Huskie Walk tradition begins Saturday

The Northern Illinois football team is slated to begin its new tradition, the Huskie Walk, at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday before the 6 p.m. kickoff with North Dakota.

After their pregame meal across campus, the NIU players will be dropped off by bus at Barsema Alumni Center and walk through fan tailgates to Huskie Stadium. NIU coach Jerry Kill plans on doing the Huskie Walk before each home game.

"Just to let (the fans) know they're a big part of what we're doing because they are," Kill said in July. "We've done that at other places and it's a neat deal. Anything to let the people know it's their team and not ours. It's a team that wants to represent them well."

Kill said he held similar walks during his previous head-coaching stops. Though the team doesn't expect a huge crowd to welcome the team on Saturday, the coaches and players feel the new tradition will catch on with Huskies fans.

"There's a lot of people in college football that do traditions," Kill said. "I've done some things in the past and we want to do something similar here.

"It was small when we first started it (at previous schools), but by the time I left, it's the biggest thing."

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