One outcome is guaranteed when the 6-22 NIU mounders head to the north side of Chicago for a 3:30 p.m. showdown Thursday. "No matter what happens," NIU skipper Joe "Spanky" McFarland said. "NIU will win." Good call by the rookie coach because it will...

NIU softball pitching ace Kristen Vandenhouten is used to getting the last laugh. Vandenhouten, a junior, has heard a lot of teasing from her opponents' dugouts. "They yell ‘Slow, slower, slowest!' because my pitches don't have a lot of strength," Vandenhouten...

While college conference alignments are shifting as frequently as the DeKalb winds, NIU appears to be maintaining a stable course. The most recent rumors had NIU joining the Mid-American Conference on a football-only basis, along with Akron and other...

Erik Andersch had to deal with mixed emotions before he began practice for the last time with the rest of the NIU tennis team. "It's incredible, I have so many mixed feelings right now," Andersch, a graduating senior, said Wednesday as he looked upon...

NIU's women's basketball guard Yconda "E.C." Hill, who sat out the 1990-91 season due to NCAA Proposition 48, was one of 12 chosen to play at the 1991 Olympic festival July 13-16 in Los Angeles, Calif. She will be on the North Team at the four-squad tourney....

Reaching the top is one thing ... staying there is a different and more difficult story altogether. In that case, the NIU women's tennis team must be an exception to the rule. For the second year in a row, the NIU netters claimed the North Star Conference...

Three years ago, Mats Persson came to NIU and like all freshmen, he had to adjust to a new life away from home. But for Persson, the adjustment was a big one because his home was in Sweden. Persson had to adjust to a new culture and lifestyle as well...

As Huskies' hurler Mike Young can attest to, you're never too old to begin a serious baseball career. Considered a junior eligibility-wise, the 21-year-old is in his third semester as an NIU Marketing major and his first season as a starting pitcher for...

The phone at the Robinson home in Danville, Ill. rang repeatedly Monday night. With each new call came a rise of suppressed excitement. But by the end of the night, the ringing phone became a sad reminder of hopes shattered by harsh reality. No NFL coaches...

The search for the head basketball coach at NIU has gained one, and lost one, known candidate. Bruce Weber, an assistant under Gene Keady at Purdue, told The Northern Star that he is looking into the NIU job. "I've touched base with NIU and I have applied,"...

No team in the Mid-Continent Conference can "touch" this NIU men's tennis team. The Huskies proved Saturday, with an 8-1 victory over Western Illinois (now 15-3), that no team in the M-C can come close to Charles Merzbacher's group. "It was great to get...

At last, George Foreman has been vindicated. Seventeen years ago in Kinshasha, Zaire, his place in boxing history appeared to have been set. It was there on Oct. 30 that he lost his heavyweight title to the master—Muhammad Ali. Foreman did not lose...