Mount Rushmore of Northwestern Athletes

Who takes the cake in Week 2 of our Mount Rushmore series?

Last week, in Inside NU’s inaugural Mount Rushmore draft, Team 1 defeated Team 2 in a landslide victory after both teams picked what they thought were Northwestern’s best football victories since 2000. This week, in a more broad category, Team 2 hopes to make things closer.

As a refresher, there are two teams made up of four writers each, and the goal is to select the best four-pick squad for each category. You can vote on which team you think is best on @InsideNU on X and in a poll at the bottom of this article until the next Mount Rushmore piece gets introduced next Tuesday.

Team 1: Harris Horowitz, Brendan Preisman, Matt Campbell and Calvin Kaplan

Team 2: Miguel Muñoz, Yanyan Li, Sai Trivedi and Charlie Jacobs

This week’s category is: Best Northwestern athletes of all time

1.01: Team 2 selects Otto Graham (1941-1944, football)

If the selection at 1.01 was anything other than Otto Graham, we would be doing a disservice to this mini-draft, plain and simple. The eventual college football and NFL Hall of Famer began his time at Northwestern on the basketball team, surprisingly, but was soon offered a tryout on the football team and began his career in 1941. He would go on to break every Big Ten passing record, make two All-America teams and even finish third in Heisman voting in 1943 while winning Big Ten MVP. He completed the trifecta of athleticism by also joining the baseball team in the spring, hitting .300 for his career. Not only was Graham one of the most prolific football players in Northwestern’s history, he might be the most versatile athlete Evanston has ever seen. Following his time with the Wildcats, Graham would go on to be drafted fourth overall in the 1944 NFL Draft before winning seven championships and earning nine All-Pro selections. Graham’s one-of-a-kind collegiate career was followed by a famed professional one, cementing him as an all-time great in the sport of football forever.

— Miguel Muñoz

1.02: Team 1 selects Billy McKinney (1973-1977, men’s basketball)

The first overall pick was a no-brainer for Team 1, considering that his number 30 is the only one to be retired in Northwestern’s 173-year history.

Standing at a tick below six feet tall and at a scrawny 160 pounds, McKinney started all but two games in his collegiate career, becoming the ‘Cats’ all-time leading scorer before the adoption of the three-point line.

Never in his career did his scoring average dip below 15 points per game. In his senior campaign, that season average ticked up to 21.4, earning him a spot on the All Big-Ten First Team.

The legend then embarked on an eight-year NBA career, playing for Kansas City, Denver, Chicago and San Diego. He played a significant role for the Nuggets in the three years he spent in the Mile High City, averaging 10 points in 23 minutes of play.

The evolution of Northwestern basketball cannot be talked about without discussing the greatest to ever do it.

– Matt Campbell

2.01: Team 1 selects Anucha Browne Sanders (1982-1985, women’s basketball)

Back in the day, Browne Sanders was a scoring machine for the ‘Cats. Her all-time points record of 2,307 still stands above any other basketball player — men’s or women’s — in Northwestern history. At 6’1, she dominated in the post as well, snatching 951 rebounds during her four-year career to rank third all-time among women’s basketball players at NU. With 30.5 points per game in her senior season, the two-time Big Ten player of the Year would’ve been well on her way to an illustrious WNBA career had the league existed in the mid-1980s.

— Calvin Kaplan

2.02: Team 2 selects Izzy Scane (2019-2024, lacrosse)

Scane may have finished her college career just over a year ago, but her inclusion in this piece is not recency bias. As arguably the most accomplished Northwestern athlete of at least the last 15 years, she torched the NCAA record books and became one of the faces of women’s lacrosse in the process.

• See also: Izzy Scane: One of one

During Scane’s six (though disrupted) years in Evanston, she became the NCAA Division I all-time leading goal-scorer, as well as ranking second in history for career points and goals per game. She also remains Northwestern’s leader in goals, points, goals per game and points per game and won the 2023 and 2024 Tewaaraton awards. On the field, she terrorized defenses with her remarkable athleticism and dodging abilities, but she could also charge from behind and cause a few turnovers herself — earning her the “Scane Train” nickname.

But most importantly, Scane spearheaded Northwestern’s rise back to the top of college lacrosse in an era more competitive than previous ones. Her freshman season in 2019 was the Wildcats’ first time playing in the Final Four in six years. The 2023 season was when it all came full circle, where she came back from missing the entire previous season with an ACL tear to lead Northwestern to its first national championship win in 11 years, winning the 2023 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

Northwestern lacrosse legend Kristen Kjellman (more on her later) said of Scane to me in April 2024: “She changed the game and she represents Northwestern lacrosse. She’s done so much for the program and the legacy of it, and we’ll continue to pass that along to the people that come.” That should just about summarize the legacy Scane left in Evanston.

—Yanyan Li

3.01: Team 2 selects Matt Grevers (2004-2007, men’s swimming)

Grevers is an icon in American swimming. At 6’8, he was known for his towering presence on the pool deck, but also for being the main male representative of the “United States of Backstroke” during the early 2010s. He won gold in the 100-meter backstroke in Olympic record fashion at the 2012 London Olympics and silver in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, alongside three golds and a silver from relays across both games. He also owns the 2013 World Championship title in the 100 back.

But Grevers built a legend for himself at Northwestern, too. He was a three-time individual NCAA champion (one of just two NCAA swimming champions in school history), winning two titles in the 100 back and one in the 200 back, while earning a runner-up finish in the 200-yard individual medley. His best time of 1:38.71 in the 200 back from 2007 once made him the second-fastest performer in the event, only behind the great Ryan Lochte’s then-NCAA record. He also once held Northwestern records across the 50/100 freestyle, 100/200 back, 200 IM and 100 butterfly.

