 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns and Woodson returned an interception 55 yards for the clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter.

“They were gonna blitz us,” said Everett. “They were gonna bring the heat against our offense. They were going to try to will their way to victory with Keith Byars .”

Purdue never flinched.

The Boilermakers completed the run of big upsets with a 31-29 triumph vs. Michigan in West Lafayette in November. Everett tossed two TD passes as the Boilers raced to a 31-7 lead and then hung on.

“The Wolverines, they walked right into our spiderweb,” said Everett. “Anything I threw was caught. It was one of those magical moments. … we were just dialed, we were rocking.”

Purdue was poised to win the Big Ten as it headed to Wisconsin the next week, but the Boilermakers fell, 30-13. From there, it was on to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta to play Virginia, led by quarterback Don Majkowski . Purdue lost, 27-24, but that defeat—nor the passage of time—has done nothing to mute what Everett and his teammates experienced 40 years ago. The Boilermakers wouldn’t go to a bowl again until the 1997 season.

“The guys that were on the sideline that helped us in practice, gave us great looks,” said Everett, the No. 3 pick in the 1986 NFL draft. “And the commitment there was. There was not a bunch of messing around. Everyone was down to business. We were focused and we had a good time and we enjoyed each other and we enjoyed each other off the field.”

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