During HailToPurple.com’s winter break, I received several e-mails commenting on the photo of Mike Kerrigan that I had displayed on the front page.  Kerrigan was NU’s quarterback in 1979, in the middle of the “Dark Ages” and the beginning of the 1979 – 1982 losing streak.  I wanted to pay tribute to the players who toiled for the ‘Cats during the 20-or-so years that the team lacked administrative support.  Readers agreed: there were a lot of great players—some remembered, some long forgotten—who fought the good fight during the coaching eras of John Pont, Rick Venturi, Dennis Green, and Francis Peay. 

During that period (roughly 1973 through 1991), Northwestern produced a pair of All-Americans (Chris Hinton and John Kidd), 15 first-team All-Big Ten picks, and a host of NFL draft talent, including Steve Craig, Jim Lash, Pete Shaw, Randy Dean, Rob Taylor, Curtis Duncan, Bob Christian, Darryl Ashmore, and hall of famer Steve Tasker.

These players, and many others, dealt with inadequate alumni, fan, student, and administrative support; subpar training and practice facilities; and virtually no bench depth in an era when most other Big Ten schools took advantage of the 105 available football scholarships per team.* 

Still, they managed to provide some key wins during this period of the team’s history.  Here are recaps from eight of them.  In chronological order, we present the best games from NU’s Dark Ages.

 
1973: NU 31, Iowa 15

The John Pont era began with a convincing win against Michigan State, but quickly descended due to losses to Notre Dame, Pitt, and middle-of-the-MAC Ohio.  Thankfully, next on the schedule was hapless Iowa, a team that beat the ‘Cats in 1972 (one of the Hawkeyes’ three wins that year), but was staring down a winless skid in ’73.

Before the game, the team met before Pont came to the locker room.  “We were just so sick of losing,” quarterback Mitch Anderson said, in postgame comments to the Daily, “we just decided to go out and do something about it.”  Anderson did his part, throwing for 123 yards and no interceptions.  Star runningback Greg Boykin rushed for 64 yards, including a 29-yard sprint in the second quarter and a 12-yard touchdown run.

Stunningly, the win over Iowa put Northwestern in first place in the Big Ten in mid-October: the three losses to that point were non-conference, and NU’s 2-0 conference record tied the ‘Cats with OSU and Michigan.  Unfortunately, it was the last time that NU would be in the “catbird” seat vs. Iowa during this period: NU’s next win against the Hawkeyes would come in 1995.


1975: NU 30, Indiana 0

Two years after Northwestern enjoyed the top spot in the Big Ten in mid-October 1973, it would repeat that quirk by annihilating Indiana on October 11, 1975, giving the ‘Cats a 3-2 record for the year, and 2-0 in the Big Ten.  NU had opened the season by edging a weak Purdue team, 31-25, but had gone 1-2 in non-conference games.

Coming into Dyche Stadium, Indiana coach Lee Corso had taunted Northwestern, canceling one of his team’s practices that week in order to spend time “toasting Indiana’s upcoming victory.”  The motivating move backfired, and NU was out for blood from the opening kickoff.  The ‘Cats racked up 497 yards of offense, vs. 88 yards for Indiana.  NU’s 31 first downs tied the team’s all-time record.

Boykin, returning from sitting out the previous season injured, rushed for over 100 yards.  Quarterback Randy Dean threw for 164 yards, and the Northwestern defense stoned Indiana, holding the Hoosiers to negative three yards in the third quarter.  “This kind of football game is the kind you just feel good about, just good all over,” Pont would note later. 

As the game ended, each of NU’s players on the sideline held up a paper cup and—making sure that Corso could see them—“toasted” the Indiana coach.

It turned out to be the last victory for Northwestern until November of the following year, when NU would stun Michigan State.


1976: NU 42, Michigan State 21

By November 1976 the ‘Cats were spinning out of control, having lost 14 straight games since toasting Lee Corso.  When Michigan State visited Dyche Stadium, however, there was always a chance for victory, and the Spartans did not disappoint at this critical point.  MSU brought in a three game winning streak, having beaten Big Ten foes Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana.  The Spartans were on the cusp of a winning season, and—like Indiana—underestimated the damage Northwestern could inflict.  The ‘Cats made MSU pay.  The rout of MSU was Northwestern’s lone win in 1976.


1982: NU 31, Northern Illinois 6

After the 1976 beatdown of MSU, Northwestern would win just two games during the next three seasons, before embarking on the 34-game losing streak.

There were several games during which it seemed that NU might snap the streak: the ‘Cats lost a heartbreaker to Indiana in 1981 that would have prevented them from setting the NCAA record.  By 1982, however, the team was improving a little, and several games provided an opportunity for a win.  One such opportunity came on September 25, 1982, against Northern Illinois.

