In a quest to conquer boredom without daily sports, NBN Sports presented itself with a challenge: creating a Mount Rushmore of Northwestern athletics. Writers would each choose four athletes and make an argument for why they deserve recognition for their achievements. In order to keep it grounded and more relevant, however, they limited themselves to the past ten years of Wildcat sports. With this in mind, the discussion of the Northwestern Mount Rushmore:
Quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity
Football
Shreyas Iyer
I decided to split this up into two revenue, two non-revenue. And I started it with Justin Jackson. That was the first name that came to mind, immediately. I could go over the ball-carrier’s numbers, just briefly: 43 total touchdowns, led the Big Ten and rushing yards, most plays from scrimmage in Big Ten history, multiple seasons where he led the conference in that standard, second-most all time NCAA, Top 25 in touchdowns in the conference as well. So in terms of being a big time player in terms of symbolizing the rebirth of the program under Pat Fitzgerald, he was a top-notch caliber player from us. He was a great person for the program, and I definitely think he merits a spot within at least for me, the Mount Rushmore of Northwestern sports this past decade.
Coop Daley
Clayton Thorson was my selection for football. I didn't look too much at stats, because obviously if we were just looking at stats, it would be Justin Jackson, no doubt. But on the other hand, I would argue that 2018 might have been one of the milestones that everyone was looking for. They won the division, they won everything… well, not everything, but you got to put that a lot on the back of Clayton Thorson. You go on that win streak towards the end, you play the Big Ten Championship, you play in the Holiday Bowl. I think a lot of that is based on the back of his average passing ability and he is just a clutch guy.
Jacob Munoz
I actually have to agree with Shreyas here [with] Justin Jackson. I mean, I know obviously the stats don't say everything but man they speak quite a lot for Justin. And even the fact that I feel like at that point, you could have asked any student on Northwestern campus to name one athlete, 90% of time they’d tell you Justin Jackson because he transcended just sports and became a college figure. He became the spirit of Northwestern. That's why I think he should be on Mount Rushmore, because he evoked a level of not only leadership on the fields but also he just was the little ethos of the university for some time too.
Jack McKessy
I think I would tend to lean towards Justin Jackson just because of what Jacob was just saying: he was “the ball-carrier." Everyone knew Justin Jackson, the ball-carrier, all over campus. I feel [he] just embodied everything about Northwestern, about the football teams that he was a part of. And especially now, I think the thing for me that pushes him ahead of Clayton Thorson. maybe a little unfairly, is his success in the NFL and being able to stay with a team like the Chargers. I would tend to go to Justin Jackson just because he was the guy for the football team.
Shreyas Iyer
In terms of an honorable mention, I want to bring up Bennett Skowronek as the most reliable pass-catching weapon that Thorson had, and one of the more underrated players I would say on Northwestern’s team. I would also look at defensie as well, I know we've got a ton of guys who have established themselves in the conference. Joe Gaziano could also merit a spot here. But when I thought about being on a Mount Rushmore, you need to have the statistics because you need to have accolades. I mean, that gets your foot into the door, so to speak, but symbolically, what did that player mean to that program? Can you imagine the Northwestern football program without somebody that should be on the Mount Rushmore? It would be hard to say no.
Winner: Justin Jackson
Men’s Basketball
Shreyas Iyer
My next guy, if you look into the stats may not reflect [an] on-court prowess, but in terms of being a symbol, Bryant McIntosh very well have almost single-handedly gotten with Northwestern’s name, along with guys like Scottie Lindsey, [Vic] Law, [Dererk] Pardon, you know, the rest of them, but they put Northwestern on the map in college basketball, more so than like John Shurna, and the elder Wildcats of old. Interesting enough, if you look at B-Mac’s numbers, [he] averaged 15 points, he was fourth all-time in career assists I believe for Northwestern, and he led the conference in assists per game during the year they made the tournament. He was a preseason Wooden Award Mention in 2017. But beyond that the numbers for B-Mac don't scream Mount Rushmore the way they would for someone like Justin Jackson, who was a nationally, statistically significant figure. But symbolically, B-Mac was the leader on Northwestern’s only NCAA tournament team of all time. And to me that put him over the edge.
Coop Daley
Oh, yeah, it's McIntosh. I think you can make all the arguments you want for everybody else. But when you look up that tournament run, you see McIntosh’s 25-point game against Vanderbilt, he's the all-time leader in assists, and then, like you said, he became a symbol for the team… that sounds like he died. It's more of he was a leader on the court and off the court. And I think that when people think about [men’s] basketball in any recent memory, they're going to think about him.
Jack McKessy
Yeah, I would agree with that and especially, I would picture B-Mac as the basketball equivalent to Justin Jackson, as far as, if you ask anyone on Northwestern campus to name a basketball player, they probably would say Bryant McIntosh, because of how he led that team to the tournament for the first time. I would put B-Mac at the top there because you know who he was as a leader for that team, and to kind of guide them into that promised land that they hadn't been to ever, and haven't been back to since, I think really puts him firmly in my Mount Rushmore as well.
Jacob Munoz
I like the arguments for the B-Mac, but man, I feel bad for John Shurna because he certainly tried at the beginning of this decade. Not only the all-time points leader for Northwestern basketball, but he was doing it all, whether it was field goal percentage, three-point shots. Didn't really work out in terms of getting his team anywhere, even remotely in the Big Ten Tournament, but I do think that he deserves consideration just on the fact that he was playing in a very dark time. And yeah, I respect the achievements that B-Mac has under his belt, but I do feel for Shurna a little bit here, so I just wanted to bring his name up.