Perhaps Grevers’ most impressive achievement was the way he elevated Northwestern as a program. He was part of Northwestern’s 400 medley relay that broke the NCAA record at the 2007 NCAA championships, swimming the fastest backstroke leg of the field to help his team to the most memorable race in program history. During that same meet, he was the third-highest individual scorer amongst all swimmers and swam four relays to help the Wildcats to an eighth-place finish — their first and only top-ten ranking ever. In a sport with little parity where the same two or three teams dominate annually (in the 2000s, Texas and Auburn won nine of the ten NCAA titles), the way Grevers put NU in the top mix cannot be overlooked.

Breaking a 60-year gold medal drought for the school, Grevers remains the most decorated Olympian in Northwestern history. But he had a whole lot of college success that only makes his legend stronger.

—Yanyan Li

3.02: Team 1 selects Kristen Kjellman (2004-2007, lacrosse)

Kjellman has a legitimate claim to be the GOAT of Northwestern lacrosse. She was the preeminent player in the first Wildcat dynasty, and her arrival in 2004 catalyzed a run of five consecutive national championships from 2005-2009 (Kjellman won the first three). That 2005 title was the first in program history. Kjellman was the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. She is also one of three Northwestern women to win two Tewaaraton Awards, and she was the first woman to win the award consecutively after it was founded in 2001.

Kjellman’s numbers lag behind Scane’s (250 goals and 349 points to Scane’s 374 and 483, respectively), but it’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison given that Kjellman played in the pre-shot clock era of women’s lacrosse. In the interest of keeping it civil, I won’t link the article from last year where Yanyan ranks Kjellman over Scane as her GOAT of NU Lax, but I will leave you with her final few lines:

“For decades to come, many greats will come through this Northwestern lacrosse program, and Kjellman’s stats will likely fall lower and lower down the program’s all-time list. But all the success first started with the programs she led to the top. No matter how many years are removed from her time as a Wildcat, everything the program has accomplished since will always be traced back to her original impact.” — Yanyan Li

— Harris Horowitz

4.01: Team 1 selects Betty Robinson (1930-32, track and field)

If your reaction to this selection was, “Who?” then you’re not alone. That was my reaction when I first saw Robinson’s name on the Wikipedia list of great Northwestern athletes. But after doing some research on her, I’m convinced she might be the greatest Wildcat of all.

Robinson tied the world record in the 100-meter dash as a 16-year-old — in the second official competition of her track career. Her third competition was the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. She won gold in the 100-meter, tying the world record (at the time) with a mark of 12.2 seconds. To this day, Robinson is still the youngest runner to win Olympic gold in the 100-meter race.

At Northwestern, she also competed with the rifle team, but made her biggest mark on the track, running a 50-yard dash in 5.8 seconds and a 60-yard dash in a world record time of 6.9 seconds. Unfortunately, Robinson’s collegiate career was cut short by a devastating plane crash in the summer of 1931. Robinson wouldn’t be able to walk normally again until late 1933, and was never again able to take a crouching start.

Of course, that didn’t stop her. Despite originally wanting to coach the 1936 Olympic team, she made the 4-by-100 meter squad in Berlin, and the Americans stunned the heavily-favored Germans to earn Robinson her second gold medal. There are certainly a bevy of Wildcat luminaries on this list, from NFL legends to lacrosse record breakers. But winning Olympic gold at age 16, and then doing it again AFTER a near-fatal plane crash? Only the best athlete in Northwestern history could pull that off.

— Brendan Preisman

4.02: Team 2 selects Luke Donald (1997-2001)

Calling Donald the greatest golfer in NU history is an undersell — he’s one of the greatest NCAA golfers of all time. The English golfer’s storied tenure as a Wildcat included a 1999 NCAA Championship where he shot 284 on the tournament, breaking Tiger Woods’ 1996 championship record by one stroke. I mean, what other NU athlete can say they broke a record set by the GOAT in their sport? Donald was also a 13-time medalist and dominated his conference, winning Big Ten player of the year three times and being crowned Big Ten Champion twice.

His success didn’t stop in college, as Donald became a premier PGA Tour golfer. His strongest year came in 2011, where he was ranked as the No. 1 golfer in the Official World Golf Club ranking and was named 2011 PGA player of the year. He also became the first player to win money lists in both PGA and European Tours in the same year, and was also the first Englishman to win the PGA Tour Player of the year. Cumulatively, Donald spent 56 weeks as the top-ranked golfer in the world and 200 weeks in the top-10.

Donald embodies the pinnacle of success that has come from NU’s athletic program, and the school has made sure his legacy is properly honored. The Luke Donald Outdoor Practice Facility remains the primary practice course for NU’s golfers, with Donald providing the lead gift for the venue’s construction. A full-circle moment for one of the great and most under-appreciated athletes in Wildcat history.

— Sai Trivedi

Final rosters

Team 1:

• Billy McKinney
• Anucha Browne Sanders
• Kristen Kjellman
• Betty Robinson

Team 2:

• Otto Graham
• Izzy Scane
• Matt Grevers
• Luke Donald

Vote on X at @InsideNU, and let us know anything you think we missed in the comments. Also, please add suggestions for future categories. For next week’s Mount Rushmore, we’re going to be drafting each of Northwestern lacrosse’s eight national championship-winning teams.