In its previous three games in 1982, Northwestern had piled up a total of negative 44 yards rushing.  Against NIU the Wildcat ground game exploded: NU amassed 208 rushing yards, led by Ricky Edwards’s 177 yards and four touchdowns—tying the school TD record held by Otto Graham and Mike Adamle.

Northern Illinois Coach Bill Mallory summed up his team’s place in NU history: “we just stunk.”

With 34 seconds left in the game (coincidentally, one for each of the losses in the streak), fans and students rushed the field, tearing down both goal posts and marching them to Lake Michigan, in a repeat of the previous year’s laking.  However, the 1981 post laking had been an act of rebellion, a reaction to setting the record for futility.  The laking of the goalposts after the NIU win was an act of pure joy.



1982: NU 28, Michigan State 25

Dyche Stadium’s goalposts came down again, just two weeks after the win vs. NIU, when the ‘Cats defeated a simply horrible Minnesota team, 31-21, to snap the Wildcats’ 39-game Big Ten winless streak.  But one big streak remained: Northwestern had not won a road game in eight years!

Enter, as it so often did when NU needed it most, Michigan State.  The Spartans had just won their first game of 1982 by knocking off Indiana on October 30.  MSU hosted Northwestern the following week and it first appeared as if NU might have to wait another year for a win away from Evanston. 

The Spartans jumped to a 17-0 lead.  However, freshman quarterback Sandy Schwab connected with Jon Harvey for a 45-yard touchdown just before halftime.  The ‘Cats continued to battle back, and by the middle of the fourth quarter they were down by four.  MSU had a chance to seal the game with just a few minutes left, but fumbled the ball back to NU. 

With seven yards to go for the winning score, Northwestern executed one of the greatest trick plays in its history to win the game.  NU assistant coach Ron Turner (who would later give NU fits as head coach at Illinois) scripted and called the flea flicker: Schwab pitched the ball to Ricky Edwards, who then lobbed the ball back to Schwab for the touchdown.


1986: NU 24, Michigan State 21

Francis Peay’s first season as (interim) head coach got off to a relatively good start: a close loss to Duke was followed by a big win vs. Army and a shutout of Princeton.  However, the ‘Cats would drop their next six games. 

Enter, as usual, MSU.  The Spartans were actually a strong team in 1986, and they sported a winning record heading into Dyche on November 15.  The ‘Cats, smarting from their 32-0 pasting at Spartan Stadium the year before, played a physical game in a contest that remained close from start to finish, and eventually triumphed, 24-21.

Michigan State would finish the season 6-5.  Northwestern’s wins over Army and MSU in 1986 marked the first time since 1971 that NU had beaten a school that would go on to have a winning season.


1990: NU 24, Northern Illinois 7

By 1990, the Wildcats were unfortunately mired in another streak.  The “Mini Streak” comprised 14 losses, from the end of 1988 through early 1990.  The team was desperate for a win, and this time Northern Illinois came to the rescue, just as it did in 1982.  NIU was actually a decent team in 1990, but it caught Northwestern at the wrong time.  The ‘Cats drubbed NIU, with Bob Christian rushing for 179 yards on an astounding 43 runs.  The defense put together perhaps its best effort in a decade, shutting down NIU’s wishbone completely.

After the game, just as they had after the 1982 win over NIU, fans rushed the field and tore the posts down.  “I didn’t think Northwestern students would act like that,” said quarterback Lenny Williams, “but they were as happy as us.  Maybe happier.”



1991: NU 17, Illinois 11

Of Northwestern’s 36 victories from 1973 through 1991, the biggest was arguably the 17-11 win at Dyche Stadium against Illinois on October 26, 1991.

Since its stellar performance against NIU the previous year, NU’s defense had underperformed, allowing an average of 34 points in the 14 games in between that win and the meeting with the Illini.  Illinois, on the other hand, was the defending Big Ten co-champ.  Two weeks before meeting NU, Illinois had knocked off Ohio State, and despite losing a heartbreaker to Iowa the following week, Illinois entered Dyche Stadium ranked #17 in the nation.

The ‘Cats were given no chance in the game, and several players had expressed their resentment at the lack of respect.  Wearing all-purple uniforms for the first time in over a decade, and drenched on the sideline from the steady rain during the game, the ‘Cats were poised to grab that respect.  They did so by upending Illinois, with Len Williams driving the NU offense in the first quarter to take an initial 7-0 lead.  The defense awoke and, helped by the downpour, buried the “Flying Illini’s” air attack and picked off Illinois quarterback Jason Verduzco twice.

The victory was Northwestern’s first over a ranked team since 1971.

As usual with big wins during the period, the game ended with students swarming the field and tearing down the goal posts.  This occasion, however, would mark the final performance of NU’s glorious goal post ritual, the great tradition of the Dark Ages.