Kyle Ingraham has been trying to set the record straight since the moment he stepped on Purdue University’s campus. He’s not a basketball player.

But at 6 feet 9 inches, people still find it hard to believe he’s a wide receiver for the No. 24 Boilermakers.

‘When I walk around campus, people think I’m a basketball player,’ Ingraham said. ‘When I was visiting the athletic facilities as a high school senior (on an official football visit), one of the assistant basketball coaches came up to my host and asked, ‘Is he with us?’ Then we had to explain that I was a football recruit.’

Purdue football coaches certainly noticed his rare combination of size and agility – Ingraham ran a 4.7-second 40-yard dash as incoming recruit – as Ingraham appeared in all 13 games and started three as a true freshman last season. The 228-pounder from San Antonio had 13 catches for 140 yards and scored two touchdowns in his role as a red zone and goal line receiver.

Now just a sophomore, Ingraham will get a chance to showcase his receiving skills as Purdue’s No. 2 receiver when the Orange travels to Purdue for Sunday’s season opener.

Ingraham has big shoes to fill after the graduation of the Big Ten’s all-time leading receiver, John Standeford. But his size-15 feet could be the perfect fit.

‘Kyle’s a tremendous athlete,’ said Danny Padron, Ingraham’s former offensive coordinator at Clark High School. ‘When you combine his size and his ability, a receiver like that comes around once in a lifetime. If I had to pick one receiver (as the best I’ve coached), it’d probably be him, because he can block, he can line up as a tight end and he can catch.’

Even Ingraham admits he’s a bit of an anomaly – a big guy with good coordination and athleticism.

‘It has to do with my parents,’ Ingraham said. ‘If I did only one sport, I might be that tall, gangly guy. But all the different body movements I learned from the different sports made me a good all-around athlete.’

Susan and Corky Ingraham were not particular in the sports they introduced to Kyle and his two brothers, Chase and Colton. Meanwhile, Ingraham wasn’t particular in what he chose to do, as he became a six-sport athlete at Clark High School.

In the fall, Ingraham played football and was the water polo team’s goalie. In the winter, Ingraham was a dominant forward on the basketball court. In the spring, Ingraham threw discus and did the high jump, swam freestyle and backstroke races and served as the baseball team’s starting first baseman.

All the while, Ingraham never let his continual growth spurt from a 6-foot-1 freshman to a 6-foot-9 senior stunt his development.

‘Height has never slowed me down, a part of it has helped me,’ Ingraham said. ‘I had the reach at first base, I had long arms as a (water polo) goalie and I could really propel myself in the water (swimming).’

‘Kyle is a gifted athlete, period,’ Corky Ingraham said. ‘He excelled in every sport he played. He always had the hand-eye coordination, agility and reasonable speed to play wide receiver. Plus, at the junior high level, the high school level, and now the college level, no one has stepped up to show they can stop him, so it’s a good fit for him.’

Clark coaches tried Ingraham out at defensive end and tight end, but the sight of him towering over 5-foot-5 cornerbacks as a wide receiver was too good to pass up.

‘It was quite entertaining,’ Ingraham said. ‘There’s a picture of me jumping up for a ball and the cornerback has his arm up, waving it and trying to knock the ball away. But his hand is hitting me in my stomach. It’s a really cool picture.’

The towering Ingraham was a nightmare to other high school coaches, which is why Padron made him a focal point of his offense at the beginning Ingraham’s sophomore year.

‘He has the courage to go up for any pass,’ Padron said. ‘He’s conscientious, too. He would work on his passing routes all the time. And if you get the ball in his area, he’s going to come down with it. A lot of district coaches would shake their heads because they’d be trying everything to stop him, but they still couldn’t. We won a lot of games throwing the ball to him.’

Though Padron coached at another high school during Ingraham’s senior year, his two years of developing the young wide-out produced a second-team all-state receiver who caught 71 passes for 1,053 yards and 13 touchdowns his final year.

Still, Ingraham admitted the decision to play college football or basketball wasn’t clear, considering he averaged about 16 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks on the court.

Purdue offered more for him academically and athletically than his basketball suitors (Wichita State, Bucknell and Samford) could offer, so he departed for West Lafayette.

Even before he took the field, Ingraham already rewrote Purdue record books for being the tallest football player in school history. So he didn’t blame his teammates when they ‘weren’t sure whether I was kidding or not when I put on my receiving gloves for the first time.’

By now Ingraham’s teammates know he’s a serious receiving threat, but not all of his peers are aware yet. That’s fine with Ingraham, though. All he needs is a little more time before everyone knows the true identity of the big man on campus.

‘It’ll take a while,’ Ingraham said. ‘People still whisper ‘I wonder if he’s a basketball player’ when they see me in the halls, but with the more time I spend on the field and the more our team succeeds, then they’ll recognize who I am.’

Published on September 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm