Preseason press. Donnell Thomas, a junior forward on the NIU basketball team, was selected by Street & Smith’s Preseason Basketball Magazine as a member of the publication’s All-Independent squad. In addition, The Sporting News chose the junior guard combination of Donald Whiteside and Stacy Arrington among its list of the nation’s most underrated guard courts.

Many happy returns. Raymond Patterson, who has followed Tyrone Isaac and Corey Ray as the deep man on NIU’s kick return team, has made the most of his promotion. The freshman from Missouri fielded five kicks Saturday and returned them for 171 yards. On the season, Patterson has 390 on 15 returns for a 26-yard average, which makes him the 10th-best kick returner in the nation.

Patterson’s return yardage also helped him set a new school mark for single-game all-purpose yardage with 267 yards. In addition to his 171 kick-return yards, Patterson posted 87 rushing yards and nine receiving yards.

Stacey’s scoring. Stacey Robinson has grabbed people’s attention with his rushing numbers, but the NIU quarterback has also been extremely effective in another department—scoring. Robinson has found the end zone 14 times this season, which ties him for third with Hugh Rohrschneider (1963) on NIU’s list of single-season touchdowns. The junior QB still stands two scores behind Mark Kellar (16 in 1973) and one behind Reino Nori (15 in 1935) on the all-time school charts.

Attendance upswing. Despite pulling in less than 6,000 fans at each of its last two home games, the NIU football team saw its average home attendance rise by more than 3,500 fans per contest during 1989. Last season the Huskies drew an average of 10,081 (60,486 in six games) at Huskie Stadium. In 1989, though, 82,460 people watched NIU football at six home games—an average of 13,743 per game. The Huskies went 6-0 in the “Doghouse” this season after finishing 5-1 a year ago.

Earl one “Up” on the pack. Going into the final football game of the season, cornerback Earl Upton’s total of three interceptions puts the senior atop the team’s close race for the Huskie pickoff crown. Nine NIU defensive players have accounted for the team total of 13 interceptions. Senior cornerback Brett Tucker and senior linebacker Patrick Bryant, who have two apiece, are the only ones other than Upton to have more than one.

Tucker gets royal invitation. Brett Tucker, who might miss Saturday’s regular-season finale with an injured left knee, has been invited to play in the first Martin Luther King All-America Classic on Jan. 15, 1990 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, Calif. That honor makes the senior cornerback the first individual to be invited to a post-season bowl since linebacker Frank Lewandoski played in the Blue-Gray Game in 1979.

Pettibone Show. WKDI’s weekly Jerry Pettibone Show will be held this week at the Delta Chi fraternity house Thursday at 6 p.m. The public is invited.

Weekly coaches luncheon. Gymnastics coaches Chuck Ehrlich and Bobbie Ceserak, who are priming their teams for this weekend’s Huskie National Mixed Pairs Invitational, join Jerry Pettibone as the guest speakers at this week’s weekly coaches luncheon. The event will be held Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at Days Inn-DeKalb. The public is welcome and tickets will be $5.

Back on the mat. The NIU wrestling will hope for a copy of last weekend’s success when it travels to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Hawkeye Tours/Drake University Classic. Five of 10 Huskies finished in third place or better in their respective weight classes.

“Drake is where we find out where we are,” said coach Ed Vatch. “There’s a lot of talent at Drake.”

Team totals. This week the NIU football squad ranks No. 7 in team rushing (310.0 yards-per-game average), No. 5 in team turnover margin (plus-1.5 per game) and No. 27 in scoring (28.8 ppg.).