Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: S. J. Carrera, Inc.
Skip Report: Wildcats Christen Ryan Fieldhouse with First Practice
4/9/2018 9:28:00 AM | Football
Opening Day at the new-and-bedazzling athletic complex along Lake Michigan that is officially known as the Ryan Fieldhouse. . .
THE WILDCATS practiced there for the first time on Saturday and, early on, there was an adjustment period.
"At first everyone was a tiny bit distracted," remembered guard Tommy Doles, who will be a fifth-year senior come the fall. "The lake. The fact that we're actually here. This is something we've been looking forward to since we were in the recruiting process. So at first we were thinking about that a little bit."
"Were you? Were you checking it out?" Pat Fitzgerald would chortle when asked about his players' wandering eyes. "Yeah. Why wouldn't you (check it out)? That's what I knew would happen. That's why I wanted to get in here this spring. If we could, I wanted to get in here so, OK, when we come back in, it'll still have the new car smell. But we've been here. Let's go. That's all part of the process of team. But yeah, hell yeah. I was looking around."
THE 'CATS PRACTICED on a regulation field under a ceiling high enough to allowing punting and kicking, and there are nearly 400,000 more square feet of space yet to be opened up in this facility. When it is fully up and running, then, it will be a multi-sport complex housing offices and locker rooms, weight rooms and academic services, medical services and nutritional aid.
"This is state of the art. It's second to none," Fitzgerald would marvel. "Somebody may build something bigger. But nobody's going to build anything nicer in a better location. It's a game changer for us . . . and we're just getting started. So very thankful. The word that comes to mind is gratitude. We have such gratitude for the commitment and for the support. Our ability to prepare now has gone up to a whole other level. We're just so thankful. It's unbelievable."
"I think it will have a monumental effect on our programs," echoed the athletic director Jim Phillips. "It won't happen overnight because we haven't been able to recruit to it. But we will now. And most importantly we haven't been able to train in it, which we will starting now. So this is not the end. This is really the beginning. The beginning of a trajectory like at no other time in our history."
IN ANOTHER TIME, back when Fitzgerald was a star on the field, he had nothing like this. \
"When we first got here," he remembered, "behind Welsh-Ryan Arena there was a turf room that they didn't show us on our recruiting visit. We were in Trienens Hall (their current indoor facility) for the first time getting ready for the Citrus Bowl (following the 1996 season). The pads weren't even up on the walls. I don't think all the lights worked. For the Rose Bowl (the previous January) they cleared Ryan Field because there was snow on it, and then we were out in Southern California for two weeks. Which, as a guy who was injured (and unavailable for that game), wasn't really a bad deal. I think I gained like 15 pounds."
THAT HELPS EXPLAIN why, on Saturday, Doles and Fitzgerald and Phillips each took care to thank the Ryans and the Wilsons and the Slotnicks, the primary donors behind the fieldhouse. It also explains Doles' reaction when he first viewed the place, which was at its Thursday unveiling.
"I was," he recalled, "a little reflective as I thought about my whole career at Northwestern, things I've been through, how my class has been looking forward to this. At the same time, it's an inspiring feeling knowing that someone has invested in you. People care enough about our program, about student-athletes, about our generation— for those people to use their wealth this way, that's a very selfless act. They didn't have to invest in us. So a feeling that I had, that a lot of guys had, was just gratitude to everyone who has invested so much in us. When someone invests in you, I think it motivates you to do your best."
Have he and his teammates talked about this?
"It's a 'To whom much is given much is expected' kind of idea," he replied. "The thing is, with our group, everyone is intrinsically motivated. So it didn't take this to make us want to be a championship team. We've always had that. But this is an extra push, and it also enables us to in a new way to be our best."
PHILLIPS WAS ASKED if indeed more was expected now with this investment up-and-running.
"The coaches are the first to understand this will raise the bar for us, and rightly so. They wouldn't want it any other way," he said. "We want to chase championships and have success in athletics like at no other time before."
Does Fitzgerald feel greater expectations now surround him and his program?
"As far as expectations, my expectations are to win the West (Division) and to win the Big Ten every year," he replied, and now he set off on a soliloquy that evolved into a pep talk that seemed perfectly fitting in this setting.
