[NU Sports] I turned the game off!!!!!

[Jonathan Michael Hawkins]

> NU fans bailed in the rain and fog, the announcers made it clear that 
> they were not impressed with the Wildcat faithful.

I was one of the faithful still there.  I have to admit I kind of (only a 
little) gave up on the team after the INT and was *very* upset watching 
the subsequent plays.  When the D gave the O a chance to score I turned to 
my friends and noted "that we had better score, just to preserve our 
dignity," since so many fans had left already (in a light rain).

What I didn't count on was the incredible onside kick, and the ensuing 
drive for a TD.  I also didn't count on the incredible defensive stand at 
the end of the game for the win.

This counts as one of my favorite victories at Dyche Stadium, and I think 
I've been there for all of the greats save the 1995 season.

Brett Basanez came running out of the lockerroom (barefoot!) after the 
game while my fellow NUMBAlums and I were watching the band's postgame 
show.  He ran up onto the conductor's platform and immediately the band 
stopped playing what they were playing (ironically, the obligatory "salute 
to our opponents" Iowa fight song), and the band director and his 
assistants from the ground signalled "Go U".  Brett conducted a few bars, 
ran down off the platform, cheered with a bunch of folks on the field, and 
headed back to the lockerroom.

I'm still not sure what that was about but the assembled faithful loved 
it.  I hope that in the future there are more interactions between the 
band and the team.  I hope the team knows that in the band they've got 
150-180 people who live and die by what happens on the football field 
every Saturday, and a large group of alums who does the same.  Brett 
coming out there earned him a spot in my book as not only an excellent 
player for NU but someone who understands that his presence there on the 
platform made the day a hundred times better for those dedicated NU fans 
wearing the uniform of a Northwestern University Marching Band member.

I have often noted to people who aren't NU fans that you just can never 
count this team out, but this game was beyond that, I think.  There were 2 
or 3 minutes left and this team just strapped it on, on D and on O, and 
won the game.

Sidenote: I almost got in a fight with a crowd of Iowa fans in the stadium 
(after the game) who were harassing some random NU fan trying to get to 
the band's postgame show.  They were pretty upset with him (I assume just 
out of spite because of the loss), and I tried to calm the situation but 
really only succeeded in my calming rhetoric to piss them off even more. 
That was when the "calming rhetoric" went out the window.  About the time 
I was yelling "Get out of my stadium, and get out of my city", an Evanston 
Fire Department guy came sprinting up the stands to rescue me and the 
other guy, and I am still not sure if the Iowa fans were issued citations 
by the EFD guy's EPD buddies he was radioing to.  In any case, I'll 
reitierate my admiration and support of the EFD and EPD on Gameday - they 
have a tough job and do it very admirably given all of the stuff that goes 
on.

This was, for me, a defining moment in NU football.  Brett and the boys 
reached down deep and strove their best to pull out a win on a very 
difficult and (up to the time the game ended) demoralizing day.

I'm a little more confident in our ability to go to Ohio now - and I think 
these 'Cats have got to be riding on Cloud 9 after an incredible victory 
for Senior Day, securing the postseason, and overcoming a two-score 
deficit in the final 2 minutes of the game to pull out a Wildcat Win.

I hope this doesn't read as too sedate - I am flipping out and am on my 
way to join some fellow fans at Chicago's home of the Iowa Hawkeyes, Big 
City Tap - wearing all NU gear. ;-)

Go 'Cats!!! :) :) :) :) :) :)

Best,

Jonathan