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Get to Know A Marquette Basketball Opponent: Northern Illinois Huskies

Name: Northern Illinois University

Conference: Mid-American Conference (MAC)

Founded: 1895

Enrollment: 20,015, with 15,079 undergraduates

School Colors: Cardinal and black

Nickname: Huskies, currently.

Currently? Well, they started competing in collegiate athletics in 1899 with the nickname “Profs,” which leads me to believe the professors competed (this is apparently not true). They switched to Cardinals in the 1920s, but that was a little too on-the-nose, given their color. They went as the Evansmen in the 1930s, after their football coach George Evans, and finally landed on the Huskies in 1940.