It's doesn't happen often-- once in a blue, full, moon, so to say. But today's Halloween game won't be Northwestern's first. This will be the team's 19th time playing football on October 31. Until today, NU was 7 and 10 on the holiday, with one tie, dating back to 1891. Here are some high-- and lowlights-- from the other 18 games the 'Cats have played on the date.


THE FIRST: 1891 AGAINST WISCONSIN

This was a big game for both teams. Northwestern and Wisconsin had played their fist game against each other the previous year on Thanksgiving. That game was a 22 to 10 victory for "NWU," and Wisconsin was looking for revenge. On Halloween 1891, the teams met again in Williamsburg, a suburb in north Milwaukee, late that afternoon. Between 150 and 200 people made the trip from Evanston, a large group for the period, waving purple and gold streamers.

Northwestern was favored, but the game proved evenly matched-- and very rough. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted the next day that "another football game was played [here] yesterday, and some of the players survived."

The teams slugged it out for over an hour and a half of scoreless football before the Halloween game was called for darkness. Despite the lack of scoring, the press noted that "there was never a more finely contested game of football on Wisconsin soil." Because this was a "league game" (several schools had formed the Northwestern Conference the year before, a conference that folded soon after the 1891 season), the 0-0 tie had to be resolved, and the teams met again on Thanksgiving.


THE WILDEST: 1895 AGAINST RUSH & LAKE FOREST

Staged Thursday afternoon, Halloween, at Sheppard Field in Evanston, this game featured the only known time Northwestern ever faced a confederation of teams. Players from Lake Forest College and Rush Medical Chicago's football teams got together to form an allied group for the 1895 season, and it challenged a powerful Northwestern squad.

The crowd, estimated at over 2,000 Northwestern supporters, had started celebrating the holiday a bit early, and many were well-oiled by the time they made it to the lakeshore stadium. Several jumped the Sheppard turnstiles rather than pay for a ticket, and this led to a cascade of people trying to gate crash, while guards tried to hold them back. Police arrived, and the groups began beating each other with abandon. NU's law students from Chicago, ready for a fight, formed a tight circle, began giving the NU college yell (this actually happened...), and swung wildly at the police or anyone else in their way.

Non-football violence again threatened at halftime. During the break, the Northwestern law students marched on the field, waving canes and streamers, and began taunting the Rush students. The Rush crowd turned on the law students, and the players hastily retook the field and pushed the two student groups aside.

The rest of the afternoon belonged to the Purple. The combined Rush / Lake Forest team had no answer for the rushing spectacle that Jesse Van Doozer and Albert Potter brought, and Northwestern delivered both tricks and treats in a 24 to 0 rout.

The crowd, however, remained restless. Many of the NU Chicago students from the medical and law schools resumed their hostilities after the game, this time with each other. They beat each other bloody with their canes and continued battling even as they boarded trains to return downtown.  The mob of NU students eventually made it to the Chicago opera house by nightfall, and drunkenly raised hell during a performance, pounding their canes and yelling as the curtain opened, before being ejected bodily by police.


A STADIUM FINALE: 1925 AGAINST INDIANA

By Halloween 1925, Northwestern had already committed to building what would become Dyche Stadium and would begin tearing down the old Northwestern Field after the '25 season. The 'Cats played its previous home game against Tulane on Chicago's field; it would play its last home game for the season (against Michigan) at Soldier Field. But on October 31, NU played its last game at Northwestern Field, against the Hoosiers.

16,000 fans packed into the old wooden stands on Central Street for the finale. Among them: newly sworn-in US vice president Charles Dawes.

The 'Cats and Indiana fought closely all day, tied 14-all with three minutes to go. NU drove to the Hoosier red zone before Leland Lewis kicked a field goal to win the game for the Purple.




THE GREATEST: 1936 AGAINST MINNESOTA

This is among the greatest victories in Northwestern history. The Wildcats, undefeated and ranked third in the brand-new AP Poll, hosted powerhouse #1 Minnesota, a team undefeated for four years. Even in October, it was clear that this game would decide the Big Ten-- and likely, the national-- title for 1936. Dyche Stadium was sold out (a rarity during the Great Depression), it was Northwestern's homecoming, and NBC decided to broadcast the game by radio to a national audience, one of the first live football games to be sent by radio via a national network.

It was a defensive struggle, scoreless through three desperate, rain-soaked quarters. Early in the fourth quarter, NU drove into the Gopher red zone. A penalty gave NU the ball on the Minnesota one-yard line, where Steve Toth drove in for the winning-- and only-- score.


The win gave Northwestern its first #1 AP ranking and the unshared Big Ten championship.


THE MOST RECENT: 2020 AGAINST IOWA

Playing on the road, Northwestern faced only its second opponent of the truncated Covid season of 2020. The 'Cats found themselves down 17-0 before collecting themselves and roaring back to upend the Hawkeyes, 21-20. It was a pivotal win during the Wildcats' 2020 campaign for their second and final Big Ten West division title.