Nation catches Huskie fever

by Joe King

It is said that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that has proven to be the case this football season, as the sudden national fame of the Huskie football team has brought unprecedented levels of attention to NIU as a whole.

The team’s status as media darlings has rubbed off in many ways, from alumni reconnecting with the university and robust sales of licensed merchandise, to people across the country suddenly perking up at the mention of NIU.

“The tremendous success of Coach Joe Novak, his staff and the team have given us the chance to tell the NIU story to a new, much-larger audience, and we have jumped at every opportunity,” President John Peters said.

Those opportunities began before the nationally televised opening night kick-off, when running back Michael Turner was featured on the front page of the USA Today sports section. By the next morning, the Huskies’ win over 15th-ranked Maryland was trumpeted in sports pages across the nation, and the Huskie media juggernaut was rolling.

It picked up steam a few weeks later with a victory over the legendary Crimson Tide of Alabama in front of 80,000 screaming fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. For good measure, the Huskies also knocked off Iowa State of the powerful Big 12 Conference the following week.

The wins kept piling up, and along the way, the Huskies ranking climbed to 12th in the Associated Press Coach’s Poll.

In no time, the acrobatic catches of receiver P.J. Fleck became a staple on ESPN’s nightly SportsCenter program, and the team was featured in a four-page spread in Sports Illustrated. Once the Cubs were eliminated from the Major League Baseball playoffs, the Huskies began taking the top spot in Chicago. Reporters from as far away as New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta profiled the team.

Soon, NIU was at the heart of every debate over the fairness of the Bowl Championship Series, which limits access to major bowls to a handful of schools.

In the week leading up to Saturday’s game at 23rd ranked Bowling Green, the glare of the spotlight grew still brighter with the announcement that ESPN GameDay, the premier college football pre-game show in the land, would air live from the campus of Bowling Green – an honor typically reserved for games deemed the hottest ticket around.

And why not? The game marked the first meeting of two ranked MAC teams since 1973.

All of that attention has energized the NIU alumni base, and as alumni have started showing their Huskie pride, people are expressing amazement at the number of NIU graduates who populate the region. One alum, a high-level executive at a pharmaceutical company, wore an NIU shirt to work for casual Friday and quickly discovered that many of those who worked for him also had NIU diplomas.

Similar scenes were played out again and again.

“We have alumni across the country now sitting around the water cooler, and they’re talking about their school,” Athletic Director Cary Groth told Crain’s Chicago Business. “People want to get involved, and they want to write a check. Everybody wants to be associated with a winner.”

That desire has paid some dividends for the Development Office.

On homecoming weekend, an alumnus who returned to campus for the first time in many years happened upon the announcement of the Alumni and Visitors Center campaign. He was so impressed that day by what he saw at his alma mater that on Monday he made a significant pledge toward the construction of that building.

The university has reaped other financial gains, too. Over the first nine months of the year, sales of Huskie merchandise is up 21 percent compared to last year, and whereas gate receipts for football tickets totaled about $300,000 two years ago, that number could top $1 million this year.

“The excitement generated by national media coverage of NIU does wonders in building alumni pride and encourages them to reconnect with their alma mater,” Peters said. “And we have worked hard to take advantage of this opportunity to introduce NIU to the nation – not just the football team, but the fine academic institution which it represents. It’s a great time to be a Huskie.”

Despite a disappointing loss to Bowling Green, fans showed no indication of giving up on the Huskies. The east side of the stadium has already sold out for Saturday's game, and projections are for the West side stands to be close to capacity.

10-24-03