Getty Image / Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire
The Northern Illinois Huskies football program goes into Week 3 ranked #25 the AP Poll, marking the first time the program has been ranked in 11 years, and that ranking was earned after the Huskies upset #5 ranked Notre Dame with a 16-14 win in South Bend where NIU got paid $1.4 million to play.
This was NIU Football’s first-ever win against a top-5 ranked team and following their upset win the NIU Boneyard went viral and will now get a new addition to enshrine their huge W into team lore. WGN Sports anchor Josh Frydman went viral on X after sharing a picture of the NIU Boneyard which is a display dating back 41 years to a win over Kansas.
Another bone is placed up on the Boneyard for NIU Huskies wins over power-conference schools, or in Notre Dame’s case, victories over ACC-adjacent-but-independent-and-top-5-ranked-school. Here’s that post on X that went viral:
The @NIU_Football “boneyard” where the Huskies stack their marquee wins over major programs. They’ll add the 19th bone after their first W vs. a top 5 team. We’ll hear from @NIUCoachHammock and the Huskies after knocking off Notre Dame tonight on @WGNNews & @GNSportsTV. pic.twitter.com/VR4iNS5I6E
— Josh Frydman (@Josh_Frydman) September 10, 2024
Following that, WGN News went to the Northern Illinois football facilities to get a close-up look at the Boneyard and to discuss what this win meant for the program:
Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock tried to put words to how much the win over Notre Dame meant to him, the players, the program, and the fans. He said “you just think (about) all of the hard work… You know, this is my 6th season, you put a lot of cement in the ground for the foundation and to see those guys buy in and build and deal with adversity and deal with struggles and come out on the other side.”
Coach Hammock went on to say “I was just happy for our players, happy for all of the people involved that put so much work into getting to that point where we could have a chance to compete.” Despite upsetting #5 Notre Dame last weekend, NIU head coach Thomas Hammock also said he still wants to see ND head coach Marcus Freeman succeed in South Bend.
It’s unclear specifically when the NIU Huskies will add a new bone to their Boneyard after it went viral across social media but presumably it will be soon. Each ‘bone’ is hung by a chain and it sits in front of the opposing school’s logo and has the game score and date printed on the bone.
Since this is the program’s first-ever win over a top-5 ranked school, it would be cool to see that bone gold plated or given some special feature.
As an FSU grad, this reminds me of the FSU Sod Cemetery which the school has been doing since 1962 where the Seminoles take a piece of sod from the opposing team’s field after road games where FSU is either the (1) underdog, (2) at UF, (3) in an ACC Title game, or (4) a Bowl Game. FSU’s Sod Cemetery can be seen outside of Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee and is a beloved tradition just like the NIU Boneyard and honestly, I wish there was more of this in College Football.