Greatest Football Upset Ever?

Growing up in northern Indiana, you would think that Notre Dame would be my absolute favorite team. Instead, it was quite the opposite. Because everyone was a Notre Dame fan and all we heard about was Notre Dame football and Notre Dame basketball, I really couldn’t stand them. Even our local television station was named WNDU. I felt like the Notre Dame was shoved down our throats, and I actually became to despise them. Even after I became Catholic, I did not change my opinion, and shortly after Doug moved to Northern Indiana he understood exactly why I couldn’t stand the Fighting Irish.

This weekend Doug and I decided to go to Epcot for the day and try out the Food and Wine festival. Since IU had played their football game Friday night, we had a free afternoon.  The only game on today that we talked about watching was Notre Dame against NIU. None of us thought it would be close, so it was a good game to miss especially since Notre Dame was actually a four touchdown favorite.  Even so, there was no argument that we would be cheering for the Huskies in spirit. Jeannette had worked at Northern for a long time, the Heinisch family had grown up in DeKalb, and Dan had graduated from NIU.  

Doug and I left Walt Disney World at halftime of the game and decided to listen to it on the way home even though we realized that it probably was a blowout by then. We were absolutely shocked to see that Northern had a six point lead at half. Cameron called to make sure that we knew what the score was. We were all excited about their lead, but figured that Notre Dame would come back and destroy them in the second half. When we hung up the phone 20 minutes later, we were correct, Notre Dame had come back, but they only had a one point lead. We were positive that there was no way that Irish would lose.

Doug and I made it home in time to finish the last five minutes of the game on TV.  It was close to the very end, but Northern pulled it out on a last second field goal winning 16-14. None of us could believe it. The Huskie's coach had played football at NIU, named his son after one of the dorms on campus and absolutely loved his alma mater. Watching him fall to the ground in tears afterward was awesome but none of that compared to the fact that Notre Dame had just gotten upset in one of the most embarrassing games ever. I know that Michigan losing to Appalachian State was probably the biggest upset of all time, but for me, however, this was the best ever.