By Austin Siegel
The clearest sign that Northwestern’s 23-15 win over Purdue on November 18 wasn’t a normal college football game? Nobody wanted to leave.
More than 30 minutes after quarterback Ben Bryant took a knee and students rushed the field to celebrate a victory that clinched the school’s first bowl berth since 2020, hundreds of Northwestern fans, coaches and student-athletes were still milling around Ryan Field.
They took photos on the field and snatched blades of grass. Three days later, an Evanston City Council vote would make it official: the 97-year-old stadium would be torn down in 2024 and rebuilt as an $800-million-dollar world-class home for the Wildcats. Because Ryan Field’s future was still uncertain when Northwestern faced Purdue, there was no way to celebrate the stadium’s final game.
But as TrueNU gathered voices from the Northwestern football program, student section, broadcast crew and athletic staff who were at Ryan Field that day, it became clear this wasn’t just another college football game.
These are some of their stories.
“We Want Braun”
One week earlier, on a blustery day at Camp Randall, the Wildcats defeated Wisconsin to secure their fifth win of the season. Northwestern was on the doorstep of a bowl game.
And calls for David Braun, the program’s 38-year-old interim head coach, to earn the full-time job grew louder. Literally. In the locker room, a chant from Northwestern players echoed across social media. As the Wildcats returned to Evanston and prepared for what would become the final game at the old Ryan Field, the message was clear:
“We want Braun…We want Braun.”
David Braun, Northwestern Football Head Coach: It’s why we do what we do, for these guys. And for them to show that support – and it wasn’t just in the locker room in Madison – but it’s the way they showed up every single day.
Xander Mueller, Northwestern senior linebacker: We bought into playing for him the rest of the season like was he was our head coach. We knew he was going to be there for us and cared about us. He was a guy who was going to support us and wanted us to win.
Cam Johnson, Northwestern senior wide receiver: I’ve had five or six head coaches throughout my time in college. Coach Braun is one of the best, if not the best. Just the poise and confidence that he brings to a team is something special.
Tyler Schreiber, President of Wildside, Northwestern’s official student section: My friends and I had the chance to go up to Wisconsin for the game the week before, so I think the attitude among most of our students before the Purdue game was just excitement.
Zach Wingrove, Northwestern Football Director of Public Relations & Digital Media: That whole week was such a whirlwind. We started kind of building the runway for everything on Tuesday, before we announced Braun as the full-time head coach on Wednesday night and the team found out, then the press conference was on Thursday.
So, the whole week was like “Oh yeah, now we have to go play a game on Saturday.’ Not to sound like a coach, but we really had to turn the page and focus our energy on Purdue.
Dave Eanet, Radio Play-by-Play Announcer for Northwestern Football: At that point, Northwestern still needed one more win to become bowl eligible and that was the big story. Considering all the events throughout the season, that would have been an unbelievable accomplishment under the circumstances.
It was also Senior Day, so you wanted to see those guys go out on a good note. They were playing well enough and certainly deserved it. But could they get to a bowl game?
Connor Onion, Big Ten Network, Play-by-Play Announcer for Big Ten Network: I was curious if Coach Braun would change now that he had some job security and this new five-year contract, but in our production meeting that week he was still the same hungry and ambitious coach that we had met with earlier in the season.
Braun: There honestly wasn’t much celebrating other than getting ready for Purdue.
Schreiber: We were playing for bowl eligibility, but I think everyone on campus also assumed it was going to be the last game at the old Ryan Field.
Wingrove: We had been talking during the season about doing something for the Purdue game, but as we got closer, it became clear the Evanston City Council wasn’t going to have an answer on the stadium, so we couldn’t officially call it the last game at Ryan Field.
Onion: During the week, I asked a lot of questions around campus like ‘Do we know if this is the last game?’ And taking that question to our broadcast crew, we basically decided we’re just going to cover the game because we already have a really good story here.
Northwestern was basically supposed to win one or two games in most people’s minds, and here they were, with an interim head coach, a win away from going to a bowl game.
