Farewell, And Thank You

After 19 years and millions of words written about Purdue sports I am not quite sure what to say. As many of you know, Boiler Upload will be no more after June 30th. The acquisition of the Rivals brand by On3 will bring an end to our time here, and all subscribers will be transferred over to Gold and Black Illustrated as part of the On3 Network. Jace “Dub” Jellison has already moved over there, so Casey and I have been winding things down here before the shutdown. It is late June, however. There is not a ton going on aside from recruiting news, and that is already being handled by GBI and their staff, so we’re essentially running out the clock. Casey has done a great job of posting some of his best basketball work here, but I wanted to put in a publisher's note before we close our doors for good.

It has been a long journey. I started by publishing my own blog back in August of 2006, as I was 4 years out of college and looking to gain some writing experience. The fact I received one comment in the first month of writing that old Blogger site blew my mind then. I never imagined where that path would go, and it has been a wild one.

First things first: It has been an absolute joy to cover Purdue sports, primarily football and basketball, for you all. I have always tried to write as a fan given tremendous access, and every time I have set foot on the floor or field where Purdue is playing as a member of the media it feels like an unspeakable privilege. The last event I got to cover in person was the Sweet 16 game against Houston, and the feeling I had stepping on the court before warm ups was the same giddy feeling I got the first time I covered an event.

So for that, I thank you first, readers and subscribers. I am just some guy that started writing. You all were the ones that found me and gave me an audience. I have never been perfect. There are some things I would do differently, but it has been an incredible privilege to write for you.

I also need to thank Casey, Jace, Kyle, and Israel for their contributions here. Casey has a true gift for writing about Purdue basketball, and I hope he will still have a place to use it for this coming season. It looks to be a special one on the horizon, and you all deserve Casey as your voice for it. He took a tremendous chance in jumping at this opportunity when it came about, and he has truly busted his but for you all.

In Jace, I see a bit of myself about 20 years ago. He is a grinder. He has a true gift for reaching out to people and finding connections. He also has a tremendous passion for purdue sports. When the news of this merger was announced I immediately contacted GBI to put in a good word for Casey and Jace, and I was elated that they recognized his talents. I am glad you are in good hands with him at GBI.

Kyle has been gone a while (we had to do some budget cuts), but he is still writing over at Hammer & Rails, at least in the offseason. He was recently named the head football coach at Harrison high school in West Lafayette. It is his first job as the main guy in high school, so we wish him well for this coming season. Casey, Kyle, and Jace all followed me over here from SB Nation and we could not have done what we have done the last three years without them.

I did not know Israel as well as the other three, but as a writer for the Exponent it was great to have someone on campus reporting for us. He is going to go places for sure in this business, and I was more than happy to give him a start.

I also need to thank the guys over at GBI. I know it seems weird to thank the people that are benefitting from this site’s demise, but Alan, Brian, Tom, and Mike have all been doing this longer than I have. They are trusted voices and have always put out a quality product. In fact, I owe my own audience to them, as the first readers I ever got came from posting on their free board when I was starting out.

Finally, I need to thank our sponsor, Reindeer Shuttle. We could not have done everything we have done without them. If you need a ride from O’Hare or Indianapolis International Airport to West Lafayette use them, because driving to the airport sucks.

As for me, I am not sure if this is a “goodbye” for good or not. It is a time of transition for me. When I started doing this, I was in my mid-20s and hadn’t even been married 2 years yet. Now I am in my 40s with a 12 year old son and a lot more maturity than I had even 5 years ago. I have regrets, to be sure. I have not always been the most professional and I am definitely guilty of speaking before thinking, but I know I have grown a lot in the almost two decades doing this. In the near term I am looking at going back to school in my newly found free time and getting a Masters degree to become a mental health counselor. It is a shift, but it feels like a solid direction.

It is strange to no longer be managing a site like this after 19 years. I have always done this in a bizarre limbo where it was never quite enough to be a main gig, but it was a good side gig. I made some money, sure, but I have always needed a main job while doing this, so I am honestly just worn out from it all. It is going to be nice to have some time back, especially since I can use that time to dad some more. It has been A LOT of work over the years. The one major regret I have is that the “day job” portion didn’t work out so I could go to Phoenix for the Final Four. I wanted that to be my final piece, but I had to watch from afar while Casey was there. Still, I took a lot of joy in knowing that Casey and Ledman over at H&R got to be there because of something I started.

I will still be out there though. I have my football season tickets and I can still rant on Blusky (Sorry, my Twitter handle is dead. Too many fascists there). I might even go back to H&R and be kind of like a writer emeritus there just to scratch the itch to write. I would call it a semi-retirement for now.

To those of you who stayed on when we launched and to those that signed on in the interim, thank you again. I know we were up against it from the beginning, as GBI was well established and now you were going to have to pay for writers you used to read for free. We did the best we could in that situation, and Casey, Jace, Kyle, and Israel always put out an excellent product.

So farewell from the Boiler Upload staff, and thank you.