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.
Follow paulmbanks
English