“Only at Ryan Field”
By the time Northwestern kicked off the 2023 season, Ryan Field was on borrowed time.
The only remaining FBS stadium without lights, the stadium had rust creeping up the bleachers and hadn’t been renovated in more than a quarter century.
In 2021, the Ryan family made the largest single gift in Northwestern history to support educational and research initiatives and to “redevelop Ryan Field and construct a best-in-class venue for the Northwestern community.” Clearly, change was coming to the stadium.
Braun: There’s so much history and tradition at Ryan Field.
Schreiber: Between the grass field, the bleachers and those towers on the north side, it was a very distinctive stadium. I still remember my first game in 2021. It was a new experience for me, but Ryan Field always felt very warm and welcoming.
Eanet: I’ve spent so many hours in that stadium, so I was definitely thinking that this could potentially be the final season. Jacob Pavilack from our Communications team took me up into one of the towers earlier in the season, where they had auxiliary radio booths for visiting student broadcasters. We were toying with the idea of calling the last game from up there. I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I don’t think I had ever been up in those booths.
They had flatscreen TVs and internet access, but there were also these big animal traps everywhere. I was like ‘I don’t think I really want to hang out up here.’
Wingrove: During the Minnesota game that season, I went down to the sidelines when Northwestern was making a fourth-quarter comeback. There weren’t many people left in the stadium at that point, so going into overtime, I remember Jacob and I were yelling at [Director of Marketing] Andrew Cass to crank up the volume because Minnesota won the coin toss and chose to go into the end of the stadium where all the speakers were set up.
Only at Ryan Field could you be on the field in overtime and ask the person controlling the speakers to turn up the volume because the visiting team is driving in that direction.
Eanet: I’ve never been a big elevator fan. But in the old press box, there was just one small, old elevator and you were always worried about something happening with that thing. When Gary Barnett came to visit Northwestern in the early 90’s, he ended up getting stuck in that elevator. I feel like that might have given him some pause about taking the job.
It wasn’t luxurious, and the new stadium is going to have all these modern amenities and conveniences. But I always thought there was something pretty cool about Ryan Field.
Braun: Coaching at the FCS level for as long as I did, and especially at North Dakota State, I became very aware that the Fargo Dome’s 19,000 capacity could turn into one heck of a home-field advantage… I would say what we experienced last year at Ryan Field, we found a way to create a home-field advantage.
It may have looked a little different, but we went 5-1 at home.
“He Was Speechless”
Even with the momentum of the Wisconsin win, a new head coach and a chance to clinch a bowl game on Senior Day…Vegas had the Wildcats as underdogs against 3-7 Purdue.
A touchdown and a missed extra point, sparked by a 35-yard pass from Bryant to A.J. Henning, was the only offense Northwestern could manage in the first half.
A Jack Olsen field goal made it 9-0 before Purdue scored to make it a two-point game in the third quarter.
That’s when the Wildcats came alive.
Braun: Purdue was able to move the ball really effectively, but yards don’t win games. Points do. You could see our offense doing some positive things throughout the game, but it wasn’t leading to sustaining drives and scoring points. But those things started to add up.
Johnson: It just felt like no matter what happened, the defense was going to go out and get us the ball back.
Braun: As the game went along, our offense did a good job of anchoring in and finding time for Ben. He was doing a good job getting the ball out on time and you could see him adjust as the game went on.
With the ball at midfield, the Wildcats faced a 2nd and 8 with two minutes left in the third quarter. Picking up a cornerback blitz, Bryant hit Johnson on a screen pass. With Purdue’s safety dropping in to cover the edge, Johnson had one man to beat.
Connor Onion was on the call for Big Ten Network:
“Down to the sideline…Oh, nice step from Johnson…got around the corner now cutting it back…Cam Johnson, all the way home!”
Braun: That long touchdown pass to Cam Johnson was just incredible recognition by a veteran quarterback and Cam with yards after the catch.
Johnson: When I saw the look and got the ball, I just thought to myself, there’s no way I’m getting taken down here.
