Back to the Future

And what were my daughter and son-in-law doing last night? Why, finding a way to watch North Central College go for back-to-back NCAA D-III football championships, of course. Somehow, I doubt Clare minded that North Central lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor, 57-24. Old grudges die hard. Michele asked me last week how North Central stays good in sports, and I told her, “They work at it.” Every athletic program starts off as a broken clock, bound to get it right at some point, if just for one season. The difference between North Central and Clare’s (and her husband’s) alma mater of Elmhurst is that one school built on its initial success and the other didn’t. It’s a choice. During Clare’s four years, her Blue Jays always played the Cardinals tough, even though they lost more than they won. We were eight-deep playing a program probably double that. You should see North Central’s athletic facilities. Elmhurst shares its home field with the local park district. In comparison, North Central is Yankee Stadium, and the Rams’ new home . North Central had a number of fifth-year seniors, courtesy of COVID; they came back for a chance to repeat. Now, they face life like Clare and Chris had to. My son-in-law went from graduate assistant at North Central (!), then Syracuse, to assistant coach at Elmhurst to high school social studies’ teacher/o-line coach; Clare walked on, if you will, at Northwestern University, where she’s doing quite well in administration at the Kellogg School of Management. Ask them, and they’ll likely tell you their stint as college athletes prepared them for what comes after graduation. If they’re lucky, the same will hold true for the kids at North Central.