A Modest Proposal for the Northwestern Administration to Consider

I have a friend who is a pretty big NU fan. He co-anchors the weekly television show "SportsNight" on the Northwestern News Network. Today I mentioned to him that I had an interview scheduled with Brian Musso.

His response: "Who's Brian Musso?"  

Northwestern University needs an "Introduction to Northwestern Football History" course, and they need to make it mandatory for all incoming freshmen. In order to understand the significance of where NU football is now, they have to realize where the program has come from.

The history of Northwestern football is a fascinating one, and very few students at NU know anything about it. That has to change. In my opinion, you cannot truly understand anything unless you know the history behind the topic.

President Morton Schapiro clearly understands the importance of sports in our society. He gave athletic director Jim Phillips a huge bear hug after NU pulled off the victory last Saturday.

President Schapiro, it's time to take action so your students understand where the passion comes from.

I understand that a lot of Northwestern students do not care about sports whatsoever. Tough break. I don't care about art or art history, but I still have to take the course!

An understanding of Northwestern football history would make a lot of students here much more well-rounded people. Just like my basic painting course is making me a more well-rounded individual.

Isn't that what college is all about?

The course on NU football history could count for ANY distribution credit students want. For example, an engineering student who hates literature could make the course count for literature. That would make its mandatory status more palatable for those students who really hate sports.

I propose the course be held one day a week, for three hours. Northwestern could bring in freelance instructors who understand the history to teach the course. You would need a fair amount, since every freshman would be taking the course. But what you could do is just make it mandatory at some point during freshman year, not necessarily fall quarter. That would lessen the burden of finding instructors.

Possible instructors could be Dave Eanet, Darren Rovell, Dave Revsine, Pat Fitzgerald, Jonathan Hodges (who runs the very informative site "Hail to Purple," and is a fellow Bleacher Report contributor), among others. Heck, I could use some extra cash, I'd teach the course too. The fact that it would only be one day a week would make it so the instructors could choose the time that works for them.

My proposed course would include a midterm where students would be expected to know the basic facts of NU football history. For example, they'd have to know important figures such as Ara Parseghian and Gary Barnett, as well as fairly infamous figures such as Dennis Lundy.

The final exam would be an independent research project of the student's choice. It could focus on the underlying reasons behind "The Dark Ages", or it could even research the origins of the program itself.

A mandatory class like this would make NU students more well-rounded, and give them an understanding of the complex history of the program they root for every Saturday in Autumn.

And no one would ever ask me who Brian Musso is again.