Parents’ Weekend 1990: food, folks, fun and football, not necessarily in that order. Much of the focus of this week’s festivities is on Saturday’s NIU football game against the dreaded Murray State Racers.

Murray State, as if you don’t know, is in Kentucky and is named after the dentist who donated the land upon which the school is located. The grateful local citizenry hence decided to name the university in honor of Joseph A. State. (The Murray part was thrown in to show outsiders that Kentuckians have a sense of humor.)

Although Murray State will never be mistaken for Notre Dame, the Racers aren’t the most obscure team to ever grace NIU’s football schedule.

In 1909, the Huskies were handled by the German Presbyterian Seminary 34-6. It’s a safe bet that that’s one school that didn’t wind up on Playboy’s list of Top-20 party schools. There is no mention of whether GPS brought cheerleaders to the game.

The 1920’s featured several matches with the Chicago YMCA. It’s not known if the games were held in the swimming pool.

Shurtleff graced NIU’s schedule in 1929 and beat the Huskies 6-0 and again shutout NIU in 1930 by a 7-0 margin. The series was discontinued by NIU officials allegedly embarrassed about losing to a school that sounded like it was named after a German soccer player.

The Huskies clobbered Nebraska-Peru 21-0 in 1951, but the victory was tainted by the fact that the N-P players were worn out by the 16-day trip via llama caravan.

In 1959, the Huskies beat Hillsdale 33-27. Records don’t indicate whether the Hillsdale mentioned was the nursing home, the women’s boarding school, or the cemetary.

1962 was an especially good year for NIU (and this column) as the Huskies played in the Mineral Water Bowl, losing to Adams St. 23-20. History doesn’t tell us if the “Apples” was Adams State’s nickname or not, but it should have been.

Other actual bowl games that NIU participated in besides the Mineral Water Bowl are the Turkey Bowl, and the Refrigerator Bowl. In 1983 NIU made a bowl movement to the California Raisin classic.

Since 1983, the closest NIU has been to a bowl game (apart from some recent flirtations) was in 1986 when NIU faced Bowling Green.

But back to our story.

Winona State suffered the wrath of the Huskies in 1963, falling 61-0. Winona was promptly dropped from the Union leaving the present 50 states.

More recently, in 1982, NIU faced Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. Apparently, Michigan Holiday Inns have a discount for frequent customers.

There were other obscure opponents to be sure, but space limitations (and lack of possibly semi-humorous observations about them) prevent them from being included.

So, although the prospect of a Parents’ Day matchup against Murray State may not make the hair on the back on your neck bristle, (then again, what does anymore?), it could be worse.

The Huskies could be facing off on Parents’ Day against the 1926 season-opening opponent, the American College of Physical Education.