Chicago Sports: The Big Event

Tag: northwestern wildcats

ESPN's Greeny talks Journalism, Media Northwestern football

Northwestern alumnus Mike Greenberg (BSJ ’89) was the honorary captain Saturday for the Wildcats home opener versus Syracuse. Greeny, the co-host of the nationally syndicated ESPN radio show “Mike And Mike in the Morning” and host of SportsCenter was at Ryan Field when the Cats beat the Cuse 48-27. Greeny and his partner Mike Golic, The Herd with Colin Cowherd and SVP & Russillo will hit the road for hyped up college football and NFL games this year. They’ll be in Evanston on Friday, Oct. 4, in advance of Saturday’s match-up with “Greeny’s” alma mater vs. the Ohio State Buckeyes. He was gracious enough to grant me an exclusive interview today by phone...

By Paul M. Banks,
September 10, 2013 at 5:58 pm •

New Big Ten Network Show to Feature Darnell Autry

In 1995, the Northwestern Wildcats took the college football world by storm, their unexpected rise made them more than a sports story. NU became a pop culture story. After reaching their first Rose Bowl in close to 50 years, and having their first winning season in multiple decades, that team was like the NBC sitcom Friends; a mid ’90s feel-good tale. They centered around a tailback named Darnell Autry, who finished in the top five of Heisman Trophy voting. Big Ten Network’s new series, Forever B1G, debuts 6:30 PM CDT Friday. The eight-episode series is basically a “where are they now,” and it features 16 former Big Ten stars, including Michigan quarterback Drew Henson, Michigan State’s Maurice Ager, Northwestern’s Darnell Autry, Indiana’s A.J. Guyton, Minnesota’s Willie Burton, former Penn State running back D.J. Dozier and more...

By Paul M. Banks,
September 4, 2013 at 6:48 pm •

ESPN Personality Mike Greenberg to be Northwestern Honorary Captain (Update Video)

Northwestern alumnus Mike Greenberg (BSJ ’89) will be the honorary captain Saturday for the Wildcats home opener versus Syracuse. The co-host of the nationally syndicated ESPN radio show “Mike And Mike in the Morning” and host of SportsCenter will be at Ryan Field when the Cats take on the Cuse at 5pm (Big Ten Network will televise) Last year, a picture of Greenberg’s head appeared on a play card held up on the sidelines during Northwestern’s visit to Minnesota. “They put my face on a play- and held it up for a play card,” Mike Greenberg said...

By Paul M. Banks,
September 4, 2013 at 5:07 pm •

Pat Fitzgerald: very colorful today about Northwestern Media Relations

“We have nothing to hide. We have a great group of young men that practice the right way and love improving fundamentally,” Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald told the media at Big Ten Media Days. That's in reference to the fact that he keeps his practices open to the media, one of the very few programs in college football that maintains this policy. Fitzgerald was very glib and entertaining today when discussing his relationship with reporters too. Not only is Northwestern accessible to the media; Pat Fitzgerald said his program is open to playing anybody in college football, anywhere. “Our schedule, there’s no question we’re not afraid to play anyone,” Fitz said. “We went into the season last year playing three BCS teams in the nonconference and had great success.” "Great success" as Borat would say. So why keep practices open to reporters when other schools are paranoid about secrecy...

By Paul M. Banks,
July 24, 2013 at 8:19 pm •

Northwestern Pitcher and Red Sox Manager's son, lone bright spot for Chicago Sports

Northwestern baseball ended up being a very bright spot in an otherwise awful day for Chicago sports. April 20th was a rough one for the local sports fan. First of all, pretty much every event took place at night, and around the same time. So as a sports media consumer you had tough choices. And then the local teams were as hot as the weather. The Bulls got utterly DESTROYED by the Brooklyn Nets in game one of their NBA playoff series. The Blackhawks and White Sox both put up a fight, but lost in extra time. And the Cubs were just the Cubs; doing Cubs like things. But back at the home of the Cubs, the Friendly Confines, a redeeming story emerged...

By Paul M. Banks,
April 20, 2013 at 11:51 pm •

Can Northwestern Basketball ever measure up to Northwestern Football?

Last night, following Northwestern's first round ousting in the Big Ten Tournament, and thus the end of their season, NU coach Bill Carmody had some very candid comments. Of course, he was asked about his job security, and we'll get to that, but much more interesting was what he said about finances and revenue in college athletics today. Carmody very honestly answered a question about where football and basketball rank in the hierarchy. A lot of it has to do with Northwestern's new $200+ million athletic facilities, (Or $200 billion by the math of the Sun-Times' Neil Hayes. Hey, I kid, I kid, we all make mistakes...as my commenters on here LOVE to point out) Here's an excerpt of the transcript from the press conference...

By Paul M. Banks,
March 15, 2013 at 9:34 pm •

Are College Recruiting Services Really Neccessary?

Today, National Signing Day is Christmas Day in the world of recruiting services. It's Christmas Eve for ESPN, because they go wall to wall with coverage and act they're CNBC, telling us all day who's stock is rising and falling. It's December 25th for Rivals, Scout, ESPNU Max Preps. and 247Sports.com If you want to follow your college basketball and/or college football team year round in extreme detail, then these sites are for you. It’s all the information you can ask for, and some you didn’t. Kind of like the coverage today, you didn't really ask for it To help make sense of all of it, I enlisted the help of the Northwestern site manager for Rivals (owned by Yahoo!) Louie Vaccher of WildcatReport.com...

By Paul M. Banks,
February 6, 2013 at 3:00 pm •

Northwestern Media Day highlights

Training camp is underway for Northwestern football. The ‘Cats figure to be explosive on offense, with some questions on defense. Media day was Wednesday and with it Pat Fitzgerald answered some key questions about Chicago’s Big Ten team. Here were some of the highlights On Kyle Prater’s impact on offense this season… “When I... Read more »

By Paul M. Banks,
August 9, 2012 at 8:41 am •

Pat Fitzgerald unveils Northwestern's new uniforms, goals for 2012

Pat Fitzgerald had a great quote on dais at Big Ten Media Day: “some people have called me the youngest old-school person in the country, and I’m okay with that” He’s definitely earned it, as Northwestern has been to four straight bowl games, a first in school history. Their academic rating, APR is so high... Read more »

By Paul M. Banks,
July 26, 2012 at 3:05 pm •

Big Ten Network helps expand league, Northwestern's profile

There were a lot of topics on the table of discussion in last week’s Big 10 meetings. First and foremost, is the rapid move towards a four team playoff in college football, which could get here in a couple years. I asked Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips what his biggest takeaways were from the meetings.... Read more »

By Paul M. Banks,
May 24, 2012 at 7:31 am •

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