Athletic excellence N
orthwestern University’s athletic department is consistently one of the finest in the Big Ten and the nation. The school has gained prominence in the last 15 years with the renewed success of the Wildcat football team, but fans who know college athletics know that Northwestern has long been a hidden gem in numerous other sports. A quick look across the board yields some truths about the quality of the Wildcats’ 19 varsity programs—and makes it no surprise to find out that Northwestern has been ranked in the Top 25 of The Sporting News listing of the top athletic departments in the nation every year that TSN has performed the survey. Since the 1995-96 athletic year, Northwestern has had 40 conference players of the year, 28 conference rookies of the year, and 29 conference coaches of the year. Twenty-six teams have been crowned with a conference championship, and 62 individuals have won Big Ten titles while 595 have received All-Big Ten recognition. Northwestern athletes have been accorded 130 first-team All-America honors during that time, while six different NU coaches have earned National Coach of the Year honors since 1997. Northwestern also has added five NCAA team championships (women’s lacrosse in 2005-09) and nine NCAA individual titles to its ledger. Northwestern finished 44th in this past year’s U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup standings after posting three-consecutive top-30 finishes from 2005-07. Northwestern’s five-year run of finishing among the top-45 Division I programs in the country marks its best-overall stretch of athletic success. Northwestern’s athletes also deliver in the classroom—the department has had more than 1,530 Academic All-Big Ten certificates delivered since 1995-96, including more than 100 each of the last 10 years. The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) has honored a Northwestern athlete 28 times with Academic All-America recognition, and 81 times with Academic All-District accolades. The women’s lacrosse team recorded its fifth-consecutive NCAA title. Senior Hannah Nielsen (bottom right) won the Tewaaraton Trophy for the second-straight year.
2008 Valero Alamo Bowl
The No. 1-ranked wildcats captured their 11th-straight Big Ten Championship and won the ITA Indoor Championship in 2009.
Northwestern freshman ERIC CHUN won the Big Ten Individual title and helped the ’Cats advance to the NCAA Men’s Golf National Championships.
The MEN’S SOCCER TEAM tied a school wins record and reached a program-best No. 2 national ranking. It also advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the second time in three years.
Senior jake herbert was the 2009 NCAA champion and Dan Hodge Trophy recipient, which is presented annually to the nation’s most dominant collegiate wrestler. Herbert also was named the Big Ten’s Jesse Owens Award winner, given to the top male athlete across all sports in the Big Ten Conference.
2009-10 northwestern men’s golf • NUsports.com
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