FULL CLASS OF 2022 | HALL OF FAME HOMEPAGE
In athletics, it is very tempting to measure someone's success in wins and losses, championships won and personnel decisions. To measure the legacy of the late Morgan J. Burke in this manner would be to completely miss the point of the 23 years he spent at the helm of Purdue Athletics. He has those accolades, to be sure.
During his time as Purdue's Athletics Director, the department won 20 Big Ten titles, 16 Big Ten Tournament titles and NCAA Championships in women's basketball and women's golf. Burke was instrumental in bringing Joe Tiller, Matt Painter, Carolyn Peck, Devon Brouse, Adam Soldati and Dave Shondell to West Lafayette, each of whom will have outstanding cases to join him in the Hall of Fame when the time comes. And he shepherded renovations to Ross-Ade Stadium and Mackey Arena while creating out of thin air the Kozuch Football Performance Center, Alexander Field, Bittinger Stadium and the Boilermaker Aquatic Center which now bears his own name.
While these accomplishments may be his résumé, they in no way represent his greatest achievements. In 2016, just before his retirement, Burke spoke about what he truly valued.
"I don't think I accomplished anything, I think we accomplished a lot," Burke said. "At the end of the day, it's about developing scholars, citizens and champions. We've got people who are running companies, doctors and engineers. We've had Big Ten Champions, National Champions, Super Bowl Champions, NBA and WNBA Champions and Olympic Champions."
This weekend, Burke was posthumously inducted into the Leroy Keyes Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame, a venture started by Burke and his department shortly after his tenure began in West Lafayette.
One of Burke's defining characteristics was a wonderful ability to connect with people on a personal level. He made it a point of pride to learn the name of every student-athlete, coach and staff member associated with Purdue. Each fall, he would study the new faces so that he could greet them by name and with a personal comment the next time he saw them.
"The way I learned how to manage was to walk around," Burke said. "Every afternoon from 3:30 to 6:30, I tried to get out to practice or to games. That's how you build a connection with someone and once you have that connection, you can focus on what is possible."
"It was important for him to get to know people because he understood what everyone had to sacrifice in the pursuit of excellence, whether it be coaches or student-athletes or staff members," said Kate Burke, Morgan's wife of more than 46 years.
Sacrifice was something Burke was well acquainted with. A three-year letter-winner with the Purdue Swimming & Diving team, Burke knew all about the hard work and sacrifice it took to be a Division I student-athlete. Although he had moderate success in the pool, he distinguished himself in other ways, earning the honor of team captain his senior season.
"I wasn't a great swimmer," Burke admitted years later. "I had been a team captain, but I learned things as a student athlete that became more important in my career than my law degree or my graduate coursework."
After graduating from John Marshall Law School in 1980, Burke went to work at Inland Steel where, over the next dozen years, he rose to the position of vice president. When then-athletics director George King announced he was going to retire in 1993, Burke reached out to congratulate a man he'd long admired on a great career. It was during that phone call that King first mentioned the idea of Burke succeeding him.
After some consideration, Burke took the job. Despite a rougher than anticipated transition that nearly forced him to walk away in those early years, he figured out how to thrive in his new role. Over the next decade, he saw the women's basketball team go to three Final Fours and win a national title as well as the men's basketball team win three straight Big Ten titles from 1994 to 1996. In 1996, with the football program struggling, he made the move to replace Jim Colletto with former Purdue assistant and current Wyoming head coach Joe Tiller. Four years later, Tiller had led Purdue Football to its first Big Ten title in three decades and took the team to the Pasadena.
"The Rose Bowl is hard to top," Burke said when recounting his best memories as AD. "Winning an NCAA Championship in women's basketball is pretty hard to top. The Three-Pete here in Mackey was something that would touch your heart. Seeing a dogpile at baseball when we hadn't won a Big Ten title in a century was special. The national championship in women's golf was special. There's a lot of them. But it's the individual stories and the hard work and the breakthroughs that stick with you for a lifetime."
The Burke family were regulars at Purdue events in the decades before Morgan took over as athletics director and that didn't stop once he moved back to campus. In fact, as he became more invested in each and every team, Morgan became more impassioned at each and every competition.
""If you saw Morgan at an athletic event, you wouldn't see anyone more passionate than him," Kate said with a smile. "And you might not want to get too close to him because he was so intense."
After retiring from Purdue Athletics, Burke moved over to the campus side of Purdue as the vice president for special projects, spending most of his time working on the launch of Purdue University Global. Even after the ups and downs that come from a career in college athletics, Burke had only positive things to say about the job. The only regrets he had were of a more personal nature.
Morgan was always quick to mention Kate and his family when speaking at a donor event or connecting with a staff member or coach. He was constantly aware of the stress his professional life could have put on their personal lives.
"I have gratitude in my heart," he said in 2016. "Kate and my children allowed me to do this job. It's a different lifestyle…you're never really off. It's a public life and I give them a lot of credit. It's not an easy life for them."
"The goals Morgan was trying to achieve made it worth the sacrifices he had to make," Kate replied, years later. "He just wanted to help student-athletes in every way possible."
"I think we have great facilities and great coaches," Morgan said in his final days at the helm. "Our best days are ahead of us. To me, if you can turn out 100 good kids a year, which is what I think we are doing, that's a pretty good legacy."
