Hall Of Fame Coach Ara Parseghian To Serve Northwestern As Honorary Captain

Last winter Northwestern Wildcats Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald invited legendary coach Ara Parseghian back to Northwestern for a game this fall. Parseghian agreed, he'll return to Evanston this weekend for homecoming.

Parseghian will be the Wildcats honorary captain Saturday when they host No.7 Michigan State. He and his former Wildcat players will be honored at a reception Friday and in pregame Saturday.

Fitzgerald spent some time this spring visiting Parseghian at his home in Marco Island. During that meeting they decided that homecoming would be a fitting return and Fitzgerald was very thankful.

"I had the great opportunity to spend about four hours with Coach Parseghian on our spring break down in Marco Island, he was very gracious to allocate that time for me and I'm thankful for him to find time to come back and be part of our football family and let us honor him the right way, lift those great teams up that played for him. We're looking forward to seeing all those guys as they come back." Said Fitzgerald.

According to Tina Akouris with the Chicago Sun-Times, Parseghian said " I do follow college football, both Northwestern and Notre Dame. I watched (Northwestern) against Purdue and every time they are on TV, I try to catch them. I've been very impressed with what I've seen so far."

Besides following college football, Parseghian is involved in helping find a cure for Niemann-Pick disease, a cholesterol-storage disorder, which three of his grandchild have died from.

The Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation is a nonprofit organization raising money to fund medical research of Neimann-Pick disease. Parseghian said scientists have isolated the disease's genes and are developing drugs to go through clinical trials,

Parseghian describes the progress scientists have made as: "We've moved the ball a long way. We stated at our own 1-yard line and now we've crossed midfield."

GO WILDCATS