My Alma Mater, North Park University (Chicago, IL), used to be a national powerhouse in Division III (non-scholarship) men’s basketball. North Park won national championships in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, and 1987. The hoops’ team fell on very hard times after the release of the head coach who guided the Viking ship to the last two championships. It took 30 years for North Park to win another conference, this being in 2017.
The North Park football team has had a worse drought, i.e., not finishing above .500 since 1968!! The football program has cycled through many head coaches who have not been able to field a competitive team. Several years ago NPU hired Mike Conway who coached at a Division II school in Pennsylvania. Since DII schools can offer athletic scholarships, Coach Conway had recruiting contacts beyond the typical NPU hire’s recruitment circle. This resulted in the football roster recently having players from locales previously unknown to North Park football, such as Texas, Florida, American Samoa, Guam, and Hawaii. Add to that the Samoan community located in Los Angeles area. This year’s North Park squad includes four gridders from American Samoa, which is low compared to the last few seasons, six from Guam, and 10 from Hawaii.
My most recent alumni quarterly explained that Coach Conway became the first head football coach from an American college or university to visit American Samoa (schools always sent assistant coaches, according to the article). Coach Conway has made progress in the W/L column, given the dismal history of the program. Caveat: North Park’s athletic conference has several football juggernauts who are routinely nationally ranked. Maybe a .501 season is on the horizon for North Park. I do like the talent and energy that the Samoans bring to Holmgren Field. Sometimes they perform a Samoan war/victory ritual dance called a “haka.” Here is one:
The Wall Street Journal recently devoted an article regarding Samoans and the regional islands disproportionate representation of NFL players in relation to their population. The WSJ noted that while participation in American youth football has declined recently, American Samoans have trended differently. The article reported that, “No other segment of U.S. society produces as many [NFL] football players per capita. More than 50 Samoans suited up on NFL squads last year and about the same number will this year. That is 3% of the entire league, and 38 times Samoans’ proportional share of the U.S. population. The 300 Samoans playing Division I collegiate football are similarly overrepresented.”
I did not know this, but the WSJ story said that American Samoa had the highest rate of military enlistment of any U.S. state or territory to serve during WWII.
North Park won its opener. How many victories will follow?
