In 1995, the Northwestern Wildcats took the college football world by storm, they were so popular that they transcended college football; and became a pop culture story. After reaching their first Rose Bowl in close to 50 years, and having their first winning season in multiple decades, the storyline was more feel-good mid ’90s than the NBC sitcom Friends.
Their star player was a Heisman trophy finalist and sophomore theater major named Darnell Autry. The tailback carried the Cats to back-to-back Big Ten titles, before being selected in the 1997 NFL Draft where he had little to no success in stints with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.
I recently caught up to him and began our interview by reminding Autry how his team was bigger than Hootie and the Blowfish in back in1995.
He laughed and responded “I would love to think we were as big as Hootie and the Blowfish, but nah; we had a great time with it we really had a lot of fun and it was great to share with the alumni, and the current students and the faculty. It was really a shared experience.”
On this chilly autumn day (Halloween 2009, Homecoming versus Penn State) he was shirtless and painted purple from head-to-toe. The publicity stunt was part of “Purplepalooza.” Autry accepted his former teammate (and now Head Coach) Pat Fitzgerald’s challenge to paint himself purple if the Wildcats got 5,000 fans on Facebook before October 30.
“Darnell has been a great sport throughout this whole challenge,” said Tracie Hitz, associate athletic director for sales and marketing. “He was checking the Facebook page several times a day and even wrote back to fans on the wall to thank them and encourage them to get this done.”
So what is he doing these days?
“I came back to school finished my degree and now I’m doing residential real estate, we’re doing Section 8 housing on the west side of Chicago and giving back to the community,” he replied. I followed up by asking if he pursued any show business vocation, tied to his theatre background.
“I’m still working on that, I’m never going to give up on that, it will always be in my heart. I’m in the process now of getting into classes and getting head shots done,” Darnell said.
Today when you walk into Ryan Field, one of the first things you’ll notice is the ginormous blow up of Autry’s SI cover (pictured above) from that famous season.
A few gates over, is yet another graphical tribute to Autry. You could say he’s the most famous Wildcat football player in a generation, and after Otto Graham, possibly the most well-know in the program’s history.
“It’s always tons of great memories, the fans, the city, the state, we’ve had a lot of great support,” he said about coming back and seeing his image.
Later I asked Autry what advice he has for those pursuing a career in real estate.
“I would tell them to probably choose a different career. (laughs) No, I actually would tell them you need to be really resilient and you have to have a great team around you and be patient because the economy is what the economy is and it’s going to take some time for it to come around, but be patient because once you do, it’s a great business to be in.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. Follow him (@paulmbanks)
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