Buy Northwestern Wildcats Tickets Today

Northwestern Wildcats play their home games at Ryan Field, a stadium that was built in 1926 and has undergone couple of expansions and a renovation in 1996 and can currently can accommodate over 47000 fans wanting to watch some hard fought game of football.

Thanks to its design of curved grandstands there are plenty of seats very close to action and despite lack of permanent light standards the venue is considered to be one of the better ones in the Big Ten.

If you’re more after Northwestern Wildcats tickets for college hoops then Welsh- Ryan Arena is going to be your favourite place. The venue was opened in 1952, renovated in 1983 and it can hold over 8000 fans on game nights.

About Northwestern Wildcats

Northwestern University introduced football to its sporting programs in 1876 and basketball was added in 1901. The university is member of West Division in Big Ten Conference, NCAA Division I.

The Wildcats’ colours are purple and white and the mascot is Willie the Wildcat that was first mentioned in 1924 when a reporter, described the players as “a wall of purple wildcats”.

The university has a fierce rivalry with Illinois Fighting Illinis dating back to 1892, among younger rivalries they have against Wisconsin Badgers and Iowa Hawkeyes.

Football programs achieved all- time high rank of no. 1 in 1936 and 1962 but the Wildcats had quite long periods of struggles. To date, the Northwestern won 8 conference championships, five up to the 1936 year and three since 1995 season.

The Wildcats took part in 12 Bowl games that included a streak of 9 straight losses. Their first Bowl game was at Rose Bowl in 1948 resulting in a win against California and their latests showing occurred at Outback Bowl where the Wildcats lost to Tennessee. Overall the university is 2-10 in these games and have an all- time record of 503-642-44.

Despite overall lack of success in football, the university produced quite a few NFL players and few of them wrote their names into books of football history, including players such as Otto Graham and Steve Tasker.

Graham, a quarterback that played for the Browns all of his 10 seasons in NFL, led the team to 3 NFL championships while being chosen to five Pro Bowls, with one Pro Bowl MVP award. He was also named First Team All- Pro 7 times and three times he was UPI NFL MVP. He was inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Tasker, considered one of the great special team players, spent all but one season playing for Buffalo Bills where he was voted to 7 Pro Bowls and 7 All- Pro nominations. He was also four consecutive years AFC champion with the Bills and NFL Alumni special player of the year.

Basketball had its highest point in 1931 when the university claimed Premo- Porretta championship. The Wildcats were also twice conference regular season champions, the last time being in 1933. Since second World War the university has been struggling and occupying bottom half of the Big Ten.

The university produced few players that went onto playing in NBA and the most games from the Wildcats under his belt belongs to Billy McKinley who played in NBA between 1978 and 1985 for several teams.

It is quite easy to see that the Northwestern University has gone through years of struggles in football and basketball but luckily, once in awhile the programs were able to produce players capable to fund their place in the pro leagues.