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| CurrentSeason | 2009 Northwestern Wildcats football team |
| TeamName | Northwestern Wildcats football |
| ImageSize | 150px |
| HeadCoachDisplay | Pat Fitzgerald |
| HeadCoachLink | Pat Fitzgerald |
| HeadCoachYear | 4th |
| HCWins | 27 |
| HCLosses | 22 |
| Stadium | Ryan Field (stadium) |
| StadCapacity | 47,130 |
| StadSurface | Natural grass |
| Location | Evanston, IL |
| ConferenceDisplay | Big Ten |
| ConferenceLink | Big Ten Conference |
| FirstYear | 1876 |
| AthlDirectorDisp | Jim Phillips |
| AthlDirectorLink | Jim Phillips |
| WebsiteName | NUsports.com |
| WebsiteURL | http://nusports.com |
| ATWins | 458 |
| ATLosses | 600 |
| ATTies | 44 |
| BowlWins | 1 |
| BowlLosses | 7 |
| ConfTitles | 8 |
| Heismans | 0 |
| Uniform | Image:Big10-Uniform-NWU.PNG |
| Color1 | Purple |
| Color1Hex | 800080 |
| Color2 | White |
| Color2Hex | FFFFFF |
| FightSong | Go U Northwestern |
| MascotDisplay | Willie the Wildcat |
| MascotLink | Willie the Wildcat (Northwestern) |
| MarchingBand | Northwestern University Wildcat Marching Band |
| PagFreeLabel | Outfitter |
| PagFreeValue | Adidas |
| PagFreeLabel | Rivals |
| PagFreeValue | Illinois Fighting Illini
Purdue Boilermakers
Wisconsin Badgers
Iowa Hawkeyes |
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The Northwestern Wildcats football team, representing Northwestern University, is a NCAA Division I team and member of the Big Ten Conference, with evidence of organization in 1876. The mascot is the Wildcat, a term coined by a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1924, after reporting on a football game where the players appeared as "a wall of purple wildcats." Northwestern achieved an all-time high rank of #1 during the 1936 and 1962 seasons, and has won the Big Ten championship or co-championship eight times, including three times since 1995. The team achieved unfortunate notoriety with a 34-game losing streak from 1979-1982, the longest in Division I FBS. Upon setting the new record in 1981 (thanks to a 61-14 home loss to Michigan State), students rushed the field to "celebrate," and chanted "we're the worst!" A win over Northern Illinois University finally broke the losing streak, and the students again celebrated, rushing the field, tearing down the goalposts, and throwing them into nearby Lake Michigan. Recent years have been far kinder to the Wildcats. In addition to their recent conference championships and co-championships, they have been "bowl eligible" (a status that requires at least a .500 regular-season record) six out of the last seven seasons. Northwestern played in the January 1, 2010 Outback Bowl against Auburn University, losing 38-35 in overtime.
Northwestern's former woes were in part due to the indifference of the school's administration in the 1970s and early 1980s,which resulted in a lower level of talent than that found at larger, public institutions. Northwestern is the lone private school in the Big Ten, and at 8,200 undergraduates, it is by far the smallest (by comparison, the second smallest school, Iowa, has almost 21,000 undergraduates). However, Northwestern consistently is among the leaders in graduation rate; it is consistently in the 90th percentile and graduated 100% of its players in 1998 and 2002. Despite the stricter academic standards, Northwestern has produced many notable athletes, such as former first-round draft picks Luis Castillo and Napoleon Harris (who was valedictorian of his high school class).
The team spends its preseason at Camp Kenosha in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The Wildcats have also been nicknamed the "Cardiac 'Cats" after several seasons with highly contested games, with victories in the final seconds or in overtime. The team first earned the nickname during the 1996 season, and would go on to apply during the 2004 season, when four of the Wildcats' games went into overtime.
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