Northwestern University Athletics
Southern Illinois Game Program Features: D'Wayne Bates
10/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 16, 2008
There are some sights in sports that are just sure things.
Fans on both sides of the game know them when they see them. Coaches know them. Opposing players know them. For fans, those are the images that invite absolute, unshakeable confidence.
Derek Jeter striding to the plate with two on and two out in the ninth inning of a tie game? Chalk up another win for the Bronx Bombers.
Tiger Woods standing over a birdie putt on the 18th green on Sunday down by one stroke? Get ready for a playoff.
Fans of Northwestern football could easily close their eyes and see a picture that, in the mid-1990s, always let them breathe a little easier at the end of a tight game. It was the sight of quarterback Steve Schnur dropping back and lofting a pass down the field, just as he did against Wisconsin in 1996, with wide receiver D'Wayne Bates the intended target.
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"We got the ball after Ron Dayne fumbled late, and I remember seeing the ball in the air with D'Wayne waiting under it," said Mike McGrew, a teammate of Bates' for two years and fellow wide receiver. "There was no doubt in my mind he was going to catch it because he always did."
Oh, and it didn't matter how many defensive backs were in the picture with Bates.
"In the '95 Rose Bowl, Schnur launched one to D'Wayne with defenders draped all over him, but D'Wayne just used that 40-inch vertical of his to go up and get it," McGrew said. "He was a playmaker and whenever we needed a big play, he came through."
In fact, D'Wayne Bates' penchant for stepping into an uncertain picture and inspiring confidence in those around him extends far beyond the football field. It always has. Whether it's been getting through the daily grind of growing up on a farm in South Carolina, supporting his family financially during his NFL career, or teaching the value of hard work to his students at Evanston High School, Bates' influence has been a calming one for his friends and family.
Listening to him talk, it's easy to understand what it is about Bates' personality that has drawn people to him throughout his life. Bates exudes a blend of confidence and humility and, according to those that know him best, the coolest of demeanors under pressure.
These are traits that Bates attributes to his mother, who raised D'Wayne and his sister as a single mom. She encouraged him to be active in sports, even helping her kids set up a football and baseball field in an old cornfield.
"Growing up, there wasn't much to do entertainment-wise--it was either farm or play sports," Bates said. "The older I got, the more I relied on sports as a place where I could be around positive role models, get some discipline and eventually get a scholarship to a good college."
His hard work paid off when he began receiving offers from schools like North Carolina State and Air Force to play football, as well as a selection in the Major League Baseball draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. It wasn't until much later in the recruiting process that Bates received a call from Northwestern and began researching the school's history.
"At first I didn't even know it was in the Big Ten because I counted 10 schools without Northwestern and didn't know there were really 11," Bates said. "But the more I learned about the school and its academics, the more I knew it was the place for me."
Following his redshirt year, Bates appeared right at home in the Midwest when he stepped on the field at Notre Dame for his first game as a college athlete in 1995. Bates ran a picture-perfect post route late in the game and caught a critical touchdown pass from Schnur to give NU a 17-15 win.
That performance was just the tip of the iceberg for Bates during a freshman year in which he broke Big Ten rookie records for receptions (49) and receiving yards (889). He capped off his stellar campaign with a seven-catch, 145-yard performance against USC in Northwestern's 41-32 Rose Bowl loss.
By the time Bates finished his sophomore year just shy of 1,200 yards for the season, there was no doubt he had the attention of the college football world as one of the top receivers in the game. Entering his junior year, many around the game ranked him as the nation's second-best receiver behind only his future teammate with the Minnesota Vikings, Randy Moss.
But Bates was dealt a harsh blow early in 1997 when he broke his ankle and fibula in the season-opener against Oklahoma.
"It was a really humbling experience because you realize the game can end for you at any moment," Bates said. "You hear that all the time, to play every down like it's your last, but it doesn't hit home until something like that happens. It changed my life in the big picture because it's so important to enjoy every aspect of life because it can all change quickly."
Bates rallied for his senior year, compiling 1,245 receiving yards on 83 catches and earning All-Big Ten honors. In just three years of action, Bates had landed himself in second place on the conference's all-time receptions and receiving yards lists. He also had established almost a 900-yard cushion between him and the second-most prolific receiver in Northwestern history, Richard Buchanan.
That kind of productivity is even more impressive considering the run-first mentality of Northwestern's offense in the mid-1990's, a contrast to NU's current spread offense that commonly puts four wide receivers on the field at the same time.
"I would have loved to play in the offense they're running nowadays," said Bates, who has begun implementing the spread with the sophomore football team he coaches at Evanston High. "We were lucky if we threw 15 times a game in my era so I guess I was productive for the system I was in. (NU's offense) has been fun to watch the past few years."
In 1999, the Chicago Bears selected Bates with the 71st pick in the NFL Draft. It looked as if one of Northwestern's favorite sons would still be in the area for NU fans who wanted to continue seeing him at the receiving end of passes in tight games.
But Bates did not find himself in those situations very often during his three years in Chicago and was eventually shipped to Minnesota to play alongside Moss and quarterback Daunte Culpepper. As an important cog in the Vikings' high-powered offense in 2002, Bates caught 50 passes and scored four touchdowns while averaging 50 receiving yards per game for a team that finished 6-10.
After being cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003, Bates continued to train in hopes of a return to the NFL but grew tired of waiting for NFL teams to call on his services. He retired in 2005 and began volunteering as an assistant football coach at Evanston High School while simultaneously completing his master's degree with the University of Phoenix.
When Bates arrived on the NU campus in 1995, he did so as an engineering major but quickly realized that it was not the path he wanted to pursue. He completed a few internships in the field of business before working at a summer camp where he taught middle school math and English and served as the director of recreation. It wasn't hard for Bates to figure out that he wanted to work with kids in his post-football life.
"While I was in the NFL I would visit classrooms to talk to kids and a lot of times I would engage the teachers in conversations about their jobs, challenges they faced, lesson plans, everything," Bates said. "As a player you only interact with those kids for one day but I thought I would really like being in a school and seeing kids improve day after day."
In 2005, Northwestern inducted Bates into the school's hall of fame, an honor that to this day seems a bit surreal to the former Wildcat. On the night of the induction, with his family from South Carolina in attendance, Bates could hardly believe he was walking across the stage to join the likes of Otto Graham and Pat Fitzgerald in Northwestern lore.
"It was definitely a life-defining moment for me," Bates said.
In three years, Bates has gone from a volunteer assistant at ETHS to a U.S. history teacher at the freshman and sophomore levels and the school's sophomore football coach.
"We've started out 1-1, both very close games," Bates said of his squad. "Someone told me after the last game that I was really calm on the sideline in the fourth quarter and I think it's because I've been through so many close games when I was at Northwestern."
Staying poised under pressure is just one in a long list of lessons Bates can offer Evanston youngsters.
"I just try to teach the kids that it's a simple game if you work hard, accept criticism and be critical of yourself," he said. "I know for a fact that you can learn so much from it beyond just football."
"I remember D'Wayne being great with fans and kids after games when they would wait outside our locker room," McGrew said. "He wasn't a guy who just went to his car to go to the next frat party. He genuinely cares about people and I have no doubt he is someone that kids in Evanston can learn from and really view as a role model."
Just as there was no doubt that when Northwestern needed a playmaker in a photo-finish game, you couldn't frame it any better than seeing the ball in D'Wayne Bates' hands.
