November 15, 2024
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Football: Return to Wrigley Field could be ‘huge’ for Northwestern football

By Teddy Greenstein

Northwestern celebrates in the end zone after scoring on an interception return against Illinois at Wrigley Field in Chicago on November 20, 2010. (William DeShazer)

Northwestern safety Brian Peters intercepted Eddie McGee’s pass and sprinted to the forbidden east end zone at Wrigley Field. After he crossed the goal line, Peters got tackled by his teammate, linebacker Nate Williams.

Peters had planned to do something crazy if he scored a touchdown against Illinois in the first football game at Wrigley Field in 40 years. He told Williams he might celebrate by throwing the ball up and making a catch like an outfielder against the padded wall in right field. So Williams set out to save his team 15 yards.

“I would have done something stupid and probably got flagged for it,” said Peters, now a special-teams ace for the Texans.

NU players will get the chance to make more memories at Wrigley Field on Nov. 7, 2020, when the Wildcats host Wisconsin. Details of the game will be announced at 10 a.m. today during a news conference at Wrigley featuring NU coach Pat Fitzgerald, athletic director Jim Phillips and Cubs President Crane Kenney.

After that 2010 game, Phillips predicted more NU football at Wrigley Field – on one condition.

“We’d have to get the field, once and for all, in a position where there would be no question that it would be safe by all standards – risk management’s standards, engineers’ standards, the NCAA, all of that,” he said.

The latest Wrigley redo, with removable seats down the third-base line, allows for a full field. That will also please the bowl organizers who are working to establish an annual postseason game at Wrigley Field involving a Big Ten representative.

Peters said the “one-direction thing was bananas” in the 48-27 loss to Illinois and the locker rooms were hardly equipped for football, requiring some players to change in hallways.

“But the experience trumped the real estate [issues],” he said.

And what will a return mean to NU football?

“A lot,” Peters said. “We have branded ourselves as Chicago’s Big Ten team. Chicago belongs to us. The Cubs embody that same spirit.”

Quarterback Dan Persa tore an Achilles tendon the Saturday before the NU-Illinois game, so he was left to hobble around Wrigley Field on crutches while backup Evan Watkins stumbled.

“In college I was kind of oblivious to a lot going on around me,” Persa said, “but there was a really cool buzz around it going into that year. The game sold out in like a second. The fans there said they were running into people they hadn’t seen in 40 years.”

Persa, who contributes on WGN-AM 720’s NU football broadcasts, called the Wildcats’ return to Wrigley “huge.”

“You want to be able to tell recruits that you’ll get tons of exposure and play in the biggest games and best arenas,” he said. “And with Chicago being a pro-heavy town, everyone is clamoring to steal some of the limelight away from the Bears and Cubs and whoever.”