"That doesn't change whether we're in Trienens Hall or practicing behind the softball field or here or out on Hutcheson Field," he went on, his voice sounding as it must in a pre-game speech. "Those expectations don't change. I can quite frankly care less about what anybody else thinks. If you all of a sudden have a different attitude because we have a new building, buy season tickets and cheer loud when we're on defense and shut your mouth when we're on offense. That's my expectation.
"We're far from where we need to be as a program, and a big part of that program is everybody. It's me, it's our assistant coaches, it's our players, it's our students, it's our fans. That's where I'm looking now. We're putting things in place, puzzle pieces in place, (and) I'm looking forward to when we have 390-plus sellouts like the Sea of Red (at Nebraska home games). We've got a long way to go, man. This is just the beginning. My hope is to continue to move this needle as hard as I possibly can in my role. But there's a lot of people that need to come along with us.
"Am I being a little bold right now? Hell yeah I am. That's what my expectations are, so I'd like to see people raised to mine. I'm hoping that's going to happen because we've got to keep doing it. We won 27 games over the last three years. That's Top 15 in the country. Our attendance isn't Top 15 in the country. Our atmosphere isn't Top 15 in the country. We've got to get our students to come out. Let's get this thing going. This is a together thing. All of us. That should be our collective expectations. Mine have not change. To win the West and to win the Big Ten and to have 100 percent graduation rate puts us into the final four to go win a national championship. That will not change. So we've got a lot of work to do collectively as a program. That's all of us.
"This (facility) is unbelievable. This is incredible. But trust me, man. I am so fired up about where we need to go, I'm going to challenge everybody that touches our program to step it up. Step it up. The university has stepped it up. I think we've stepped it up on the field. We all now need to collectively step up the program. Quit bellyaching. Become part of the solution and let's go. All of us. That's what I think today says. We all need to be better. Me. The coaches. The players. The fans. The students. The alums. We all need to be better. This is our program and this is what we need to do. I'm pretty fired up about it if you can't tell."
This last elicited laughs all around, but still his face stayed stern. Then, fired up still, Pat Fitzgerald concluded,
"I'm serious. I'm serious. That's what this is a statement of. This is a statement of a commitment from the university. We all need to understand that. We all need to follow that lead. This has never been done here before. So I think it's a challenge on all of us, on all of us collectively, and I'm a big part of that.
"I love it. I wouldn't want to do anything else. This is the most excited I've ever been."
THE WILDCATS practiced there for the first time on Saturday and, early on, there was an adjustment period.
"At first everyone was a tiny bit distracted," remembered guard Tommy Doles, who will be a fifth-year senior come the fall. "The lake. The fact that we're actually here. This is something we've been looking forward to since we were in the recruiting process. So at first we were thinking about that a little bit."
"Were you? Were you checking it out?" Pat Fitzgerald would chortle when asked about his players' wandering eyes. "Yeah. Why wouldn't you (check it out)? That's what I knew would happen. That's why I wanted to get in here this spring. If we could, I wanted to get in here so, OK, when we come back in, it'll still have the new car smell. But we've been here. Let's go. That's all part of the process of team. But yeah, hell yeah. I was looking around."
THE 'CATS PRACTICED on a regulation field under a ceiling high enough to allowing punting and kicking, and there are nearly 400,000 more square feet of space yet to be opened up in this facility. When it is fully up and running, then, it will be a multi-sport complex housing offices and locker rooms, weight rooms and academic services, medical services and nutritional aid.
"This is state of the art. It's second to none," Fitzgerald would marvel. "Somebody may build something bigger. But nobody's going to build anything nicer in a better location. It's a game changer for us . . . and we're just getting started. So very thankful. The word that comes to mind is gratitude. We have such gratitude for the commitment and for the support. Our ability to prepare now has gone up to a whole other level. We're just so thankful. It's unbelievable."
"I think it will have a monumental effect on our programs," echoed the athletic director Jim Phillips. "It won't happen overnight because we haven't been able to recruit to it. But we will now. And most importantly we haven't been able to train in it, which we will starting now. So this is not the end. This is really the beginning. The beginning of a trajectory like at no other time in our history."
