NIU soccer coach Willy Roy's 1989 squad accomplished a feat that has always been elusive in the world of sports: they retired as champions. Last season's 14-4-2 mark, a record for most NIU soccer victories, was capped off by a 2-1 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee...

HELP WANTED: Baseball players. Some travel, no heavy lifting required. EOE. Contact Spanky McFarland at NIU. New NIU baseball coach Spanky McFarland hasn't yet resorted to taking out the above ad, but that's not because he doesn't need the help. McFarland,...

The goal of the 1990 Huskie football season is to be invited to a bowl game. Any bowl game. After being snubbed last year by every bowl committee in the country, head coach Jerry Pettibone and his players have dedicated the upcoming season to this one...

Can Northern Illinois University's football team go 3-0-0 on ESPN? Huskie gridiron boss Jerry Pettibone surely hopes so. Most of the country—approximately 56.1 million households—can find out on Saturday, Sept. 29, when NIU meets perennial Big Ten...

The countdown is on. In twenty-four days, the Huskie football squad will put their current eight-game home winning streak on the line against Eastern Illinois in their season opener. "I'm excited about this season," head coach Jerry Pettibone said. "I...

Former NIU defensive tackle Scott Kellar is giving something back to the game that gave him a chance to play professional football. After lending a hand to Huskie defensive line coach Sheldon Herd as a volunteer coach last winter and during spring practice,...

The Northern Star proudly presents some mid-summer column stuffers for your reading pleasure. Enjoy. Former Huskie standout Ted "The Mad Stork" Hennings made the news recently while participating in the Chicago Bears training camp in Platteville, Wis....

The fastballs will not pop as loudly, or be clobbered so easily. The 6-4-3 might be just the 6-4. The uniforms baggier, the tempers hotter. New NIU head baseball Coach Spanky McFarland has no scholarships to offer the young men who will fill the new program's...

The clang of metal hitting metal, words like "squat", "crunches" and "leg presses", the grunts and groans as large people lift large weights—all are part of Jim Zielinski's world. Zielinski, Coach "Z" to those who know him, is NIU's strength and conditioning...

Act One: The setting: Moscow, Idaho, the home of the University of Idaho, 1984-86. A party, a bar (drinking age was 19 at the time), a friend's home, wherever. I was a freshman then a sophomore, far from home, bright but confused—torn between doing...

July—tanning on the beach, sunglasses melting on your car's dashboard, and trips to Wal-Mart—not because you need another spatula or a shirt that was outdated the moment it came out of the factory—but because it's air conditioned. What better time...

If Huskie basketball coach Jim Molinari had to write a "What I did on my summer vacation?" essay for NIU President John La Tourette (hey, it could happen), he wouldn't be able to. Despite it being the off-season, the second-year coach hasn't been able...