The are the athletic teams that represent
Northwestern University , a founding member of the
Big Ten Conference , and the only private university member. Northwestern has eight men's and eleven women's Division I sports teams. The mascot is
Willie The Wildcat .
Northwestern's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats. Before
1924 , they were known as "The Purple" and unofficially as "The Fighting Methodists." The name Wildcats was bestowed upon the university in 1924 by Wallace Abbey, a writer for the
Chicago Daily Tribune who wrote that even in a loss to the
University Of Chicago , "Football players had not come down from Evanston; wildcats would be a name better suited to
Glenn Thistletwaite's boys." The team was also referred to in the article as "a Purple wall of wildcats."
1 The name was so popular that university board members made "Wildcats" the official nickname just months later.
Northwestern's athletic history has been somewhat lamentable, though there have been signs of a turnaround in the last decade. The
Northwestern Wildcats Football team once had the longest losing streak in
NCAA Division I-A history at 34 games. The men's basketball team has never made it to the
NCAA Tournament . Through even the roughest years, though, the school continued to field competitive teams in the so-called "non-revenue" sports, including tennis and swimming. Moreover, in the last decade, the school has begun to put many of its athletic woes behind it. Notable programs that are usually ranked in the Top 20 include men's swimming, and women's tennis, fencing and lacrosse. The football team has appeared in several bowl games since 1995, and the men's basketball team has made occasional appearances in the postseason, as well. The Northwestern women's lacrosse team has won three consecutive national championships (
2005 ,
2006 , and
2007 ). The
Northwestern Women's Softball team finished 2nd nationally in 2006, after losing to
Arizona in the title game series of the
Women's College World Series .
During football games, students jingle their car keys before every kickoff and punt. This began as an arrogant taunt; Big Ten rivals often bested Northwestern at football, and the keys implied "while your school may win the football game, in a few years your school's graduates will be parking Northwestern graduates' cars." When Northwestern is on defense, students extend their arms, make a claw with their hands, and growl.
The Northwestern student section is led in their cheers by
NUMB , the Northwestern University Marching Band. NUMB performs on the field and in the stands at all home games and follows the football team to one Big Ten away game per season.
For many years, students would throw marshmallows at the kick-off of football games. Northwestern archivist Patrick Quinn says that students were likely "trying to get them into the tubas, and then started throwing them at each other," leading to the tradition of throwing marshmallows at the field. While
Gary Barnett was football coach, he banned marshmallows because they supposedly detracted from the serious level of football that he wanted for the school.
The "official"
Cheer at Northwestern sporting events is the chant "Go U! NU!" Students also commonly taunt opposing sports teams with "State-school, state-school," referencing that all institutions of the Big Ten conference, except for Northwestern, are public universities.
Northwestern's
Fight Song is "
Go U Northwestern " A secondary fight song is "Rise Northwestern (Push On Song)," the final 4-measure tag (ending with a shouted "Go, 'Cats!") of which is often played after first downs.
See Also: Northwestern Wildcats football
The Northwestern University football team has evidence of organization in
1876 . Northwestern achieved an all-time high rank of #1 during the
1936 and
1962 seasons, which has thus far not been duplicated. Northwestern has won one bowl game, the
Rose Bowl , in
1949 . After that, the team has languished in decades of mediocrity. The team achieved notoriety with a 34-game losing streak from
1979 -
1982 , the longest in Division I-A college football. Upon setting the new record in
1981 (thanks to a 61-14 home loss to
Michigan State ), students rushed the field to "celebrate" and chanted "We're the worst!", ending the festivities by tearing down the goalposts and throwing them into
Lake Michigan . A win over
Northern Illinois finally broke the losing streak.
The surprising
1995 team, under head coach
Gary Barnett , won the Big Ten conference and earned a bid to the Rose Bowl, where they lost to
USC .
The football team's rankings of 21 by the AP Poll and 23 by the Coaches Poll in
2005 marked the team's first appearance in a national poll in 4 years. The Wildcats finished the year ranked 25 in the
BCS rankings and lost against
UCLA in the
Sun Bowl .
Around 10pm on
June 29 ,
2006 , the program was struck with tragedy when coach
Randy Walker died of an apparent heart attack. On
July 7 the school named
Pat Fitzgerald head coach.
Northwestern holds the all-time records for Division I-A losses, points allowed, and negative point differential (amount opponents have outscored them by). They are also on the losing end of
The Greatest Comeback In Division I-A History , blowing a 38-3 lead in the third quarter of a 41-38 loss to
Michigan State on October 21, 2006.
