Introducing NU Football Insider’s new feature, “The Vault.” Each week, we’ll publish a story from our football archives, which otherwise are gathering dust in a corner of the newsroom. We hope to provide students with a look into NU football’s past and longtime fans with a bit of nostalgia.

Today’s entry, a Oct. 20,1959 game story of Northwestern’s 20-7 win over Michigan. The Wildcats have only won at Michigan Stadium once since then.

Defense, a bull-pen full of quarterbacks, and two plays where everything worked right brought Northwestern their fourth victory of the season Saturday.

The win leaves the Cats with only unblemished record in the Big Ten, and will probably send them against Notre Dame this weekend as the number two team in the country on both national polls.

“Defense is our salvation,” re-echoed head NU coach Ara Parseghian after Saturday’s struggle. His Wildcats had stopped Michigan four times inside the Northwestern 20, three times within the six. They had maintained their record of not giving up a touchdown to a Big Ten team on that team’s own offensive momentum. They had neutralized most of the mistakes their offense kept making all afternoon.

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Introducing NU Football Insider’s new feature, “The Vault.” Each week, we’ll publish a story from our football archives, which otherwise are gathering dust in a corner of the newsroom. We hope to provide students with a look into NU football’s past and longtime fans with a bit of nostalgia.

Today’s entry, a Oct. 22, 2001 game story by Emily Badger. Quarterback Zak Kustok ran for a then-school quarterback record 115 yards for the Wildcats. But the NU defense could not contain a struggling Penn State offense which racked up 501 total yards of offense, in a 38-35 Penn State win. The victory made coach Joe Paterno the all-time leader in wins in NCAA history, overshadowing Kustok’s record rushing effort that junior Mike Kafka broke last Saturday.

While it provided little consolation to Northwestern head coach Randy Walker, who had trouble finding postgame words for his players after Saturday’s loss to Penn State, he at least witnessed the season’s feel-good moment of college football history.

“As difficult as this night is for me and our football program, it’s a tremendous achievement by Coach Paterno,” Walker said, referring to Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno’s 323rd career victory, a milestone that ties him with Paul “Bear” Bryant as the winningest coach in Division I-A college football history. “It was a very difficult game for me to watch.”

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Introducing NU Football Insider’s new feature, “The Vault.” Each week, we’ll publish a story from our football archives, which otherwise are gathering dust in a corner of the newsroom. We hope to provide students with a look into NU football’s past and longtime fans with a bit of nostalgia.

Today’s entry, a Nov. 9, 2001 feature by Matt Donnelly, sorts out who would replace senior Damien Anderson after an injury against Indiana ended his career.

The Man is gone.

Northwestern coach Randy Walker suspects that Damien Anderson’s college career ended last week at Indiana. The star running back’s departure creates the largest gap in NU’s offense that Walker has seen since he started coaching in Evanston three years ago.

Walker likes a running back who can lead, and with Anderson sidelined, the search begins for The New Man — a role one of the candidates could certainly carry into next season.

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Introducing NU Football Insider’s new feature, “The Vault.” Each week, we’ll publish a story from our football archives, which otherwise are gathering dust in a corner of the newsroom. We hope to provide students with a look into NU football’s past and longtime fans with a bit of nostalgia.

Today’s entry, an Oct. 6, 2000 feature by Junji Noda, looks into how former coach Randy Walker developed the offense the Cats still use today.

Quite frankly, Randy Walker admits that he’s a copycat. Asked about his newly installed offense, the Northwestern coach fesses up.

“If I see a good play on tape, I’ll steal it,” Walker said proudly. “There are no copyright laws in our business.

“It’s like a kid in a candy store. If you investigate things, you can find a lot of stuff that looks good. It all looks good. Man, this looks good; well, this looks good.”
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Introducing NU Football Insider’s new feature, “The Vault.” Each week, we’ll publish a story from our football archives, which otherwise are gathering dust in a corner of the newsroom. We hope to provide students with a look into NU football’s past and longtime fans with a bit of nostalgia.

The Recruiting Crap Shoot

The inexact nature of evaluating high school players, along with NU’s academic standards, pushes Cats coaches to uncover hidden gems.

By: Tania Ganguli

Posted: 10/29/04

Nobody wanted him, but not many people knew about him.

He spent his junior year of high school watching from the stands as Notre Dame courted one of his teammates and best friends at St. Patrick’s High School in Chicago. There wasn’t anything he could do about his broken foot, so Tim McGarigle waited.

He burst into view his senior year, but by then it was almost too late.

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Introducing NU Football Insider’s new feature, “The Vault.” Each week, we’ll publish a story from our football archives, which otherwise are gathering dust in a corner of the newsroom. We hope to provide students with a look into NU football’s past and longtime fans with a bit of nostalgia.

Here’s the first entry, on a junior middle linebacker named Pat Fitzgerald.
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