Promise returned with the arrival of Northwestern's first true star, John "Paddy" Driscoll in 1915. There have been 29 head coaches since the inaugural team in 1882, with Pat Fitzgerald being the current head coach. The subsequent 1996 season lived up to expectations, with the Wildcats repeating as Big Ten Champions (sharing the title with Ohio State). As for Illinois, well, we know how this goes. They would rise to the #1 spot in the AP poll before losing to Wisconsin and Michigan State, but would finish the season #16 in the coaches’ poll at 7-2. [46], The Illinois Fighting Illini are the Wildcats' most natural rival. After going 10-22 over three years, Pont assumed the athletic director chair, where he would plunge Northwestern into an era of ruination not seen before or since. Coach Pont was 11-43 in Evanston when Moeller’s Illini came to town having won the previous three matchups by a combined 104-27. Though quarterback Kevin Strasser would throw 33 passes for Northwestern, the vertical passing game that had been promised was absent. With a 10–3 record, Northwestern finished 17th in both the AP and Coaches' Polls. Now’s finally the time where I get to use my newspaper archives. Commercial broadcasts are handled by WGN (AM), with longtime Wildcat radio announcer Dave Eanet handling play-by-play and Ted Albrecht as color commentator. [61], Before the 4th quarter of Northwestern football games a video screen plays the song "Put Your Hands Up in the Air" by Danzel, preceded by an announcement by a local celebrity. Further investigation of Moeller’s remark yielded the following from the pages of the Tribune: Sure enough, Northwestern’s slogan heading into a four-year stretch in which they won a single game was “Expect the Unexpected,” and it can’t be said that they failed to deliver on that promise. Down 16–0 entering the fourth quarter, the Wildcats scored 17 unanswered points, culminating with heart-stopping fourth down conversions and a last second field goal to complete the comeback. On the way, they crushed Pete Elliott’s Fighting Illini 45-0. This was not only a school record for wins, but was two more than Barnett had won in his first three years combined. Barnett rejected interest from such legendary college programs as Notre Dame, UCLA, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas. 7 ranking in the final AP poll. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, NU students rushed the field, tore down the goalposts, and heaved them into nearby Lake Michigan. The three points were the only points scored against the Wolverines who posted shut out wins in every other game that season. Though not scoring, they pinned Illinois back inside their own 20. Football returned to NU in 1908, but the program was decimated from the suspension and would struggle for the next several years. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. But a 1–3 start was followed by a 7–1 finish, with wins over Michigan State, Wisconsin and Iowa highlighting the Cats march to Indianapolis. Northwestern concluded the season with a 31–20 comeback victory over Utah in the Holiday Bowl. They achieved a ranking of No. Bachér Again With Offensive Player of the Week Award", "Illinois vs. Northwestern - Game Recap - November 22, 2008 - ESPN", "Wisconsin vs. Northwestern - Game Recap - November 21, 2009 - ESPN", "Northwestern Composite Championship Listing", http://nusports.com/documents/2017/7/21/Northwestern_2017_Media_Guide.pdf, "Done deal: Illinois at Northwestern at Wrigley Field", "Illinois and Northwestern Announce Football Series Trophy", "Illinois-Northwestern rivalry will continue", "History of NU's Rivalry Trophies – HailToPurple.com", http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings, "Illinois abandons tomahawk trophy for football game", "Northwestern Put Your Hands Up In The Air", 2009 Big Ten Media Guide (Football Honors), All-Time Academic All-America by Schools N-S, "Past NFF National Scholar-Athlete Award Winners", http://www.pal-item.com/article/20090910/NEWS02/909100328, "Northwestern Wildcats Football Future Schedules", McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research, Argonne–Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Northwestern_Wildcats_football&oldid=980175011, American football teams established in 1876, Articles with dead external links from April 2020, Articles with permanently dead external links, Wikipedia articles with style issues from December 2008, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles that may be too long from January 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2019, Articles needing additional references from August 2019, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 8 (1903, 1926, 1930, 1931, Ohio State won 23–3, costing NU a Big Ten title. