Northwestern University Athletics
Murphy's Mark: Fall Sports Season Almost Here
8/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | General
Aug. 19, 2004
Arrival of Fall Teams
Although the weather in the Chicago area is just starting to feel like summer, our athletic department is already in the fall mode. All fall team sports have arrived and are working hard with two-a-day practices to get ready for their season. NCAA rules determine when a team can begin practicing -- teams can have a set number of practices before their first contest. This is the second year that the NCAA has used a new preseason model for football -- teams must have five straight days of one-a-day practice to acclimatize the student-athletes at the beginning of camp and other changes were adopted to help insure the players safety. Preseason is also the time when we hold our eligibility meetings with each team to go through our department policies and procedures and have the student-athletes complete numerous required NCAA forms.
Football Events
We have a couple of events planned over the next two weekends to help kick off the football season. At 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 20, we will hold an intrasquad scrimmage in Kenosha, Wis. The scrimmage is being held at Carthage College. Randy Walker decided to play the scrimmage at night since three of the first five games will be played at night (at TCU, at Minnesota and home vs. Ohio State). It's helpful to get the players used to the routine of a night game (you feel as though you are waiting around all day especially since several of our games are played at 11 a.m.) and to have our receivers and returners adjust to catching the ball under the lights. At 5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 27 at Touchdown Terrace (the north end of Ryan Field), we will hold our annual "Meet The Team" night. It's a great chance to meet and get autographs from our players, and to hear Randy talk about what we can expect from the team this year.
Olympics
Northwestern is being represented in the Olympics this year by sophomore swimmer Mike Alexandrov. Mike is swimming for the Bulgarian National team. You can follow his progress on our website.
NFL Preseason
Chicago area fans will get a chance to see Jason Wright again this weekend when the San Francisco 49ers come to town for a preseason game Saturday night. Jason got to play quite a bit in their first preseason game and this contest should be a good chance for him to show the coaches that he should be on the final roster. Louis Ayeni suffered a setback in his effort to make the Indianapolis' Colts when he tore his hamstring early in preseason camp. He will most likely be put on the team's injured reserve list.
Golf Alumni
A couple of our recent golf alumni have been in the news recently. Luke Donald has been playing great recently and appears to have a good chance of making the European Ryder Cup Team. He won the Scandinavian Master's and had strong finishes in the Western Open and the PGA. 2004 graduate T.C. Ford won the Illinois State Amateur Championship in a playoff. This win should help T.C. in his quest to turn professional.
