For those of you that were living under a rock this weekend, a little thing called “ESPN College GameDay” made its way to Evanston for the Ohio State v. Northwestern undefeated matchup. The show aired for three hours on ESPN and featured segments from Northwestern players, coaches, notable sports alumni, and the ESPN GameDay hosts.
It’s no secret that Northwestern football has gone through some serious rough patches in the past. For example, when the Wildcats lost 34 games in a row between 1979-1982. However, now that Northwestern has become a serious fighting force in the Big 10, it’s no wonder students have been rallying full force behind the team.
The students took the show’s slogan, “Wake up, it’s GameDay,” in the absolute most literal sense.
“We just didn’t go to sleep the night before, we got there [the lakefill stage] at 2:15am,” says freshman Grant Klein. At this point, he says only 40 or so students were there, but by 5:30am the event was packed.
“There were 600 students in the pit, and 1500 in total let into [the GameDay event]. If you got in the first couple rows, you got a ton of free stuff,” says Klein’s roommate, freshman Jonah Kriger.
The notably “nerdy” rep of Northwestern came in handy when the fans’ goal was to make the most hysterically witty signs to wave behind the GameDay commentators. To name a few, one read, “My dad went to OSU… Started from the bottom now I’m here,” while another said, “Kanye named his baby after us.” My personal favorite, however, was the “Urban Meyer [Ohio State’s football coach] listens to Nickelback.”
Though Northwestern was the predicted underdog, ranked 16 at the time compared to number four Ohio State, students and alumni alike proudly wore their NU gear to the event, ecstatically anticipating the game.
“It was 100% worth it [to attend Gameday]… I’ve seen the show probably close to 200 times and it’s always cool to see kids so energized even though it’s so early, so it was exciting to be a part of it myself,” says Kriger.
Unfortunately, the outcome of the game wasn’t exactly ideal, being that Northwestern suffered a close 40-30 defeat to Ohio State that came down to the last quarter. However, purple pride carried on into the night, and even the next morning on the still tattooed faces of worn-out students… Now that’s Wildcat spirit if I’ve ever seen it.