Life Previously In The League: A Look Back At The League The Last Time Northern Illinois Was in the HL
Jeffery Green
INDIANAPOLIS - “Reunited and it feels so good!”
It was announced earlier this year that Northern Illinois University and 14 of its sports will be joining the Horizon League in the 2026-27 season.
“We are looking forward to a great partnership with the Horizon League and are excited about the opportunities for NIU student-athletes to continue our legacy of success,” Northern Illinois University Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Sean T. Frazier said.
That success also includes time already spent within the League. From 1994-97, Northern Illinois was a League member back when we were still called the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (1985-2001). While part of the League for just a short time, the success was evident. Across six different sports, NIU won seven different League championships, including two in men’s tennis in 1996 and 97. On top of that, the program was runners up six times in five different sports. For the 1995-96 academic year, the Huskies even won the League’s James J. McCafferty Trophy that is awarded annually to the top all-sport institution within the League.
With this success came many opportunities in a very small window of time to be able to take part in championship experiences for student-athletes.
“We were pretty competitive in most sports while I was there, so that competitiveness that the Huskies will bring to the League is something that will add to the success of the Horizon League,” said Jarod Schroeder.
Schroeder, a member of the Huskies’ Athletic Hall of Fame, swam for the institution from 1991-95. In his one year competing at NIU while they were in the League, his senior season, he was the League’s champion in the 100 freestyle and butterfly in 1995 in route to being named the meet’s outstanding performer.
Jarod Schroeder saw first hand what the championship experience within the League was like.
“Most of the teams would all stay at the same hotel and so we got to know a lot of our competitors pretty closely,” Schroeder said. “After the meet was over, you’d kind of hang out, everybody would socialize with one another. I think we developed some pretty good relationships outside of the healthy rivalries that we had with one another.”
Friendships were bonded not only within an institution, but throughout the entire League. League championships help give many student-athletes time to learn about one another and give memories that will last forever.
And even today, we see within the League how much comparative competitiveness is from each of our 19 championships. It was no different back then as well.
“In terms of the level of where all the teams were at with the terms of the type of athlete they had, there was a lot of parity within the conference,” Schroeder said. “So I thought it was always a really competitive environment”
Many of the teams at Northern Illinois even saw how much the competition helped them compete and play even more together. Jennifer (White) Pool, who was a student-athlete on Northern Illinois’ volleyball team from 1994-97, saw how special of a group they were.
“We knew that when we played together that there was something special there,” Pool said.
In 1996, after Pool saw the volleyball team be runners’ up the previous two years, they won the League volleyball championship against Butler in Indianapolis. “[Butler] was a big rival, you know all through the season and everything and so then beating them on their home court,” Pool said. “And I do remember going in their fieldhouse and doing the whole reenactment of Hoosiers. But we celebrated real big, I remember, in the locker room and our parents came to the hotel and everything. It was a really big deal to get that automatic bid.”
With the League win, Norther Illinoisn was able to compete in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament that year, and brought forth a really exciting time for all the student-athletes.
“I remember sitting in the locker room and watching it on TV, announcing things and everything and then getting to go back to California after we had been there and has such a great time before so that was really fun,” Pool said.
The championship experiences within the League have always allowed the student-athletes to take part in #MajorExperiences, including being able to be at historical facilities and universities. Schroeder was even able to have his senior swim and dive League championships at the University of Notre Dame, who was part of the League at the time.
“I thought it was awesome just to be on the campus of Notre Dame and the tradition. You’re right next to the football field where their pool is located.” Schroeder said. “I was fortunate enough to set a few pool records there that were later broken.”
Something the former student-athletes really enjoyed during their time in the League was the geographical footprint of all the institutions. Of the 11 other schools who were members during the Huskies’ time within the League, the average distance from each school to DeKalb, Illinois was around 290 miles, making it a primarily easy place to travel to for all other League members.
“I like the regional rivalries… When I was in there, everything was a bus ride away and my parents could experience my collegiate swimming career with me because they could just drive to wherever we were going for our meets,” Schroeder said. “Now that I’m older I’m really happy that [my family] got to experience that along with me and they got to see me progress and see what I was good at.”
Families and crowds were able to follow the teams because of the close proximity to a lot of the schools. Travel was easy for the student-athletes as well.
“When we were in the Horizon League there was a lot of bus trips,” Pool said.
The bus rides with teammates even helped the transition from high school to college athletics for Pool. The camaraderie, togetherness, “it felt like normalcy.”
To help pass the time away, lots of different activities were done. “One thing every freshman learns is our fight song, so there was a lot of singing of the fight song or randomly calling on somebody to sing the fight song or our parents at stoplights running around our bus, singing the fight song,” Pool said. Don’t worry, she still remembers it word for word.
When their throats would finally give out, another favorite on the bus was to play euchre. “There were a lot of intense card games that happened,” said Pool.
They even made sure to get the bus drivers in the fun as well. During a tournament in San Francisco, they made sure to include the driver into many of the photos. “We kind of were a fun, goofy group. Made everybody kind of part of our family per se,” Pool said.
And the fun most definitely did not stop on the bus for the volleyball team. “[We] would do fun things for warmups, like we would have nerf gun wars, but everything we did we did like a competition,” Pool said.
With such a competitive group, it is no wonder they were League champions and twice runners-up the three years in the League.
But even today, these former student-athletes have been able to take what they learned at NIU and apply it to many of the things they have done since.
“Swimming has shaped who I’ve become and the relationships I built with the team at Northern are still my closet friends.” Schroeder said. “It was just a great group to be a part of, hung out both in and out of the pool. We had a summer house where 12 of us lived and we were kind of a mini fraternity, it was really a great experience and I was very lucky that I went to Northern and that I was given the opportunity to find what I was good at.”
“My hope is that the Mid Major experience is something that continues to live on,” Schroeder said. “I ended up making a national team after I left Northern Illinois, I was on the Panama Games team, Goodwill Games team and went to the US Olympic training center for two years and trained out there. I came from a Mid Major and you don’t have to come from the Big Ten or SEC in order to be one of the best swimmers in the country.. I was very fortunate, Northern Illinois gave me that opportunity.”
“I went there on an official visit and basically it just immediately felt like home,” Pool said. “The girls on the team had a lot of the same personality as me”
To this day, Pool keeps in touch with many of her teammates. Just this past year, their coach, Pete Waite, was inducted into the Huskies’ Athletic Hall of Fame and many of her former teammates made the trip for their coach. They were able to reminisce of their days.
“They let us in the [new] locker room and there’s a big picture of a husky that we used to all tap on our way out onto the court and when you’re a senior, you sign it,” Pool said. “So just looking back at all those named on that… lots of memories of games.”
Connections have lasted through the years, in part to the great culture Northern Illinois has created over the years. “Our athletic director and assistant athletic direct and our sports media people knew all of us. They would all be at our games. I would go into the fieldhouse in between classes for things and they would start up conversations with me and everything… They were always events where they wanted to try and get athletes together,” said Pool.
And all the student-athletes would go to each other’s competitions too.
Some of the volleyball’s biggest fans were from the swim team as well. “They would body paint themselves like NIU and they would come and do chairs and stuff at our games,” Pool said. “They were during that time some of our crew.”
“I always root for my Huskies and I always have faith in them… Moving into a new League, I have faith that they’ll find their groove and they’ll make a name for themselves again. I have no doubt.”
Jennifer Pool hopes to see NIU volleyball have the same success she was able to see last time they were in the League. We’ll have to wait until 2026 to see if that will come to fruition for volleyball and the Huskies’ 13 other sports coming to the Horizon League.