“Lacrosse Night in Chicago” is 43 years in the making.
Northwestern women’s lacrosse got its start playing in football stadiums.
During the program’s first 11 seasons, the ‘Cats played their home games at Dyche Stadium (renamed to Ryan Field in 1997) to sparsely populated crowds on an artificial surface ill-fitted for lacrosse.
“Dyche Stadium was different,” Anne O’Shaughnessy told Inside NU’s Mike Deneen back in 2013 (the original article is great — required reading before face-off at 7 p.m.). O’Shaughnessy was a member of the inaugural Northwestern women’s lacrosse team in 1982 as a sophomore, joining as a walk-on like the rest of the founding group.
“I remember the ball bouncing hard and fast on that Astroturf. When it rolled or bounced you had to run like hell to chase it down.”
The early Northwestern teams were dwarfed by the 47,130 capacity stadium. Head coach Cindy Timchal, who now coaches at Navy after winning eight national championships at Maryland, quickly built a winner at Northwestern. But five NCAA tournament appearances between 1983 and 1988 were not enough to lure enough students to Dyche.
“I remember we didn’t attract that many fans at all, but they were loyal,” O’Shaughnessy told Deneen.
The sport of Lacrosse was young then, especially in the Midwest. Photos from The Daily Northwestern’s archives show those early years at Dyche — the scores of empty bleachers behind a team that went 8-3 in its first season in existence.
Oleykowski, the attacker in the second photo, was the best player of the pre-Amonte Hiller era, putting up a then school record of 289 points during her four years of Evanston. Peep Welsh-Ryan arena behind her in that second photo. Those 1980’s teams deserved better than the backdrop of empty stands. I mean, 25-0 over Wisconsin?! That poor kid in sweatpants had no business on that field.
Rick Phillips and Ben Shaevitz deserve a shoutout as well for making the trek to Dyche to cover the ‘Cats some 35-odd years ago. I hope those two are in the crowd again tonight.
Northwestern doesn’t look at home at Dyche, guests of the football team playing for nobody but themselves. Timchal left in 1991 for Maryland, and Northwestern lacrosse was cut two years later in favor of women’s golf after going 1-10 and 2-8 in the two next two seasons.
No. 3 Northwestern lacrosse will take on No. 13 Michigan tonight in a football stadium, and this time the ‘Cats will pack it.
As a part of “Lacrosse Night in Chicago” — as Northwestern has marketed the game — coach Kelly Amonte Hiller and Co. are attempting to fill all 12,023 seats of the jacked-up Martin Stadium.
Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium was built for the football team as a temporary home during the reconstruction of the new Ryan Field, but it serves just as well as a stage for the most decorated lacrosse program of the last century. Northwestern will look more comfortable at this football stadium than at Dyche 43 years ago, playing for a packed house earned by eight national championships and two decades of sustained excellence.
The official attendance record for NCAA women’s lacrosse is 15,033 as set by Army and Navy at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y. in 2018, but that game was a part of a double-header series that also featured both men’s teams. The second place spot is technically held by Navy vs. Colgate in Annapolis, Md., but that one also followed a clash between the Army and Navy men.
The true record of 11,668 belongs to the 2017 national championship game between Maryland and Boston College hosted by the 65,000+ capacity Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Ma.. That ticket didn’t include entry to a men’s Army-Navy game like the first two on the NCAA’s official list. The NCAA has got to modify its record books, and I’m sure the higher-ups at Northwestern are on it.
Regardless, what Northwestern is attempting to do on tonight is unheard of. No Army-Navy men’s game. No national championship. Just a regular season game in April on the lake.
If Northwestern pulls it off, tonight should unequivocally earn a spot in the pantheon of women’s lacrosse. Put a record night by the lake in the same conversation as the US Women’s National Team at the 1999 World Cup and the Caitlin Clark Final Fours. At least in the pantheon of Northwestern sports. Come back in 20 years.
The 13th-ranked Wolverines are undoubtedly part of the draw. Northwestern hosted Oregon at Martin Stadium on Sunday afternoon to a strong, but nowhere near record-breaking crowd. Michigan just pummeled No. 5 Johns Hopkins 13-2, and under the tutelage of former Wildcat Hannah Nielsen, Big Blue has lost to Northwestern by just one goal in the last two matchups. The ‘Cats have dispatched with opponents not named North Carolina and Boston College with relative ease, but Michigan should present a legitimate challenge.
In addition to the record, there are some real stakes to tonight in terms of the Big Ten. If Northwestern wins, it will clinch a share of the regular season conference title. Taking from Inside NU’s Yanyan Li, the ‘Cats can win the Big Ten outright with wins against Michigan and Ohio State or one win and any Maryland loss down the stretch.
Then there’s also Madison Taylor’s quest for the single-season NCAA goals record of 103. She put up 11 points in the first half (!!) against Oregon on Sunday, and I don’t see even the vaunted Wolverine defense slowing down the best player in the country.
Records are made to be broken, and if Northwestern doesn’t break the record tonight, it will likely be broken in a year when Martin Stadium hosts the 2026 Final Four.
That’s progress right there, and it’s all happening in Evanston.