Northwestern Football - Iowa and Illinois

Back-to-back weekends in Chicago for Northwestern football games proved to be thrilling, disappointing, and devastating all combined.  Thus, just another season of being a Northwestern fan.

For the first weekend, after a fun Friday evening at Cafe 28 with Mitchell and Laurea, we headed up to the tailgate Saturday morning in good spirits with Amy as we convinced her to make a pit stop at Starbucks for some traveling red cup!  There wasn't much interest among our group to head into the Northwestern vs. Iowa game early, so we continued tailgating at the Mills' until the 3rd quarter.  Lucky for us, we had a little shelter from the rain as well.

With the score 17-7, we arrived just in time for the action as Northwestern put together an 85-yd scoring drive with Persa hitting Ebert after an incredible interception by Brian Peters!  Later in the fourth quarter, Persa hit Demetrius Fields for a 20-yd touchdown connection.  Amid the celebration, we saw Persa limping in joy, which later we found was the end to his season after he ruptured his Achilles tendon.  But our celebration continued on as the 'Cats managed to step it up on the defensive end to prevent Iowa from winning the game.  The fans rushed the field and we escaped victorious!  The next morning we met up with Lisa for some tasty brunch at Meli Cafew.

While last weekend was an exciting victory, it was nothing compared to the pre-game giddiness we felt at this past weekend's Wrigleyville Classic game against Illinois at Wrigley Field.  This has been the talk of not only Chicago, the Big Ten, and Northwestern/Illinois sports, but it's been the talk of sporting nation.  They spent a month or so transforming Wrigley into a Northwestern home field by painting the iconic Wrigley marquee sign purple, removing the infield dirt to replace it with a grass turf, painting the end zones with the Northwestern logo and colors, hanging Northwestern football banners in the concession areas, hanging large photos of the team on the outside of the stadium, and creating the Wrigleyville Classic logo with Northwestern prominantly displayed along with chief sponsor, Allstate.  This certainly helped make the case for us as Chicago's Big Ten Team!

To start our day of fun, Scottie and I headed to the Southport Grocery for a hearty breakfast before walking over by the stadium to see the ESPN College Gameday folks broadcasting as well as to experience the Wildcat Way and hoopla surrounding the ballpark.

We managed to take some pictures with an enlarged bobblehead of Pat Fitzgerald, grab a free flag, slurp down a few beers, and watch as the Northwestern Marching Band cleared the way for the team to head into the stadium.  The atmosphere and spirits were quite high around the stadium, and we enjoyed being in Wrigley surrounded by so much purple.

From there, the gang headed over to Uberstein for some pre-game tailgating with Kitty and her family.  But we made sure to head into the game early instead of our normal second half entrances so we could be a part of the entire pre-game show (and to get our free NU gloves to warm the hands).  There was a lot of chants for "Go U" and "Oh my goodness" as we walked up to our seats on lower level near home plate or the now only end zone on the field.  To avoid injuries with someone overrunning the end zone into the right field wall, the two teams agreed to a field configuration with one end zone.  The teams took turns driving toward the same end zone.  We also enjoyed seeing the outfield scoreboard transformed with Big Ten scores as well as the entire field glowing in purple (and some orange).

The game kicked off optimistically; however, our hopes were shattered quickly as Illinois put together two easy touchdown runs, and our backup quarterback, Watkins, looking a little out of place.  But for some reason, Illinois attempted a trick play that ended with a Brian Peters 59-yd interception touchdown run into  the end zone that only could be used for an interception situation.  A big Northwestern roar filled the stadium, and our spirits were back up for short period.  The first quarter ended with an 80-yd touchdown drive by Trumpy to put the 'Cats within a touchdown, 21-14.  The teams battled back-and-forth in the second quarter as Illinois put up two field goals; however, the 'Cats took advantage with another Trumpy run and a field goal to put us within 3 at the half.

With Northwestern alumnus Luke Donald singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and a trio of former Northwestern quarterbacks (Basanaz, Bacher, and Kustok) singing the new traditional fourth-quarter "Put Your Hands Up", the classic organizers did an incredible job of making this a game to remember.  Too bad the 'Cats just couldn't put together much in the second half.

Post-game, we drowned our sores in more adult beverages back at Uberstein closing out the day at the infamous Burrito House.  The next morning we brunched at Deleece before heading back to Michigan.

More pictures from the Iowa game in this photo album and from the Illinois game in this photo album.  Also here are some videos from the Wrigleyville Classic by Tjioe recapping the good and the bad events from the game.