Points of Pride
Northern Illinois student-athletes have combined to post a cumulative grade point average above 3.0 in each of the last four semesters, including the highest athletics cumulative GPA (3.074 by 486 student-athletes) on record in the Fall 2006 and the highest GPA ever recorded by the Huskie football team (Spring 2007).
NIU completed construction of the $14 million Jeffrey and Kimberly Yordon Academic and Athletic Performance Center in August 2007.
The Northern Illinois football team has made three straight postseason appearances and advanced to two bowl games in the past three seasons - the 2004 Silicon Valley Football Classic (NIU's first bowl bid in 21 years) and the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl.
The Huskies have established multi-year partnerships with adidas and Gatorade and signed a five-year agreement with CSTV to host Northern Illinois' Official Athletics website.
Work on a new indoor practice center for the Northern Illinois baseball, softball, and golf teams is underway with the facility slated to open in Fall 2007.
Northern Illinois' newest head coaches include former Olympian Connie Teaberry for women's track and field, NIU alumna and 2006-07 USA Basketball assistant Carol Owens (women's basketball), U.S. Women's National team member Marci Miller Jobson for women's soccer, and most recently, Ricardo Patton for men's basketball and former three-time DePaul All-American Lindsay Chouinard for softball.
NIU has received 27 $100,000 leadership gifts in the past two years, has seen corporate sponsorship revenues rise 236 percent, and realized an all-time high in licensing revenue.
Huskie teams and individuals achieved unprecedented athletic success in 2006-07 as men's soccer won the Mid-American Conference title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the volleyball team captured the MAC West Division crown, women's soccer reached the MAC Championship Game, baseball tied the school record for victories and shot-putter Ashley Morrow advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Northern Illinois' agreement with 50,000-watt Chicago sports radio power WSCR-AM 670 broadcasts Huskie games to hundreds of thousands of listeners across the region.
Jim Phillips has secured football scheduling agreements with Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Navy and Tennessee, and NIU will play a home game versus Iowa at Chicago's Soldier Field on Sept. 1, 2007 in front of a sold-out crowd.
NIU successfully played host to the 2007 NCAA Men's Golf Central Regional at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
All 13 Northern Illinois football games were televised in 2006 after nine of 12 aired in 2005, including consecutive seasons with an appearance on ABC and 25 airings on ESPN networks.
Three Huskies - football's Garrett Wolfe and Doug Free and women's basketball's Stephanie Raymond - were drafted into the NFL and WNBA, respectively, with Raymond becoming the highest draft pick in school history in any sport (24th).
Every Northern Illinois student-athlete participated in a school-sponsored community service activity as part of the Huskies' CHAMPS/Life Skills program in 2006-07.
Reliever Matt German became the first NIU baseball player in school history to earn All-America honors while Wolfe, the NCAA's leading rusher in 2006, was an All-America choice by the Associated Press.
Gymnast Jody Yednock earned the prestigious Bob James Postgraduate Scholarship from the MAC in 2007, becoming the second straight Northern Illinois student-athlete to be honored (following volleyball's Marie Zidek in 2006).
