By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com

The Big Ten was absolutely loaded with great football teams in 1965.

Duffy Daugherty's eventual national champion Michigan State Spartans had a quartet of All-America players in Bubba Smith, George Webster, Gene Washington and Clinton Jones.

Bump Elliott's Michigan Wolverines climbed to as high as No. 4 in the rankings with Jack Clancy, Bill Yearby and Rich Volk.

Woody Hayes's Ohio State Buckeyes made it up to No 10 in the polls with Doug Van Horn and Ike Kelly.

And Purdue, Illinois's seventh opponent in '65, was stacked with talent as well, led by All-America quarterback Bob Griese. The Boilermakers easily qualified as one of the nation's best. After shutting out Miami of Ohio in the season opener, Coach Jack Mollenkopf's squad dispatched top-ranked Notre Dame (25-21) in West Lafayette, tied Coach Hayden Fry's SMU squad at the Cotton Bowl, then beat both Iowa (17-14) and Michigan (17-15) on the road.

Still very much in the Rose Bowl hunt, sixth-ranked Purdue now came to Champaign to play the Fighting Illini on Dad's Day. Just a week earlier, the Boilers had battled No. 2 MSU on nearly equal terms before bowing at home by just four points. Bob Griese had been carving up opposing defenses, while tackle Jerry Shay was leading Purdue's stifling defense.

Illinois, captained by Jim Grabowski and Don Hansen, was on a two-game winning streak coming into the contest. Many questioned whether or not Coach Pete Elliott's troops could stay with powerful Purdue in the game staged at Memorial Stadium before a rare national television audience.

Midway through the first quarter, the sizable Dads Day crowd began receiving optimistic signs. Following a Boilermaker punt, Illini quarterback Fred Custardo methodically moved his offensive unit down the field on a 71-yard touchdown drive. Powerful running from Grabowski, Sam Price and Ron Bess, plus the pass-catching talents of John Wright got Illinois on the board with just :57 left in the first stanza.

A punting battle ensued during most of the second quarter, including a superb boot by Griese that pinned the Illini down on their own 5-yard line. A 35-yard gain around right end by Grabo gave Illinois some breathing room and that's where Custardo and Wright went to work, connecting on a 44-yard gainer. With only 20 seconds left in the half but poised on the end zone's doorstep, Custardo overthrew Bess in the right flat. That stopped the clock for one final try.

Despite heavy defensive pressure from Purdue, Custardo targeted Bess again on the very same pattern. This time the Bloomington sophomore made a marvelous diving catch just inches into the end zone. Though Custardo's extra point attempt banged off the upright, the Illini were happy with a 13-0 lead at intermission.

The second half could have easily been subtitled "The Bo Batchelder Show." The 213-pound Illini junior defensive end from Peoria Heights admits it was a day he says he'll never forget.

"The night before a big game, I always dreamed about a day when something goes right," Batchelder recalled recently from his home in North Carolina. "If you're a defensive end, you're thinking about picking off a pass and heading in the other direction. It happened to come true for me that day."

First, he recovered a Randy Minniear fumble after Hansen knocked the ball loose from the Purdue fullback's grasp. Unfortunately, an offside penalty ruined Illinois's great scoring opportunity.

Next Batchelder intercepted a Griese pass on the Boilermaker 30 and returned it to the 11-yard line. Once again, however, an offensive penalty intervened and Custardo missed a chip-shot field goal from the 25.

Finally, midway through the fourth quarter, Batchelder made the signature play of his career.

"I do remember that one pretty well," he said. "We were down on the 8-yard line. Griese came out and around the end and he had all the options. He could pitch it, he could throw it, or he could run it. So he and I were by ourselves as he was coming around my side, and he began to pump the ball. I'm bearing down on him and I grabbed his wrist, bent his arm behind him, took the ball from him, pushed him out of bounds, and started heading down toward our end zone. It was a long way away."

Despite a bum knee, strapped up with a brace, Batchelder plodded south for 55 yards.

"I ran to the 25-yard line and got tackled from behind," he said. "Guess who tackled me? Bob Griese. I'm totally out of breath at this point. I get up and begin to walk across the field, then Sam Price runs and jumps on me, so now I'm carrying his 210 pounds, too. While the crowd is still standing and cheering, on the very next play, Fred immediately throws a 25-yard touchdown pass to Johnny Wright. So people seem to never remember that I didn't make it all the way. They always give me an additional 25 yards credit for which I don't deserve."

A couple of days after Illinois's 21-0 upset victory, Batchelder received an honorary "Triple Gold Star Award". It came in the form of a page-and-a-half long letter from Illini assistant coach Gene Stauber. The final paragraph read as follows:

"Thus Bo Batchelder did distinguish himself before the multitudes in one of the most amazing performances ever seen at Memorial Stadium. (He) enters the Illinois Hall of Fame as an 'Ace' pass defender along with other great aces such as George Donnelly, Mike Dundy, Dick Butkus and Don Hansen. Yes, October 30 was a "Go-Go" with "Bo-Bo" in a game for men only."