Northwestern Wildcats Football
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50 free Northwestern Wildcats Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Northwestern is the smallest school in the Big Ten, and its football history swings harder than almost anyone's: a record losing streak in the early 1980s, a trip to Pasadena in the 1990s that stunned the sport, and division titles a generation later. This quiz covers the program from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the modern era: the coaches who rebuilt it, the upsets, the bowl games, the rivalry trophies, the stadium and the game-day traditions. A good share of the questions step off the gridiron for Wildcats basketball and the other teams that have won national titles for the school. It is written for alumni, students and Big Ten fans who want more than the obvious. Most questions are fair to a casual fan, and a few are there to test the die-hards.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Before they became the Wildcats in 1924, what were Northwestern's teams unofficially called?
Fighting Methodists
Fighting Methodists was the unofficial name and The Purple the official one until a Chicago sportswriter likened the 1924 team to wildcats after a loss to the University of Chicago.
Q 02Northwestern hosted the first final of which event in 1939, yet never played in it until 2017?
NCAA basketball tournament
The NCAA basketball tournament crowned Oregon its first champion at Northwestern's Patten Gymnasium. The Wildcats finally qualified 78 years later and beat Vanderbilt 68–66 in their debut.
Q 03Which future baseball owner spent 1955 as an assistant coach on Northwestern's winless football team?
George Steinbrenner
George Steinbrenner worked under head coach Lou Saban through an 0–8–1 season, moved on to Purdue's staff, and led the group that bought the New York Yankees in 1973.
Q 04Northwestern's 2005 champion women's lacrosse team caused a stir by wearing what to the White House?
Flip-flops
Flip-flops on several players in the team photo with President Bush made national news, and the squad later auctioned the sandals for charity.
Q 05Which 1940s Northwestern quarterback took the Cleveland Browns to ten straight league title games?
Otto Graham
Otto Graham arrived at Northwestern on a basketball scholarship in 1940 before football became his main sport. He won seven of those ten title games.
Q 06Which Emmy-winning Northwestern alumna's son, Charlie Hall, played basketball for the Wildcats?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus met her husband, comedian Brad Hall, while both were Northwestern students, and their younger son Charlie later suited up for the Wildcats.
Q 07Which Tennessee quarterback threw four touchdown passes against Northwestern in the 1997 Citrus Bowl?
Peyton Manning
Peyton Manning passed for 408 yards in the 48–28 win over a Northwestern team that had just won a share of its second straight Big Ten title.
Q 08At which Chicago venue did Northwestern face Illinois in 2010, with all offense aimed at one end zone?
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field left the east end zone about a foot from the right-field wall, so both offenses drove west in the ballpark's first college football game since 1938.
Q 09Which top-ten team did 28-point underdog Northwestern upset 17–15 to open its 1995 season?
Notre Dame
Notre Dame had beaten Northwestern 14 straight times, and the upset began a 10–2 run to the Wildcats' first Big Ten title in 59 years.
Q 10After each Northwestern touchdown, cheerleaders do one of what for every point on the scoreboard?
Push-ups
Push-ups are counted out to match Northwestern's running total, and students join in by hoisting classmates into the air in the stands.
Q 11Which lakefront Illinois city just north of Chicago is home to Northwestern football?
Evanston
Evanston borders Chicago's north side on Lake Michigan, close enough that Northwestern markets itself as the big city's own Big Ten team.
Q 12Which name does Northwestern's costumed wildcat mascot, first drawn for the school in 1933, go by?
Willie
Willie existed only as a drawing until 1947, when fraternity members first dressed up as the wildcat for the Homecoming parade.
Q 13Which live animal, named Furpaw, was Northwestern's football mascot in the early 1920s?
A bear cub
A bear cub named Furpaw was kept caged as the team's mascot until a poor 1923 season convinced the players that it was bad luck.
Q 21In 2014, Northwestern football players petitioned a federal board for the right to form what?
A labor union
A labor union for scholarship athletes was the aim of the campaign fronted by quarterback Kain Colter; the National Labor Relations Board dismissed the petition in August 2015.