A 34-yard Cam Porter touchdown run on Northwestern’s next drive was all the offense the Wildcats would need to weather a late Purdue push.
When the clock hit 0:00, Northwestern was headed to a bowl game.
Schreiber: In the days leading up to the game, we talked about storming the field and if that was something that might happen. And then the chatter just started to grow among the student body. When we looked around and noticed everyone in the student section was staying after halftime, we realized all the students were thinking the same thing.
Wingrove: I don’t remember much from the actual game, but I’ll never forget what happened afterwards. Coach Braun had this storybook week, he had been living out his dream all season and now he gets the full-time job. You couldn’t help but be happy for him.
We’re going to a bowl game, the students are storming the field and now everyone huddles around him and starts chanting his name before the postgame interview starts. I can still vividly remember [BTN sideline reporter] Elise Menaker trying to talk to Braun before we went live, and the students are just chanting “David Braun…David Braun.”
Schreiber: You can’t see me on the broadcast because I’m a little too short, but I was in that circle. It was kind of a surreal moment. Going from 3-9 in 2021 to 1-11 in 2022 and then going to a bowl game was never something we expected.
Onion: I’ve got the note from our production meeting right here. Braun told us, “Being a head coach is less about technique and more about emotional temperature.”
Wingrove: You can see it on the broadcast, he has to kind of take a breath to let everything register.
Braun: We talk about the student-athlete experience and the student experience, about how Northwestern gives you an opportunity to get a world-class degree and be a part of the Big Ten. We talk about all of those things. But this [moment] was that embodied. This was it right in your face. College athletics is all about bringing a community together.
Wingrove: He did the interview, goes back and talks to the team in the locker room and then I had to walk with him over to the press conference in Welsh-Ryan Arena. Usually, you just leave him alone or try and make small talk.
But I was like “Coach, I can’t imagine doing an interview on national TV with a bunch of Northwestern fans around you chanting your name. That had to be pretty surreal.”
He was speechless, even 30 minutes after that fact. As someone who watched it and was rooting for the guy, it made me emotional just seeing the whole thing play out.
Onion: You’re not supposed to cheer in my position. So, I’ll just say this – it was very easy to see Coach Braun experience that moment because of how Northwestern treated our crew that season and how accessible they were. Again, you’re not supposed to cheer, but it was a very easy moment to cover from our perspective at BTN.
Schreiber: After Coach Braun’s postgame interview, there were a lot of students who just wanted to be on the field one last time and soak it all in.
Onion: I grew up going to games at Wrigley Field and any time I walk up the steps at Wrigley I think about being four-years old and walking in with my Dad for the first time. It was a similar feeling when I got to do my first game at Ryan Field because one of my best friends growing up was Matthew Harris, who was a cornerback and captain for Northwestern.
I spent a lot of time at Ryan Field when he was playing. I actually went on his recruiting visit with him. He was one of the stars of those defenses. In 2017, when Ball State played Northwestern, I got to call the game for Ball State student radio. Matt and I compared it to the ending of The Sandlot, except he was Benny the Jet, and I was Smalls up in the booth.
In hindsight, it’s pretty cool that I got to do three games during Ryan Field’s final season.
Wingrove: I think there were so many intricacies to the old Ryan Field that Northwestern fans and Northwestern as a team really embraced. It was imperfect and it felt like when really owned that, we could create a home-field advantage.
Eanet: From our perspective up in the booth at Ryan Field, you could look out and see the Bahai Temple to the north and all the beautiful fall colors along the lake. And on a clear day, you could even see down to the Loop. I think that view was something really special and really made you appreciate the uniqueness of Northwestern.
Onion: I think it must have been the best view on campus.
Eanet: My son Steve is my spotter during games, so he works with me in the booth. After the game, the place had emptied out and there was no one left in the stadium. The final score was still left up on the scoreboard. I went down on the field and looked at Steve and said, “Let’s take a picture.”
Louie Vaccher, who runs Wildcat Report, was down there doing the same thing, so I asked Louie to take a photo of my son and me. And that was the last thing I ever did at Ryan Field.