Chariot Auto Group's Monday Night Memories: Purdue's greatest comeback ever 40 years later

Purdue’s 56-54 win at Illinois on Feb. 23, 1983, remains the greatest comeback in the school’s men’s basketball history as the Boilermakers came from 20-points down in the contest’s final 12:27 to pull off one of the most remarkable victories in Purdue hoops history. 

Hear from the guys who saw it first hand All-Big Ten centers Russell Cross (1983) and Jim Rowinski (1984, and league MVP are joined by Gene Keady’s top assistant Bruce Weber, and standout players Greg Eifert and Steve Reid.

It’s the story how a fed-up coach benched his regulars in favor of a pair of seldom-used freshmen in Mack Gadis and Herb Robinson and center Ted Benson to fuel the furious rally.

The story of the comeback

Illinois, coached by Lou Henson, led Purdue 34-24 at the half and 49-29 at the 12:27 mark in the final half and Keady figured that a 20-point margin on a foreign clock in the days before the shot clock that the cause was lost, or at least in need of some fresh faces. The third-year coach replaced Curt Clawson, Eifert, Dan Palombizio and Reid with four players who had a combined 122 minutes of action in 12 conference games to date. The “fab four” of Gadis, Robinson, junior Rowinski and senior Benson joined Cross.

At the eight minute mark, junior guard Ricky Hall, who would earn Big Ten defensive player-of-the-year the following year, replaced Benson at the eight-minute mark, as the Boilermakers had trimmed the lead to 54-41. Illinois coach Lou Henson called a timeout after Robinson score two of his six points to cul the lead to 54-48 with 6:32 left. Just 97 seconds later Robinson tield the game with a three-pointer from the left wing. Robinson and Gadis both hit threes as the Boilermakers benefitted from the Big Ten deciding to have the three-pointer during the 1983 conference season on an experimental basis.

As the panelists attest to four decades later, Keady was tempted to put the starters back in, but decided against it. With no shot clock at the time, Illinois held the ball for much of the game’s last five minutes with only one possession change. When the Illini blocked Hall’s chance at a layup with about 90 seconds left and re-took possession, the were able to milk the clock down to 14 seconds left in the game before taking a timeout to set up the game-winning shot. Dramatically, Hall stripped the ball from Illinois’ guard Derek Harper with three seconds left and wisely called time out. Purdue iced its comeback when Rowinski banked in the game winner with one second left. It capped an 18-0 run in the final 9:38 team.

The 1982-93 team, Keady’s first NCAA team, won a handful of games on last-second shots, and were called Keady’s Cardiac Kids. But none of those last-second shots were comparable to Rowinski’s game winner.

And to this day, Rowinski claims he called “bank.”

For more on Rowinski’s amazing rise from walk-on to Big Ten MVP, click here.

Gadis shares his memories here.

1982-83 season results