By Paul M. Banks
The United Football League (UFL) held its inaugural “Premiere” Season Draft June 19th. After the league’ worked out players in Orlando and Las Vegas. Three of them are former Northwestern Wildcats including:
Last year’s Quarterback C.J. Bachér, (I’ll give you a dollar if you can pronounce his name correctly, hint: it’s not “back her” or “bocker”) Starting Linebacker Prince Kwateng (no, this is not the same Prince from Burkina Faso who emails you every day requesting $500 to handle the wealth transfer process of his $3 million inheritance from the King of Congo) and LB, and former Big Ten tackles leader Tim McGarigle earning selections.
Bachér was selected by the New York franchise while Kwateng and McGarigle went to Orlando and San Francisco, respectively. (Nicknames of franchises not yet chosen for this thing called the UFL)
Each team selected 24 players and now owns their rights if they choose to play in the United Football League. The remaining spots on each roster will be filled in July with players that coaches had previously identified and did not have to attend the UFL workouts and then again in mid-August with players that have been released by the NFL during training camp.
“Premiere” Season Head Coaches include former NFL coaches Dennis “the UFL is exactly what I thought it was” Green, Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett and Ted Cottrell. Other Big Ten representation in the UFL includes former Wisconsin QB Brooks Bollinger and Michigan RB Chris Perry.
The UFL will play its regular-season games on Thursday and Friday evenings in the fall, with the first regular season game kicking off in October and the Championship Game scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend.
To view the complete “Premiere” draft list. It doesn’t include former Mizzou QB Chase Daniel, so the league has that going for it; which is nice.
Rar Rar Rar! Other Wildcat tidbits
In other Northwestern alumi news, former NU forward Winston Blake (1999-2003) received his MBA from the University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Business on Saturday. I only know this because my girlfriend Lisa was in the same graduating class, and I was there for the Welsh-Ryan Arena ceremony. I’m not keeping tabs on Blake or anything. I figured since he’s second on the school list in three-point field goal attempts (he was first at the end of his career, but got passed by Craig Moore last season) and in the Wildcats’ all time top 25 scoring list, he’s got enough people following him.
Former NFL running back, Heisman Trophy winner, restaurant owner and host of “The Quad” Eddie George is also getting his MBA at Kellogg, except he’s in the “executive program.”