IN ANOTHER TIME, back when Fitzgerald was a star on the field, he had nothing like this. \
"When we first got here," he remembered, "behind Welsh-Ryan Arena there was a turf room that they didn't show us on our recruiting visit. We were in Trienens Hall (their current indoor facility) for the first time getting ready for the Citrus Bowl (following the 1996 season). The pads weren't even up on the walls. I don't think all the lights worked. For the Rose Bowl (the previous January) they cleared Ryan Field because there was snow on it, and then we were out in Southern California for two weeks. Which, as a guy who was injured (and unavailable for that game), wasn't really a bad deal. I think I gained like 15 pounds."
THAT HELPS EXPLAIN why, on Saturday, Doles and Fitzgerald and Phillips each took care to thank the Ryans and the Wilsons and the Slotnicks, the primary donors behind the fieldhouse. It also explains Doles' reaction when he first viewed the place, which was at its Thursday unveiling.
"I was," he recalled, "a little reflective as I thought about my whole career at Northwestern, things I've been through, how my class has been looking forward to this. At the same time, it's an inspiring feeling knowing that someone has invested in you. People care enough about our program, about student-athletes, about our generation— for those people to use their wealth this way, that's a very selfless act. They didn't have to invest in us. So a feeling that I had, that a lot of guys had, was just gratitude to everyone who has invested so much in us. When someone invests in you, I think it motivates you to do your best."
Have he and his teammates talked about this?
"It's a 'To whom much is given much is expected' kind of idea," he replied. "The thing is, with our group, everyone is intrinsically motivated. So it didn't take this to make us want to be a championship team. We've always had that. But this is an extra push, and it also enables us to in a new way to be our best."
PHILLIPS WAS ASKED if indeed more was expected now with this investment up-and-running.
"The coaches are the first to understand this will raise the bar for us, and rightly so. They wouldn't want it any other way," he said. "We want to chase championships and have success in athletics like at no other time before."
Does Fitzgerald feel greater expectations now surround him and his program?
"As far as expectations, my expectations are to win the West (Division) and to win the Big Ten every year," he replied, and now he set off on a soliloquy that evolved into a pep talk that seemed perfectly fitting in this setting.
"That doesn't change whether we're in Trienens Hall or practicing behind the softball field or here or out on Hutcheson Field," he went on, his voice sounding as it must in a pre-game speech. "Those expectations don't change. I can quite frankly care less about what anybody else thinks. If you all of a sudden have a different attitude because we have a new building, buy season tickets and cheer loud when we're on defense and shut your mouth when we're on offense. That's my expectation.
"We're far from where we need to be as a program, and a big part of that program is everybody. It's me, it's our assistant coaches, it's our players, it's our students, it's our fans. That's where I'm looking now. We're putting things in place, puzzle pieces in place, (and) I'm looking forward to when we have 390-plus sellouts like the Sea of Red (at Nebraska home games). We've got a long way to go, man. This is just the beginning. My hope is to continue to move this needle as hard as I possibly can in my role. But there's a lot of people that need to come along with us.
"Am I being a little bold right now? Hell yeah I am. That's what my expectations are, so I'd like to see people raised to mine. I'm hoping that's going to happen because we've got to keep doing it. We won 27 games over the last three years. That's Top 15 in the country. Our attendance isn't Top 15 in the country. Our atmosphere isn't Top 15 in the country. We've got to get our students to come out. Let's get this thing going. This is a together thing. All of us. That should be our collective expectations. Mine have not change. To win the West and to win the Big Ten and to have 100 percent graduation rate puts us into the final four to go win a national championship. That will not change. So we've got a lot of work to do collectively as a program. That's all of us.
"This (facility) is unbelievable. This is incredible. But trust me, man. I am so fired up about where we need to go, I'm going to challenge everybody that touches our program to step it up. Step it up. The university has stepped it up. I think we've stepped it up on the field. We all now need to collectively step up the program. Quit bellyaching. Become part of the solution and let's go. All of us. That's what I think today says. We all need to be better. Me. The coaches. The players. The fans. The students. The alums. We all need to be better. This is our program and this is what we need to do. I'm pretty fired up about it if you can't tell."
This last elicited laughs all around, but still his face stayed stern. Then, fired up still, Pat Fitzgerald concluded,
"I'm serious. I'm serious. That's what this is a statement of. This is a statement of a commitment from the university. We all need to understand that. We all need to follow that lead. This has never been done here before. So I think it's a challenge on all of us, on all of us collectively, and I'm a big part of that.
"I love it. I wouldn't want to do anything else. This is the most excited I've ever been."
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