Northwestern Wildcats
| Northwestern Wildcats | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| University | Northwestern University |
| Conference | Big Ten |
| NCAA | FBS |
| Athletic director | James J. Phillips |
| Location | Evanston, Illinois |
| Varsity teams | 19 |
| Football stadium | Ryan Field |
| Basketball arena | Welsh-Ryan Arena |
| Baseball stadium | Rocky Miller Park |
| Soccer stadium | Toyota Park |
| Mascot | Willie the Wildcat |
| Nickname | Wildcats |
| Fight song | Go U Northwestern |
| Colors | Purple and White |
| Website | www |
The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern has eight men's and eleven women's Division I sports teams. The mascot is Willie the Wildcat. The athletic director is former Northern Illinois University Athletic Director Jim Phillips, who took office in April 2008.
Northwestern's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats. Before 1924, they were known as "The Purple" and unofficially as "The Fighting Methodists." The name Wildcats was bestowed upon the university in 1924 by Wallace Abbey, a writer for the Chicago Daily Tribune who wrote that even in a loss to the University of Chicago, "Football players had not come down from Evanston; wildcats would be a name better suited to Coach Glenn Thistletwaite's boys." The team was also referred to in the article as "a Purple wall of wildcats." The name was so popular that university board members made "Wildcats" the official nickname just months later. In 1972, the student body voted to change the official nickname from "Wildcats" to "Purple Haze" but the new name never stuck.
Northwestern is a charter member of the Big Ten Conference. Ever since the University of Chicago dropped out in 1946, Northwestern has been the only private institution in the conference. At only 8,200 undergraduates, it is by far the smallest. The second-smallest school, Iowa, is almost three times as large as Northwestern, at 21,000 undergraduates.
Currently, Northwestern fields 19 intercollegiate athletic teams (8 men's and 11 women's) in addition to numerous club sports. Current successful athletic programs include football, men's soccer, wrestling, men's swimming, men's golf, women's tennis, softball, fencing and women's lacrosse. The women's lacrosse team is the six-time NCAA national champion, and went undefeated in 2005. The 1930–31 Wildcats were retroactively named national champions by both the Helms Athletic Foundation (in 1942) and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.
...
Wikipedia