Throughout the historical
chapters of Northwestern football, two seasons share remarkably
similar story lines. The teams of1948 and 1995 achieved thrilling
triumphs on the field that ended with New Year's trips to Pasadena.
Expectations at the
start of the 1948 season were not high. The team had finished
eighth in the Big Ten the previous year, and head coach Bob Voigts
was in just his second season at the helm of a group that included
several World War II veterans.
After a strong start,
Northwestern took a 6-2 record into its final game with Illinois.
A win meant sole possession of second place in the conference
and a berth in the Rose Bowl since first-place Michigan -- the
previous year's representative -- was prohibited from going two
years in a row.
Three first-half touchdowns
sealed the 20-7 victory over Illinois and a campus celebration
unlike any seen before. When classes were cancelled, more than
3,000 students paraded through Evanston with the school band.
Five hundred more took the el to downtown Chicago and did a snake
dance through Marshall Field's.
The Rose Bowl versus
California started out with halfback Frank Aschenbrenner sprinting
73 yards for a touchdown in the first minute of play. Cal responded
within two plays with an equalizing score. The game remained tight,
and Northwestern trailed 14-13 with only minutes to play. With
the ball on Cal's 43-yard line, Northwestern called a trick play.
Center and team captain Alex Sarkisian snapped the ball past the
quarterback into the hands of Ed Tunnicliff, a junior halfback.
Tunnicliff saw the confusion and took off for the end zone, scoring
the winning touchdown.
"The play was borrowed,
stolen, maybe leased from the Chicago Bears," Sarkisian laughed.
"We practiced it all year." Tunnicliff added, "From a ball carrier's
standpoint, it was a great play and great trickery."
Northwestern football
was the feel-good sports story of 1995. Coach Gary Barnett, who
had instilled in his team expectations of victory, watched with
the whole country as the Wildcats kicked off the season with a
17-15 upset of Notre Dame in South Bend. In fact, the Chicago
Sun-Times called it "the upset of the century."
The team built momentum
with eight consecutive conference wins, the biggest against Michigan.
Michigan then helped further the cause by upsetting Ohio State
on the last weekend of the season, sending Northwestern back to
the Rose Bowl 47 years later to play Southern California.
The second time around,
an estimated 50,000 Northwestern fans, including many members
of the 1949 team, flocked to California for the New Year's Day
game.
Southern Cal got the
upper hand early and took a 24-10 lead to halftime. But the Wildcats
came back in the third quarter and scored the first four times
they had the ball. Two minutes into the fourth quarter, they held
a slim 32-31 lead. In a wild finish that included two Northwestern
turnovers, Southern Cal prevailed for a final of 41-32.
Afterward, halfback
and offensive star Darnell Autry said, "I have never been so happy,
so proud, to be a part of a team like that. We played not just
for ourselves but for all of the guys who played before us and
who never made it to the Rose Bowl, who never won."
|