The Wildcats play their home games at
Ryan Field . Their chief Big Ten rival is the
Illinois Fighting Illini , and the teams play annually for the
Sweet Sioux Tomahawk .
The men's basketball team has never earned a bid to the
NCAA Tournament , and its last conference championship came in
1933 , when it tied with
Ohio State . The last time the team made the
NIT was
1999 . The team plays its home games in
Welsh-Ryan Arena , where it is cheered on by the
Wildside student section.
Bill Carmody is the current coach of the Wildcats. Under Carmody, a former head coach at
Princeton , the team runs the
Princeton Offense .
In 2007 Northwestern won the
National Championship in
Women's Lacrosse for the third year in a row, joining
Maryland as the only other school to three-peat. The run started in 2005, when the team enjoyed a perfect season and defeated many long-established east-coast schools after only 5 years as a varsity sport to capture the school's first national championship since
1941 . In doing so, it became the westernmost institution to ever win the title. Soon after, the team made national news when members appeared in a
White House photo with
President Bush wearing thong sandals, or
Flip-flops . In their three championship seasons, the Wildcats have a 62-2 record.http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/recaps/052707aaa.html
The Wildcats' best player over the past two years has been Kristen Kjellman, who led the team in goals both championship years. In 2006 and 2007 she received the
Tewaaraton Trophy honoring the best collegiate lacrosse player in the country. She is the first player from a non-East coast school to win the distinction, and the first player to be a two-time winner.
Current
Top 10 golfer
Luke Donald attended Northwestern, winning the NCAA title in 1999.
The
Northwestern Softball program began in 1976 and has amassed 5 Big Ten championships, 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, and 5 appearances in the Women's college World series- including 2007 and their national runner-up performance 2006.
Yearly, Northwestern and the
University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign compete in football for the rights to the
Sweet Sioux Tomahawk Trophy . Northwestern fans have cultivated strong rivalries with many Big Ten Conference foes, including
Iowa and, particularly,
Wisconsin . The rivalry with Wisconsin, the Big Ten conference school geographically closest to the Evanston campus, has grown stronger in recent years, though there is currently no official trophy for the football game.
The 2005-2006 academic year was one of the best athletic seasons in Northwestern University's history. The football team capped a 7-5 season and third place finish in the Big Ten with a bid to the
Sun Bowl . Following the women's lacrosse team's second National Championship, the Women's doubles tennis team of Christelle Grier and Alexis Prousis won the National Championship as well. The Women's Softball team made an incredible run to the finals of the
Women's College World Series , finishing in second place.
In May 2006 the website
BadJocks.com republished photos a reader had found on
Webshots of the women's soccer team hazing its
Freshmen . The whole team was suspended for a time as a result and in the wake of the incident Head Coach Jenny Haigh resigned. Since, Athletic Director
Mark Murphy named Stephanie Erickson, the school's all-time leader in goals and points, as Haigh's replacement.
- Mike Adamle , football player and sportscaster
- Damien Anderson , ( St. Louis Rams )
- Darnell Autry , football player and actor ( Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles )
- Louis Ayeni , football player ( Indianapolis Colts )
- Brett Basanez , football player ( Carolina Panthers )
- D'Wayne Bates , football player ( Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings )
- Kevin Bentley , ( Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks )
- Scott Brownley Sports Illustrated Profile , former football player, now stand up comedian
- Luis Castillo , San Diego Chargers football player
- Barry Cofield , New York Giants Defensive Lineman
- Luke Donald , golfer
- John L. "Paddy" Driscoll , football player
- Evan Eschmeyer , former basketball player
- Trai Essex , football player ( Pittsburgh Steelers )
- Pat Fitzgerald , former 2-time All-American football player, current Northwestern head football coach
- Barry Gardner , football player ( Philadelphia Eagles )
- Joe Girardi , former baseball player, Former Manager, Florida Marlins
- Jim Golliday , track
- Brian Gowens , football player ( Chicago Bears )
- Otto Graham , football and basketball player ( Cleveland Browns and Rochester Royals )
- JA Happ , baseball player
- Napoleon Harris , football player ( Oakland Raiders )and ( Minnesota Vikings )
- Noah Herron , football player ( Green Bay Packers )
- John Kidd , football player ( Buffalo Bills , San Diego Chargers , Miami Dolphins , Detroit Lions and New York Jets )
- Mark Loretta , baseball player
- Todd Martin , tennis player
- Matt O'Dwyer , football player
- Brad North , soccer player ( DC United )
- Jeff Roehl , football player
- Steve Tasker , football player ( Houston Oilers and Buffalo Bills )
- Jason Wright , football player ( Cleveland Browns )
