Wildcats

That is why Northern Michigan built its games under a roof: the Superior Dome, home to the Wildcats since the program's varsity football began in 1974, holds 8,000 for football.

The Wildcats compete at NCAA Division II level, and their high point came early. In 1975, the season after the program's launch, they went 13–1 and beat Western Kentucky 16–14 in the Camellia Bowl to take the Division II national championship. A GLIAC title followed in 1987, but nothing since has matched that first run.

Division II football does not forgive a bad stretch, and Northern Michigan found that out the hard way with a 28-game losing streak, one of the longest in the division's history, that only ended in 2023. The rivalry that has run through all of it, good years and bad, is the Miner's Cup against Michigan Tech.

The name most associated with the Wildcats is not a coach but a quarterback. Steve Mariucci played the position for Northern Michigan in 1975, the championship season, before going on to become an NFL head coach — the clearest line the program can draw from Marquette to the professional game.