20 college football moments that deserve to be made into movies
By John Buhler
18. Evanston to Pasadena and Maybe Back Again
The Northwestern Wildcats are not normally an athletic powerhouse in the Big Ten, but they have had their moments in recent years. This movie is about arguably the most important football player and coach in Northwestern football history in Pat Fitzgerald.
Northwestern somehow managed to go 8-0 in Big Ten play back in 1995, won the conference title, and played in the Rose Bowl against the USC Trojans. It remains one of those out-of-nowhere type of seasons in college football history that nobody saw coming. Yes, Northwestern head coach Gary Barnett would go on to have some success at Colorado for a few years, but Fitzgerald was the national defensive player of the year for the Wildcats as a junior.
He’s a College Football Hall of Fame player in his own right, but that’s just half of his story. After seeing his playing days come to an end after the 1996 NCAA season, Fitzgerald would begin his career as a college football coach. He would return to Evanston as a defensive backs coach in 2001. By 2006, he was leading his alma mater of the tunnel on fall Saturdays.
Fitzgerald has taken a school better known for its sports journalism program than its excellence on the gridiron to new heights. He’s made seven bowl games, won 10 games in a year twice and has finished ranked twice in his 11-year head coaching career.
Essentially, the story is about how this one linebacker carried a college football doormat to a Big Ten Championship and a Rose Bowl, as well as his quest to bring the Northwestern program back to Pasadena as its head coach. It’s a living, breathing story of how Fitzgerald has been the best thing that has ever happened to Northwestern football.