While the bats didn't crack as much as Donna Martin had hoped, her softball team showed positive signs this weekend at the Missouri Round Robin tournament. Playing under the domed roof of Missouri's indoor football complex, the Huskies went 1-3 this weekend....

Former NIU fullback Mike Stack has signed another NFL free-agent contract, this time with the Denver Broncos. Stack, who last played at NIU in 1999, had been with the New York Jets, of the same conference, for training camp in 2000. The 6-foot-2-incher...

I remember when I was a kid my dad told me great stories about Ernie Banks, Minnie Minoso and the Chicago baseball teams of the 1960s. He always said that baseball and life were a lot simpler in those days and that athletes weren't paid much more than...

NBA All-Star Weekend was a pure indication of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of professional basketball. The weekend kicked off with the Rookie vs. Sophomore game featuring Wally Szczerbiak's flame-throwing act of 11-of-13 shooting from the field, and...

A week after the official singing day for high school football recruits, NIU keeps going. NIU football head coach Joe Novak announced Monday that Frank Kurth and DeAndre Smith will join him as assistant coaches next year. Smith, last at Indiana State...

NIU baseball coach Dave Schrage said the Mid-American Conference has a lack of respect for the Huskies. Even though the Huskies finished 24-33 last season and in third place in the MAC West Division after a 4-51-1 season the year before, the MAC responded...

Picking a single player as NIU's biggest football recruit may be a bit difficult. Of the 19 players head coach Joe Novak signed Wednesday on the first official day recruits could commit, all could make an impact on the program. California junior-college...

Leshon Johnson has taken on cancer, played in one of the toughest divisions in all of sports and run over opponents at NIU. After all that, the XFL's no-fair-catch rule should be no problem. "It's going to make it very interesting," said the Chicago Enforcers...

The fall semester produced 85 student athletes with grade-point averages above 3.5 — each winning recognition from a phone-service provider. Each year, student athletes from select schools are honored by Verizon Telecommunications for their academic...

Harnessing a no-bull attitude, NIU basketball's 6-foot-9-inch center Matt Nelson is large and in charge. But by his modest demeanor, you would never know it. In an age of prima donnas, Nelson puts on his hardhat and goes to work night in and night out,...

Before a player can make it to The Show, he needs to give a final audition. For NFL teams, that means they will tour college campuses, allowing players to throw everything out one last time. The Miami Dolphins stopped NIU last week, and the Chicago Bears...

NIU Sports Information director Mike Korcek remembers when Will Hancock would come to Chick Evans Field House. He recalls one year during the Midwestern Collegiate Conference volleyball tournament, Hancock played computer games with another sports information...