NIU football’s Dan Sheldon races down the sideline and is downed by the ultra-quick Jacob Winter. Who, you ask?

Sheldon, NIU’s wide receiver/punt returner and running back Michael Turner lined up to play football on June 14. This time the players were not dodging 250-pound linebackers, but feisty 7-year olds.

"Jacob became a big fan last year because of the football team’s success," said Jacob’s father, Jim. "So we arranged for them to come to his birthday party,"

Jacob watched the Huskies defeat Wake Forest in his first NIU football game from the bleachers of Huskie Stadium. However, the bleachers did not bring Jacob close enough to the players.

Wolf Shafer, the son of NIU football defensive coordinator Scott Shafer, played baseball with Jacob’s older brother Josh last summer. So, Jim asked Scott Shafer if he would ask Sheldon and Turner to come to Jacob’s birthday party.

Sheldon, Turner and the rest of the NIU football squad had been conditioning Monday through Thursday in June. Being asked to go to a 7-year-old’s birthday party caught Sheldon off-guard.

"It was an odd request," Sheldon said. "We didn’t really know what to expect when we got there."

Jim measured off his backyard in five-yard increments. Half of a football field, end zone and all, was substituted for the Winter’s backyard. Field goal posts made of PVC pipe topped off the makeshift field. All that was missing were 18 7-year olds and two Huskie football players.

The 228-pound senior running back and 5-foot-11 junior wideout coached and quarterbacked each of the teams.

Sheldon said the game was like playing sandlot football when he was a kid.

"We ran trick plays like double-reverse passes," Sheldon said. "It was a lot of fun."

The punishing game of two-hand-touch football had taken its toll on two of the Huskies’ top offensive threats. Nevertheless, enough fuel remained in the players tanks after the game to autograph mini-footballs and take a picture with all the kids.

Each player’s success last season left an impression on Jacob, but Sheldon edged Turner out in the voting for Jacob’s favorite player.

"I like Dan Sheldon because he is really fast and because he returns punts," Jacob said.

Jacob believes NIU will do well this year, and is looking forward to seeing another victory in NIU’s season opener.

At the end of the day, the kids chased the players’ car down the street, waving goodbye as Sheldon and Turner headed back down the road to reality.

"I just can’t think of a way to thank these guys enough," Jim Winter said.

In what is usually a time for tranquility throughout the world of college sports, the summer of ‘03 marked a hectic time with some good, some bad and some we’d all like to forget.

Here’s a taste of what you missed if you haven’t been keeping pace with the Huskies over the past couple months.

O lineman dies in collapse

Front page news throughout the the nation was the Chicago Porch Collapse, which killed 13 people. What you may or may not have known was that one of those victims was a student at NIU.

Shea Fitzgerald, a redshirt sophomore football player, was apparently sandwiched between the fallen porch floors that caved in to the basement at his brother’s apartment on Chicago’s North Side.

A 6-foot-8, 283-pound projected starter on the offensive line, Fitzgerald was there with two teammates, Pat Raleigh and Brad Cieslak.

"I didn’t see it happen," said Cieslak. "Me and Pat had just walked inside [from the porch], and we took about 10 steps inside and it sounded like a 300-foot tree had fallen. We saw the floor was collapsed down to the basement - it was gone in almost the blink of an eye."

NIU preseason No. 1

With 24 first-place votes, the Huskie football team topped the MAC News Media Associations list ahead of even the East’s Marshall and Miami-Ohio.

With 13 starters coming back from an 8-4 season and share of the MAC West crown, high hopes await this year’s squad.

Huskies to pro ranks

NIU football’s Tim Vincent was signed by the Chicago Bears and baseball’s Joe Mazzuca was picked up by the Florida Marlins.

On May 7, Vincent, a life-long Bears fan, signed a standard free-agent contract. The 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive tackle is still listed on the Bears roster as cuts are being made every week.

A shortstop, Mazzuca was selected with the 353rd pick on the June 3 Major League Baseball Draft.

Mazzuca took his signing bonus into Jamestown, N.Y., where he’s with the single A Jamestown Jammers until Sept. 3.

Hammock to Wisconsin

Former NIU All-MAC running back Thomas Hammock will stay with football despite his playing career cut short because of a heart condition.

Hammock, a two-time 1,000 yard rusher, will be a graduate assistant for head coach Barry Alvarez and the University of Wisconsin this season.

Hammock was after his third consecutive year of being both an Academic All-American and All-MAC before feeling chest pains after NIU’s first game against Wake Forest in 2002. Hammock rushed for 176 yards in that one game.

Mr. Basketball to NIU

South Dakota’s top player, Paige Paulsen, signed with the NIU basketball team.

The 6-foot-7 power forward originally signed with Lamar. Then head coach Mike Dean left and Paulsen asked to be let out of his binding letter of intent.

That is where coach Rob Judson and the Huskies stepped in and offered a scholarship to Paulsen, who averaged 25.5 points, 11 rebounds and five assists his senior year, to which he was awarded with the Mr. Basketball award for South Dakota. As a junior, Paulsen led his team to a state title.

Tennis coach to Marquette

After coaching the NIU men’s tennis team for the past four years, Steven Rodecap took an offer to coach at Marquette.

A graduate of the MAC’s Ball State in 1996, Rodecap helped the Huskies to a 16-10 record and a runner-up finish at the MAC Tournament last year.

A replacement has not yet been named.

Bates hopes for CBA career

The NIU basketball team’s point guard from last year, Jay Bates, worked out for the Rockford Lightning CBA team over the summer.

Bates, who has used up all of his NCAA eligibility, is still a student at NIU working on his degree.

He has yet to hear from the Lightning, who will play four home games at NIU ‘s Convocation Center this year, about his prospects of making the team.

Baseball and softball end

NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey led the Huskies to a school-record 34 wins (34-24) in his first year with the team. The Huskies qualified for the MAC Tournament for the first time since 2000, where they upset top-seeded Kent State in the first round.

The NIU softball team finished with a 23-20-1 record. The Huskies lost to a lower seeded Bowling Green team in the opening round of the MAC Tournament, then fell again to Miami-Ohio.

Six teams make the MAC Tournament for baseball. With 11 games remaining, NIU is barely in, if the season ended today.

The Huskies stand at 26-18 overall and 9-7 in the MAC, which is a half game ahead of Akron, who is on the outside looking in with a 10-9 MAC record.

A home series with Buffalo and Central Michigan before the end of the regular season in two weeks could help the Huskies as both teams are under the .500 mark.

The Huskies will make a trip to Ypsilanti, Mich., next weekend to take on Eastern Michigan (11-7 MAC) for four games.

All three teams left on the conference schedule for NIU have an ERA of 5.39 or higher and have a lower batting average than the Huskies.

"It’s going to come down to how the rest of the league plays out," NIU coach Ed Mathey said. "The last road trip we were on didn’t work out how we would’ve wanted to, but Eastern is going to be big for us this coming weekend."

NIU will depend on its pitching to clinch a spot in the MAC Tournament as the team’s 4.47 earned run average is second in conference.

The Huskies haven’t had a problem hitting the baseball this season hitting .307, which is fourth in the league.

Right fielder Mike Santoro has provided the power for the Huskies as he is now the single-season record holder with 13 home runs. Santoro blasted his record-breaking 13th homer in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader with IUPU-Fort Wayne.

"Mike’s done a great job for us this year," Mathey said. "He’s settled in to the fifth spot quite nicely and his quality of at-bats has started to improve."

However, the one downfall for NIU to make the tournament is that they have committed a MAC-worst 87 errors and have just a .941 fielding percentage.