Thomas Hammock was perfectly happy being a businessman. I NIU’s former all-conference running back was using his degree in marketing for about the last seven months at Wells Fargo Financial when he decided to make a temporary career change. After his...

ay Bates’ days are definitely numbered as an NIU basketball player, but his time playing at the Convocation Center may not be. I Still a student at NIU, Bates worked out with the CBA’s Rockford Lightning twice in the past month and is hopeful about...

After a quick stop at the liquor store, Shea Fitzgerald, Pat Raleigh and Brad Cieslak were driving back to Fitzgerald’s older brother’s apartment the night of June 28 when they recognized two familiar faces walking down the street. "We saw Nick Duffy...

There were rumors circulating around Illini nation that NIU would be playing the University of Illinois in basketball this year. Although those rumors turned out to be false, Notre Dame and possibly Iowa will have to suffice for the Huskies this year...

After losing seven seniors to graduation, the NIU wrestling team responded with one of its finest recruiting classes ever. The Intermatwrestle.com Web site ranked the Huskies’ new arrivals as the 17th-best recruiting class in the country. NIU was the...

Chris Kaman, Ronald Blackshear and Theron Smith have a lot in common. They all were stars of teams in the publicity-scant Mid-American Conference (MAC), they were all big names on small campuses and they all had one year of college eligibility remaining...

Dan Sheldon was in California on vacation when the news hit him like a ton of bricks. Sheldon heard that his teammate and close friend Shea Fitzgerald died when the third-floor porch he was on at a party in Chicago collapsed and crumbled through the second...

He was the biggest player on the NIU football team at 6-foot-8, 283 pounds; and, it seems, his exterior was nothing but a shield for what was a kind, fun-loving interior. With his size, he was compared to former Huskie Ryan Diem, now with the Indianapolis...

Although NIU running back Michael Turner will try to lead the Huskies to a post-season birth this year, he already has secured at least one post-season game. Turner accepted an invitation to play in the 79th annual East-West Shrine Game next January at...

When Paige Paulsen, the NIU basketball team’s latest signee, won the Mr. Basketball Award as the top player in South Dakota, it was an unusually tough honor to take. "It’s kind of bittersweet because of what happened to my brother," Paulsen said....

NIU sophomore point guard Anthony Maestranzi doesn’t regularly go up against NBA players, but Sunday wasn’t his normal day. The 5-foot-10 Maestranzi found himself guarding and being guarded by former NBA all-star Tim Hardaway at the Convocation Center...

Growing up, NIU’s Tim Vincent was a die-hard Chicago Bears fan. Every summer since he was 12, he and his father or grandfather would make the 45-minute trek to Platteville, Wis., from their home in Galena to see the boys in orange and blue workout....