Pittsburgh vs. Purdue
Pittsburgh and Purdue have 7 meetings on file, the first in 1941; Purdue leads the series 4–3 in the games on file. Over the last 7 meetings it’s Purdue 4–3, and Pittsburgh has won the last 3. Share
- Pittsburgh wins
- 3
- Purdue wins
- 4
- Ties
- 0
- Earliest on file
- 1941
- Longest streak
- 4 Purdue
- Current streak
- 3 Pittsburgh
- Last 10 meetings
- Purdue 4–3
- Most recent
- 1986
The series at a glance
- Average margin
- 12.4 points; 4 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Pittsburgh
- 1–2 Pittsburgh’s record at home
- At Purdue
- 2–2 Purdue’s record at home
- Shutouts
- 3
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Pittsburgh’s biggest win1986: Pittsburgh 41, Purdue 26by 15 points
- Purdue’s biggest win1947: Purdue 28, Pittsburgh 0by 28 points
- Upset1941: Purdue 6, Pittsburgh 0Purdue had a 33% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
From the newspapers

1941 · Detroit evening times, Detroit, Mich, Oct 5, 1941

1945 · Evening star, District of Columbia, Nov 4, 1945

1946 · The Wilmington morning star, North Carolina, Oct 27, 1946

1948 · Evening star, District of Columbia, Nov 14, 1948
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
| Sep 20, 1986 | Pittsburgh 41, Purdue 26 | at Purdue | ||
| Aug 31, 1985 | Pittsburgh 31, Purdue 30 | at Pittsburgh | ||
| Nov 13, 1948 | Pittsburgh 20, Purdue 13 | at Purdue | ||
| Nov 15, 1947 | Purdue 28, Pittsburgh 0 | at Purdue | ||
| Oct 26, 1946 | Purdue 10, Pittsburgh 8 | at Pittsburgh | ||
| Nov 3, 1945 | 13Purdue 28, Pittsburgh 0 | at Purdue | ||
| Oct 4, 1941 | Purdue 6, Pittsburgh 0 | at Pittsburgh |
Every game is listed as played on the field.