Local Northern Illinois Gridder Richard Fitzgerald Awarded Varsity Letter 63 Years Latter

DeKalb, IL --- What’s that old saying? Patience is a virtue.

Well, former Northern Illinois University football halfback Richard Fitzgerald must have King Kong-sized loads of both. You see, in Fitzgerald’s case, this is almost 63 years of patience.

The DeKalb native earned a varsity letter as a 17-year-old freshman in football for legendary Huskie head football coach and athletics director George “Chick” Evans in the fall of 1943. This was during World War II and Fitzgerald had enlisted in the U. S. Marines that June prior to enrolling at Northern Illinois.

Fitzgerald played in the first five of the Huskies’ six games that autumn before being “called up” in early November and reporting to Marine boot camp in San Diego. Eventually, his mother forwarded his “NI” letterman’s certificate to Hawaii prior to his departure for the Pacific Theater. “I sent it back home and never really thought about it,” Fitzgerald recalled.

Seven decades, three children, eight grandchildren and a full life later, Fitzgerald will receive that varsity Northern Illinois football monogram in special ceremonies at halftime of this Tuesday’s (January 3) Huskie men’s basketball Mid-American Conference contest against Miami (OH) University at the Convocation Center. Tip-off time for the NIU-MU match-up is 7:05 p. m. (CST).

Not only will approximately 20 members of the Fitzgerald family be involved in the presentation, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn, Northern Illinois Director of Athletics Jim Phillips, and current Huskie head football coach Joe Novak are expected to honor the World War II Marine veteran whose 80th birthday---believe it or not---falls on Wednesday (January 4).

“At my age,” Fitzgerald said with a chuckle, “that’s pretty good. It’s never too late for anything.”

Honorably discharged as a corporal in 1946, Fitzgerald served in the 5th Marine Division and saw duty in Hawaii and Iwo Jima on a reconnaisance platoon and on the Japanese peninsula named Kyushu an an occupational forces situation after World War II ended.

To this day Fitzgerald remembers Evans and assistant coach Ralph McKinzie---both charter members of the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame---from his short Northern Illinois tenure and several teammmates. That 1943 Huskie team finished 4-1-1 overall and earned a write-up in the celebrated “In the Wake of the News” column by famous sports editor Arch Ward in the Chicago Tribune.

“We started the year with a 0-0 tie against Wheaton College,” Fitzgerald recalled. “The greatest victory we had was when we went down to Western Illinois. They (WIU) had a Navy V-12 program with all these officers. Western had a full team and we went down there with 17 fellows, two coaches, and one equipment man. You can only have 11 on the field at a time, though, and we beat them (33-14). You know, in those days, we used to travel in taxis. It was quite an experience.”

The best Northern Illinois student-athlete Fitzgerald saw in person? “There’s a lot of good ones,” he said. “Maybe the best one was Bill Terwilliger who won the national decathlon championship. I missed Reino Nori, but I knew him later and he was a great softball player.” Fitzgerald played in a single wing attack---years before Evans adopted the T-formation.

At DeKalb High School, Fitzgerald lettered in football, basketball, and track. As a youngster, he followed the Huskies by crawling into Glidden Field under an opening in a fence. “As a kid, I always had to explain to my mother why my shirt was dirty.” Upon returning home, Fitzgerald graduated from Bradley University in 1950 and worked in local businesses---including a long stint in a Sherwin-Williams paint store.

How did the “missing” football monogram come to light? His daugher-in-law Stephanie Fitzgerald e-mailed the NIU athletics website and explained the situation. “He is thrilled. I don’t think dad slept when he heard about it,” said daughter Ann Hunt about the halftime presentation. “I don’t think he could’ve had a better birthday present. In recent years, the Huskie football team has been doing so well and we’d talk about it and dad said ‘now that I think about it, I never did get my letter.’”

Richard Fitzgerald will have one now.

(For further information, please contact Mike Korcek) -NIU-