Northwestern State Demons football
2023 Northwestern State Demons football team
First season1907 (1907) (116 years ago)
Athletic director Kevin Bostian
Head coachBlaine McCorkle
1st season, 0–0 (–)
StadiumHarry Turpin Stadium
(capacity: 15,971)
Field surfaceFieldturf
LocationNatchitoches, Louisiana
NCAA divisionDivision I FCS
ConferenceSouthland Conference
All-time record631–398–40 (.609)
Conference titles12
RivalriesMcNeese State (rivalry)
Nicholls (rivalry)
Southeastern Louisiana (rivalry)
Louisiana–Monroe (rivalry)
ColorsPurple, white, and orange trim[1]
     
Fight songNorthwestern Fight[2]
MascotVic the Demon
Marching bandSpirit of Northwestern[3]
WebsiteNSUDemons.com

The Northwestern State Demons football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Northwestern State University located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and is a member of the Southland Conference. Northwestern State's first football team was fielded in 1907. The team plays its home games at the 15,971 seat Harry Turpin Stadium in Natchitoches, Louisiana.[4]

History

Northwestern State football has the distinction of being the only NCAA division IAA/FCS member to have 2 NFL rookies of the year. In 1981, Joe Delaney, running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, was awarded the AFC Rookie of the year by UPI. In 1988, John Stephens, running back for the New England Patriots, was named Offensive/AFC Rookie of the year. No other 4-year institution in the state of Louisiana has more than one.

Conference affiliations

Championships

Conference championships

Northwestern State has 12 conference championships.

Year Conference Coach Overall record Conference record
1939Southern Intercollegiate Athletic AssociationHarry Turpin11–07–0
1953†Gulf States Conference6–25–1
1957Jack Clayton7–24–1
19588–24–1
19627–2–14–1
19669–05–0
1972George Doherty8–26–0
1984†Gulf Star ConferenceSam Goodwin7–44–1
1988Southland Conference10–36–0
1997†8–46–1
199811–36–1
2004†Scott Stoker8–44–1

† Co-champions

Division I-AA/FCS Playoffs results

The Demons have appeared in the I-AA/FCS playoffs six times with an overall record of 3–6.

Year Round Opponent Result
1988First Round
Quarterfinals		Boise State
Idaho		W 22–13
L 30–38
1997First RoundEastern WashingtonL 10–40
1998First Round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals		Illinois State
Appalachian State
Massachusetts		W 48–28
W 31–20
L 31–41
2001First RoundMontanaL 19–28
2002L 14–45
2004L 7–56

Rivalries

McNeese State

McNeese State leads the series 45–22–1 through the 2018 season.

Nicholls

Northwestern State leads the series with Nicholls 28–18 through the 2018 season.

Southeastern Louisiana

Southeastern Louisiana leads the series 28–22 through the 2018 season.

Stephen F. Austin

Battle for Chief Caddo

Each season, Stephen F. Austin State University of Nacogdoches, Texas and Northwestern State play for the country's largest football trophy.[5] In 1961, longtime rivals SFA and Northwestern State decided to award the winner of the game a trophy, the game was won by Northwestern State University. According to the stipulations of that particular match, the loser would have to present the winner with a tree chopped down from a nearby forest.[5]

In March 1962, the Lumberjacks of SFA in Nacogdoches, Texas, presented NSU with a black gum tree trunk from the SFA campus from which a statue was to be carved. The black gum tree weighed over a ton and was thirty inches in diameter. An Indian statue, Chief Caddo, was chosen because of the historic founding of Natchitoches, Louisiana and Nacogdoches, Texas by Indian tribes. Natchitoches means chinquapin eaters and Nacogdoches means persimmon eaters. It was carved by Harold Greene in Logansport and required over 200 hours of labor. The name “Chief Indian Caddo” was selected in honor of the ancient federation of Caddo Indian tribes, which once inhabited the northern Louisiana area. The final painting of the statue was done at Northwestern. The finished product stands around 7.6 feet tall and weighs about 320 pounds. The first game for Chief Caddo was September 15, 1962. Northwestern won 23–6. Tradition has it that the winner of the annual NSU and SFA football game keeps Chief Caddo on their respective campus. Currently, Chief Caddo is the largest college football trophy in the nation.[5]

Louisiana–Monroe

In the 1992 edition of the rivalry game, the teams' mascots Vic the Demon and Chief Brave Spirit got involved in a fight that distracted television cameras to the point that the entire altercation is caught on video. In the scuffle, Vic the Demon's head is ripped off as the two crashed to the ground behind one of the end zones, which according to the video clip breaks a "cardinal rule" of being a mascot. The melee was broken up by college police without further incident.[6] The game was last played in 2005. Northwestern State leads the series with Louisiana–Monroe 28–19–1.

Notable former players

Notable alumni include:

Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of November 23, 2023.[7]

2024 2025 2026 2027
at Tulsa Alcorn State at Louisiana Tech at Hawaii
Prairie View A&M at Minnesota at Weber State at Central Arkansas
at South Alabama at Cincinnati Central Arkansas
Weber State at Stephen F. Austin
at Southeast Missouri State

See also

References

  1. ↑ 2017 Northwestern State Demons Baseball Media Guide (PDF). Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  2. ↑ Fight song
  3. ↑ Spirit of Northwestern
  4. ↑ "Northwestern State Historical Data". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  5. 1 2 3 2013 Chief Caddo 2013
  6. ↑ "A history of bizarre mascot incidents". CNN.
  7. ↑ "Northwestern State Demons Football Schedules and Future Schedules". fbschedules.com. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
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