Five True Facts About Northern Illinois Football

This appeared in the Brigham Young, Utah, student newspaper as they prepared to play NIU this past Saturday.

1.  Northern's home is Brigham Field in Huskie Stadium, renamed in 2003 for Robert J. Brigham, former player, coach and athletic director.  (Brigham Young fans would find this of interest.)

2.  NIU has won four MAC championships )1983, 2011, 2012 and 2014) and has played in ten post-season bowls since 2004, most notably the 2013 Orange Bowl against Florida State.

3.  After a 17-6 victory over Eastern Michigan in 1998, the student body tore down the goal posts at Huskie Stadium, carried them down Lincoln Highway and planted them in the campus lagoon.  University President John La Tourrette personally paid to have new goal posts  installed.  (There was a good reason for this which I will tell you in a few days.)

4.  Next year, Northern is scheduled to play Utah, Nebraska and Vanderbilt.  (This year we played Iowa, Utah, Florida State and Brigham Young.  All are Power 5 Conference members.

5.  Former quarterback Jordan Lynch, a finalist in the 2013 Heisman Trophy, is a n assistant coach for the Huskies, handling the running backs.  (Well, now he is head coach at Chicago's Mount Carmel High School, a state perennial power.

NIU Huskies.  --RoadDog