The Boiler Room

By mid-morning Saturday, the same papers that brimmed with stories of fans and players taking the Football Special to Union Station were printing "Extra" editions to tell of the wreck and the mounting death toll. An early Extra told of the efforts of passengers on the doomed train heading north to warn the second chartered train to stop.

Of the 1903 football squad that rolled out of Lafayette early Saturday, Oct. 31, 1903, precious few escaped death or serious injury in the train wreck that awaited. That day, 13 members of the football team died on the tracks. A fourteenth died in November from his injuries.

The splintered top of the first passenger coach rests atop the coal cars the Football Special struck at 18th Street in Indianapolis. That first coach carried most of the 50-plus members of the team, as well as most coaches.

Inspired by the tragedy of Oct. 31, 1903, Memorial Gymnasium was built with funds donated by the Big Four Railroad - whose specials carried the team and fans to Indianapolis that day - and private citizens. For 30 years, it was the home of Boilermaker Intercollegiate Athletics. Today, it is the Computer Science Building.