Winner: Bryant McIntosh
Women’s Basketball
Jacob Munoz
If you really want a career leader, and someone who has already shown that she can do it for all four years, it’s Nia Coffey. Four-time first-team for the Big Ten, she is enshrined in so many different ways, but she's also the most recent candidate for a women's basketball tournament appearance. I mean, we know that the team this season would have for sure made the tournament, but if we want actual evidence of them stepping out onto that court, it's Nia Coffey, and she led that team pretty well. And I think that to lead a team so well for four years, she's just been a tremendous athlete, I guess for just Northwestern lore. And you know, now that she's also in the WNBA, it's gone to show that her college success was no fluke. She's a player that dominated at the college level and she can hold her own [on] the professional level too.
Shreyas Iyer
I think she was fifth overall in the 2017 draft. Yeah, I was actually considering Nia and Pallas [Kunaiyi-Akpanah], another one of those unheralded Northwestern players who never really had a tournament she deserved. I mean, she did have a WNIT final as a senior, but just a double-double machine Pallas truly was. And I mean, that was the team that [was the foundation for the] team ended up winning the Big Ten the very next season, and they were able to replace her inside with Courtney Shaw [and] Abbie Wolf.
Jack McKessy
I think I would make the argument for Lindsey Pulliam. A lot of what I took into my Mount Rushmore consideration was legacy and what they ended up accomplishing. Pallas and Nia Coffey are big names getting the program to where it is now, but Lindsey Pulliam is the athlete who took the basketball team from almost great, to really good, to great. This year they won the Big Ten regular season title, and were poised to host some games in the NCAA Tournament. And I feel like she really embodies the "Mamba mentality" of Northwestern. I just feel like she is the leader that this team needed to just push them that little bit to get to greatness.
Coop Daley
Mine's a lot of what Jack just said, pretty much word for word. I think she just emulates the program in such a way that when you think about the team, you think about her and what she does for the program. My logic of thinking is based off not so much on individual statistics, but more of team statistics and what happened to that team and where they went and what they did. And I think for someone like Pulliam, who's already been to the WNIT final and was most likely going to go have a deep tournament run, and might have another one next year... there's a lot to be said about having that legacy.
Winner: Lindsey Pulliam
Other Sports
Shreyas Iyer
I would like to switch over to the one sport where I assume we all considered, that would be women's lacrosse. Although not a revenue sport, certainly in terms of environment, [it has] one of the best ambiences and [is] one of the most competitive teams [that] Northwestern sports has to offer. I chose the only Tewaaraton [Trophy] winner that Northwestern women’s lacrosse has had this decade, and that’s Shannon Smith. Multiple national championships, first-team All-American three times, at the end of her career she was Northwestern’s all-time leading scorer, [and] was twice named MVP of the national championship game. Her 2011 season ranks as among one of the very best in the history of the sport. She broke Northwestern’s records for goals scored in season with 86, which is saying something given how strong our program has performed in the past, and today is the seventh-highest total ever among any women's lacrosse player. She even won Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year for that season. She finished career top-10 in the NCAA in points and goals, her 58 career points in NCAA Tournament are second of all time. She was also named as part of the Northwestern Sports Hall of Fame a couple of years ago. In terms of just raw statistics, it's hard for anybody to top those numbers this past decade. Those stats really [put] her over the edge for me. For what may have been the most dominant program at Northwestern this past decade, she was probably our most dominant player.
Jacob Munoz
There's only one team [from Northwestern] that won a team championship since World War II ended, and that's women's lacrosse. And as we're seeing the rise of players like Izzy Scane who are going to hit that national level, you just have to look back on Shannon Smith. She was just so dominant, and I do believe that those championships and that 2011 season like really do say it all. I think maybe you can make the case that maybe she's not on the level of like, Kristen Kjellman for Northwestern lacrosse in the 2000s, but again those are still some very hallowed names to be working with. Shannon Smith for me is a shoo-in.
Coop Daley
Yeah, even by my thing, which is team [stats] over individual stats, [Smith had] four championship appearances, three championships, and [she] won the MVP in two of those, plus all those individual stats. It's impossible to pick against her.
Jack McKessy
I've been saying basically, all of my people have been people who have carried the legacy of a program with them. And I feel like Shannon Smith not only has that legacy of those championships, she also was the face of two of them at least. And like that 2011 season, she just was playing out of her mind, you know, 160 total shots, not just on goal, and she made 86 of them; almost 54% of the time that she shot at all she scored, which is just unbelievable. I think she didn't carry the team, obviously there are a lot of great players which you need to win championships. But to be the face of championship teams, like Shannon Smith was twice, she rounds up my Mount Rushmore and I think she's just a shoo-in.
Shreyas Iyer
I still have one more person, someone that I had never heard of before researching this topic, but given that I said two revenue, two non-revenue hard-stop and I was down to a couple of people, and I ended up choosing a softball player. Marisa Bast was the player I chose. [A] 2012 All-American, Marisa’s [year] cemented her as probably the best women's softball player of the decade for us, and [she] almost won the Triple Crown in 2012. Off the field, she was a two-time Academic All-American and a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, and was the first-ever Northwestern finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, a combination of both on-the-field and off-the-field exploits. She also made the Northwestern Sports Hall of Fame, So she was definitely a standout performer for us. And I put her in as my fourth spot.