Located in Evanston, IL on Lake Michigan, Northwestern University has a rich tradition in the Big Ten conference. A large research university and one of the founding members of the Big Ten, Northwestern is still the only private school in the conference. Northwestern's football team began playing in 1882, prior to the creation of the Big Ten. The end zone areas are grass berms so you will not find Northwestern tickets for those areas.
Northwestern is home of the Wildcats with Willie the Wildcat as the mascot. The original mascot in the 1920's was a live bear cub from the Lincoln Park Zoo known as Furpaw. Furpaw was brought onto the field during every game, but after the football team had a losing season, they removed Furpaw from campus because they thought he was the source of their misfortune. Before the sports teams were known as the Wildcats, they were called "The Purple" and "The Fighting Methodists" as the founders of the university were all Methodists. It wasn't until Chicago Tribune writer Wallace Abbey used the term wildcats when a describing a football loss against University of Chicago that the university coined the name for its sports teams. In 1972, the students voted to change the name to "Purple Haze," but it never stuck. Royal Purple is the school's only official color although white is often also listed in information regarding the university. In the late 1800s, the school decided to switch from Black and Gold to purple because it was thought that black and gold were too common among other universities.
Northwestern has 19 sports teams; 8 men's teams and 11 women's teams. Northwestern tickets for any sport are available through this link. The football team plays at Ryan Field with the Northwestern University Marching Band performing at every home football game. In addition, the football team has the most losses in Division 1-A history, was on the losing end of greatest comeback in Division 1-A history, and has have the longest losing streak in Division 1-A history. In 2004, the Wildcats football team broke their 33 year losing streak by defeating Ohio State, who was ranked 7th at the time. The last bowl game the team won was the 1949 Rose Bowl although they have made many six bowl appearances between 1996 and 2008. Pat Fitzgerald has coached football since 2006 following the sudden death of Randy Walker. A former Northwestern linebacker, Fitzgerald became the youngest coach in Division 1 football at the age of 31.
Both the volleyball and basketball teams play at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Northwestern's Women's Lacrosse team has seen much success in recent years going undefeated in 2005 and 2009, and winning five national championships between those years.
