About Northern Illinois Huskies
Football program at NIU has been introduced in 1899 and basketball had been quick enough to follow in 1900. The university have been a member of many conferences as well as being an independent team and currently both programs are members of West Division, in Mid- American Conference, NCAA Division I, (FBS for football).
The Huskies colours are cardinal and black; the university is represented by a costumed huskies dog as well as life one and the name is Victor E. Huskie.
The college has rivalries with Ball State Cardinals and Toledo Rockets.
Not well known university started gathering a bit more spotlight in recent years. To date, the Huskies claimed one national title, 12 conference championships and have an all- time record of 547-465-51 and 11 Bowl games to their name that started with appearance at California Bowl in 1983 with a win against Cal State Fullerton. The Huskies lost four last Bowl games in consecutive years and have a combined record from Bowls of 4-7.
With not a lot of success and the university not belonging to big ones there wasn’t many big name players that reached the NFL but some of the Huskies had themselves good careers in the pro league including pair of offensive lineman in Doug Free and Ryan Diem.
Free has been playing for the Cowboys since 2007 when he was drafted in fourth round. To date he played 108 games, starting 98 and has two fumbles recovered recorded to his name.
Diem, played for 11 seasons at tackle position and was part of Super Bowl winning Colts team when they clinched the title in 2006. He was also on the roster in 2009 when Indy was defeated in another Super Bowl. He played 158 games, starting 150 and has one fumble recovered.
Basketball has struggled in terms of generating a sustained success and the Huskies have been to three NCAA tournaments, with their last trip occurring in 1996. They never advanced further within the tournament itself. NIU has won three conference tournament championships and they have 7 conference regular season titles in their cabinet.
There have only been four athletes from the university playing a game in NBA team with Paul Dawkins having played the most game out of the Huskies in NBA. Dawkins was a member of Utah Jazz in 1979 and played 57 games averaging 5.5 points a game during average 13.5 minutes on the court.
NIU is one of the examples of smaller universities that were part of many conferences or played independently thus not generating a lot of success and player talent, although as history showed, even Super Bowl ring could be possible after attending NIU.