Q 22In which European capital did Northwestern beat Nebraska to open 2022, its first game played abroad?
Dublin
Dublin's Aviva Stadium hosted the 31–28 win, which turned out to be Northwestern's only victory of the entire 2022 season.
Q 23In 2017 Northwestern became the first FBS team ever to win three consecutive games in which fashion?
In overtime
Q 14Which name did Northwestern's Ryan Field carry from its 1926 opening until a 1997 renaming?
Dyche Stadium
Dyche Stadium honored William Dyche, an 1882 graduate and former local mayor who oversaw the building project; the later name honors the family of Aon founder Patrick Ryan.
Q 15Until USC arrived in 2024, Northwestern had spent decades as the Big Ten's only what?
Private university
Private university status set Northwestern apart from 1946, when the University of Chicago left the Big Ten; it was also long the league's smallest school, with about 8,000 undergraduates.
Q 16Which unbeaten team did Northwestern beat 20–14 in the 1949 Rose Bowl, its first bowl game?
California
California fell to Ed Tunnicliff's late touchdown run on a trick play, and Northwestern did not win another bowl game until the 2012 season.
Q 17Which coach, hired from Colorado's staff, took Northwestern to the Rose Bowl after the 1995 season?
Gary Barnett
Gary Barnett won a string of national coach of the year awards after a 10–2 season, two more wins than his first three Northwestern teams had managed combined.
Q 18Which Northwestern linebacker won the Nagurski Trophy and Bednarik Award in both 1995 and 1996?
Pat Fitzgerald
Pat Fitzgerald was the first two-time winner of both awards, and at 31 he became major college football's youngest head coach when Northwestern promoted him in 2006.
Q 19Which future NFL head coach led Northwestern when its record 34-game losing streak ended in 1982?
Dennis Green
Dennis Green, hired from Stanford's staff, saw the streak end against Northern Illinois, after which students tore down the goalposts and threw them into Lake Michigan.
Q 20Which team beat Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship Game in both 2018 and 2020?
Ohio State
Ohio State won 45–24 and then 22–10, the second after Northwestern led at halftime; both trips followed Big Ten West division titles.
In overtime, Northwestern beat Iowa, Michigan State and Nebraska on successive Saturdays, part of an eight-game winning streak that closed a 10–3 season.
Q 24Which sportswear brand's first Big Ten deal put Northwestern in its uniforms from 2012?
Under Armour
Under Armour took over in 2012–13 and went on to produce the Gothic uniforms that Northwestern football first wore in 2014.
Q 25Which no-huddle attack powered Northwestern's 54–51 win over Michigan and its 2000 Big Ten co-title?
The spread
The spread stretched defenses with extra receivers so Northwestern could run the ball. Damien Anderson finished second in the nation in rushing, and Urban Meyer sent his Bowling Green staff to study it.
Q 26Which nickname did Northwestern's 1996 Big Ten co-champions earn for a string of last-second wins?
Cardiac Cats
Cardiac Cats suited a team that trailed sixth-ranked Michigan 16–0 entering the fourth quarter and won 17–16 on a last-second field goal.
Q 27Northwestern's first postseason win since 1949 came against Mississippi State in which January 2013 game?
Gator Bowl
The Gator Bowl win, 34–20, snapped a run of nine straight bowl defeats, which had tied the longest losing streak in bowl history.
Q 28The Land of Lincoln Trophy, played for by Northwestern and Illinois, is a bronze replica of what?
A stovepipe hat
A stovepipe hat like the one Abraham Lincoln wore makes up the trophy, which was designed by Dick Tracy cartoonist Dick Locher.
Q 29Which trophy, originally a carved wooden figure, did Northwestern and Illinois contest until 2008?
Sweet Sioux Tomahawk
The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk replaced a cigar-store statue that was stolen, and it stayed with Northwestern for good after the Wildcats won the last game played for it.
Q 30The trophy for the Northwestern–Michigan game honors George Jewett, the Big Ten's first what?
African American player
African American player George Jewett starred for Michigan before transferring to Northwestern in 1893, where he broke the same barrier; the trophy was created in 2021.