By Woodrow Carroll
For the Northern Illinois University football program, the 2025 Season will get underway Saturday, Aug. 30 at 2:30 p.m., when the NIU Huskies play host to Holy Cross. With Northern Illinois ticketed to join the Mountain West Conference (football only) next season, one has to wonder what NIU’s final season in the Mid-American Conference this season will produce.
In playing the Holy Cross Crusaders (Worcester, Mass.), Northern Illinois will play its second Boston area foe in three years. Back in 2023, the Huskies upset Power 5 foe, Boston College, 27-24, in overtime, to open the season. The victory gave NIU what is known as a “Boneyard Victory”, a win over a Power 5 opponent.
Not surprisingly, given they are neighborhood rivals, Holy Cross and Boston College have bumped heads many times in the past. Today, Boston College is a FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) program while Holy Cross operates in the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) ranks.
The game that fans from both Boston College and Holy Cross are likely to bring up, especially the Holy Cross contingent, was the 1942 gridiron clash between the two schools.
In the 1942 campaign, the final regular-season game was the Boston College Eagles vs. the Holy Cross Crusaders. Boston was undefeated at 8-0 and ranked No. 1 in the Nation. In eight games, Boston College had allowed only 19 points. The Boston Eagles had already agreed to play in the Orange Bowl against Alabama. As for Holy Cross, the Crusaders were a .500 team and little more. Not much was expected other than a Boston victory.
The venue for the Boston College-Holy Cross match was Fenway Park. And, many in the Boston area would tell you that Boston College, and not baseball’s Boston Red Sox, were the best thing going in Fenway Park that season.
World War II was raging at the time and there were restrictions on both the teams and fans. No matter! A capacity crowd of 41,300 showed up for what many thought would be an easy Boston College victory.
Shockingly, Holy Cross scored first to take a 7-0 lead. No fear! Boston College recovered quickly. Despite a missed extra point after the Boston touchdown leaving the score 7-6 in Holy Cross’s favor, the Eagles and their backers knew their heroes were not done scoring. And, they were right although not in a way they could imagine.
At the half it was, 20-6, Holy Cross. The floodgates then really opened up in Holy Cross’ favor as the second half moved along. By the time the Boston Eagles finally scored late, to close out the scoring for both teams, the Crusaders had locked up an upset for the ages winning, 55-12.
Winning by losing! Many in the Boston College entourage had made plans to go to the popular Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston to celebrate an incredible season put together by the Eagles that evening. The debacle at Fenway Park ended that party for many.
That evening, after the game, a horrific fire destroyed the grossly-overcrowded, Coconut Grove. A total of 492 lives were lost! There is general agreement that more lives would have perished in the flames had not many Boston College faithful skipped the “victory” party.
Boston College, the team that was once 8-0, did go to the Orange Bowl and lost to Alabama, 37-21, to finish 8-2. After giving up only 19 points in their first eight contests, the Eagles surrendered 92 points their final two outings.