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. [4] From 1882 to 1887, the team mostly practiced and did not play teams outside of NU. [54] Notre Dame leads the series 38–9–2. The life of former Georgetown coach John Thompson was remembered at a virtual memorial Saturday. 24 ranking in the AP Poll, the first since 2008. 2 at point guard and No. Illinois-native animals are frequently in competition with other species attempting to take over their habitats. The Illini probably won’t be a bad team, but even so, this is a win for Northwestern. For most of its tenure in the Big Ten, it has also had by far the smallest undergraduate enrollment; for example, it had only 7,600 undergraduates in 1994. Following the season Coach Walker and offensive coordinator, Kevin Wilson, visited Rich Rodriguez and Tommy Bowden at Clemson to learn from the offense that they were running. In Lou Saban's only year as head coach in 1955, the Wildcats had a winless season with a 0–8–1 record. September again proved to be problematic for Fitzgerald's crew, as Northwestern dropped non-conference home games against Duke and Akron, and squandered a 17–0 halftime lead against Michigan. The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk has been replaced with the Land of Lincoln trophy, coaches and players have come and gone, the game has been played at four different venues and the level of play has been wildly variable. Northwestern forced a fumble late in the game, leading to 24-yard touchdown run by Azema with 1:09 left to seal the victory. Let's have a look. In 2010, Northwestern played Illinois in the first college football game at Wrigley Field since 1938. 9 Nebraska. Northwestern's decline began in 1972, with a 2–9 season, and the Wildcats failed to win more than four games through 1975. The Wildcats did not make the postseason again until December 26, 2003, when they lost to Bowling Green by a score of 28–24 in the Motor City Bowl. Barnett made good on that boast in 1995. Led by the trio of quarterback Steve Schnur, running back Darnell Autry, and linebacker Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern accomplished one of the most dramatic one-season turnarounds in college football history. Coach Walker's offense revolutionized college football. 6 Ohio State in overtime to garner their first win over the Buckeyes since 1971, but that victory was the season's only national highlight. We call Illinois the "Prairie State" because there are hundreds of miles of mostly flat, grassy land that are home to thousands of different species of plants and animals. Then they passed the spot from which Jones had missed the early field goal. During his tenure, NU compiled a record of 36–35–1, with winning seasons from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1963. Randy Walker died unexpectedly on June 29, 2006 of an apparent heart attack at the age of 52. Bachér went on to be named the Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week, as well as the Big Ten Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Agase would finish his career at Northwestern with a record of 32–58–1, which ranks first in total losses. The origins of the trophy derived from a wooden cigar store Indian named Sweet Sioux, which was stolen and replaced by a tomahawk. In fact, the team's performance against Chicago earned NU the nickname "Wildcats" after Chicago Sun-Times writer Wallace Abbey wrote that Chicago was stopped by a "wall of Purple Wildcats. Florida State's Jordan Travis launches 41-yd TD pass to Keyshawn Helton. [10] During the season, a special investigative committee had studied the brutality of early-era football. [6] Also in 1892, the university chose royal purple as the school's official color, and the team recorded its first significant win, beating Michigan 10–8. Before the beginning of the 2007 season, Northwestern showed potential for improvement upon the previous year's record. Ryan Mutombo, the son of Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo, announced Sunday he would follow in his father's footsteps by committing to Georgetown. Hence, the 2006 season was a departure from the previous years' successes. Said Mattoon’s Journal Gazette, “One might think a football game between Illinois and Northwestern, last year’s Big Ten doormats, a rather ho-hum contemplation.” The Journal Gazette did concede, however, that it “could make for an interesting afternoon of football,” before describing the matchup as pitting “a very young, Elmer Gantry-type coach who preaches wide-open football against his former boss,” and citing Coach Moeller: “I’ve been told to expect the unexpected,” Moeller said.