By Cory Palm, Director of Broadcast Services - Purdue Athletics
In athletics, it is very tempting to measure someone's success in wins and losses, championships won and personnel decisions. To measure the legacy of the late Morgan J. Burke in this manner would be to completely miss the point of the 23 years he spent at the helm of Purdue Athletics. He has those accolades, to be sure.
During his time as Purdue's Athletics Director, the department won 20 Big Ten titles, 16 Big Ten Tournament titles and NCAA Championships in women's basketball and women's golf. Burke was instrumental in bringing Joe Tiller, Matt Painter, Carolyn Peck, Devon Brouse, Adam Soldati and Dave Shondell to West Lafayette, each of whom will have outstanding cases to join him in the Hall of Fame when the time comes. And he shepherded renovations to Ross-Ade Stadium and Mackey Arena while creating out of thin air the Kozuch Football Performance Center, Alexander Field, Bittinger Stadium and the Boilermaker Aquatic Center which now bears his own name.
While these accomplishments may be his résumé, they in no way represent his greatest achievements. In 2016, just before his retirement, Burke spoke about what he truly valued.
"I don't think I accomplished anything, I think we accomplished a lot," Burke said. "At the end of the day, it's about developing scholars, citizens and champions. We've got people who are running companies, doctors and engineers. We've had Big Ten Champions, National Champions, Super Bowl Champions, NBA and WNBA Champions and Olympic Champions."
This weekend, Burke was posthumously inducted into the Leroy Keyes Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame, a venture started by Burke and his department shortly after his tenure began in West Lafayette.
One of Burke's defining characteristics was a wonderful ability to connect with people on a personal level. He made it a point of pride to learn the name of every student-athlete, coach and staff member associated with Purdue. Each fall, he would study the new faces so that he could greet them by name and with a personal comment the next time he saw them.
"The way I learned how to manage was to walk around," Burke said. "Every afternoon from 3:30 to 6:30, I tried to get out to practice or to games. That's how you build a connection with someone and once you have that connection, you can focus on what is possible."
"It was important for him to get to know people because he understood what everyone had to sacrifice in the pursuit of excellence, whether it be coaches or student-athletes or staff members," said Kate Burke, Morgan's wife of more than 46 years.
Sacrifice was something Burke was well acquainted with. A three-year letter-winner with the Purdue Swimming & Diving team, Burke knew all about the hard work and sacrifice it took to be a Division I student-athlete. Although he had moderate success in the pool, he distinguished himself in other ways, earning the honor of team captain his senior season.
"I wasn't a great swimmer," Burke admitted years later. "I had been a team captain, but I learned things as a student athlete that became more important in my career than my law degree or my graduate coursework."
After graduating from John Marshall Law School in 1980, Burke went to work at Inland Steel where, over the next dozen years, he rose to the position of vice president. When then-athletics director George King announced he was going to retire in 1993, Burke reached out to congratulate a man he'd long admired on a great career. It was during that phone call that King first mentioned the idea of Burke succeeding him.
After some consideration, Burke took the job. Despite a rougher than anticipated transition that nearly forced him to walk away in those early years, he figured out how to thrive in his new role. Over the next decade, he saw the women's basketball team go to three Final Fours and win a national title as well as the men's basketball team win three straight Big Ten titles from 1994 to 1996. In 1996, with the football program struggling, he made the move to replace Jim Colletto with former Purdue assistant and current Wyoming head coach Joe Tiller. Four years later, Tiller had led Purdue Football to its first Big Ten title in three decades and took the team to the Pasadena.
"The Rose Bowl is hard to top," Burke said when recounting his best memories as AD. "Winning an NCAA Championship in women's basketball is pretty hard to top. The Three-Pete here in Mackey was something that would touch your heart. Seeing a dogpile at baseball when we hadn't won a Big Ten title in a century was special. The national championship in women's golf was special. There's a lot of them. But it's the individual stories and the hard work and the breakthroughs that stick with you for a lifetime."
The Burke family were regulars at Purdue events in the decades before Morgan took over as athletics director and that didn't stop once he moved back to campus. In fact, as he became more invested in each and every team, Morgan became more impassioned at each and every competition.
""If you saw Morgan at an athletic event, you wouldn't see anyone more passionate than him," Kate said with a smile. "And you might not want to get too close to him because he was so intense."
After retiring from Purdue Athletics, Burke moved over to the campus side of Purdue as the vice president for special projects, spending most of his time working on the launch of Purdue University Global. Even after the ups and downs that come from a career in college athletics, Burke had only positive things to say about the job. The only regrets he had were of a more personal nature.
Morgan was always quick to mention Kate and his family when speaking at a donor event or connecting with a staff member or coach. He was constantly aware of the stress his professional life could have put on their personal lives.
"I have gratitude in my heart," he said in 2016. "Kate and my children allowed me to do this job. It's a different lifestyle…you're never really off. It's a public life and I give them a lot of credit. It's not an easy life for them."
"The goals Morgan was trying to achieve made it worth the sacrifices he had to make," Kate replied, years later. "He just wanted to help student-athletes in every way possible."
"I think we have great facilities and great coaches," Morgan said in his final days at the helm. "Our best days are ahead of us. To me, if you can turn out 100 good kids a year, which is what I think we are doing, that's a pretty good legacy."
By Cory Palm, Director of Broadcast Services - Purdue Athletics