For the first time ever, I attended a college football game at Northern Illinois. NIU is the third Division I football team in the Chicago area. The closest is Northwestern University; the most famous the University of Notre Dame and then you have Northern Illinois University.

The only reason I attended was because the game fell on a Thursday night. Northern Illinois had two games scheduled for Thursday nights this season. The first was last Thursday, November 5 vs. Eastern Michigan. However, that game started at 6:30 pm and Nicole and I had dinner plans. Last night’s game started at 5:00 pm (a much better start time when dealing with Chicago traffic) and we had no plans since Nicole was not even going to be home. I left our house by Wrigley Field at 3:15 pm and arrived just in time for the 5:00 pm kickoff after dealing with traffic.

Parking and Tickets
One of my concerns with arriving at a game close to or at kickoff is that anyone who would give away a free ticket will already have entered the stadium. Also, it could be more difficult to find close parking.

Neither was the case at Northern Illinois. For parking I pulled into a parking lot (which I believe was Lot C) about one block from the stadium. There was no attendant on duty and I did not have to pay. I’m assuming people paid for this lot since most cars had a “Lot C” parking pass dangling from their rearview mirrors and other parking lots that I passed on W. Lincoln Highway were charging $10 or $15.

Next up was finding a ticket. As I expected there were no ticket scalpers, since tickets to see Northern Illinois football were only $20. Before buying a ticket from the box office, I waited a few minutes to see if any fan had an extra. After about five minutes, I overheard a couple guys talking about their extra tickets and asked if they had an extra ticket. They did and handed me one ticket for free.

Huskie Stadium
Huskie Stadium was surprisingly nice and is the sixth largest team venue in Illinois. There are three motor speedways and a horse race track in Illinois that are bigger making Huskie Stadium #10 overall according to worldstadiums.com. The stadium has a strange way for the fans to enter. Fans walk into a main gate than must loop around ramps to get to their area of the section rather than having everyone enter through the same section entrance.

The Game
Ball St. struck early to take a 7-0 lead but Northern Illinois took over and won 26-20.

Post Game Dining
Although I did not attend, Fatty’s Bar & Grill advertised a post game party with drink specials. Fatty’s is within walking distance of the stadium located at 1312 W. Lincoln Highway.