DeKALB, Ill. – Fourteen Northern Illinois University football student-athletes, including nine 2016 seniors, led a contingent of 24 Huskie student-athletes who earned their undergraduate degrees from NIU last week. Many of the student-athlete graduates participated in 2016 fall commencement ceremonies held at the NIU Convocation Center on Sunday, December 11.
In addition to the 14 football student-athletes, the December graduates included three Huskie baseball players, three wrestlers and one representative each from softball, women's golf, women's tennis and women's soccer.
The complete list of 2016 NIU Fall Student-Athlete Graduates:
Football (14):
Anthony Brooks,
Ron Brown,
Sean Folliard,
Kenny Golladay,
Keith Harris Jr., Rasheen Lemon,
Paris Logan,
Anthony Maddie,
Desroy Maxwell,
Alton Meeks,
Bobby Ramlet,
Josh Ruka,
Austin Smaha,
Corey Thomas
Baseball (3): Joey Ceja, Brandon Mallder, Brian Sisler
Wrestling (3): Arthur Bunce, Andrew Morse, Gabe Morse
Softball (1): Caitlyn Warren
Women's Tennis (1): Stephanie McDonald
Women's Golf (1): Peyton Gunnison
Women's Soccer (1): Julia Poladian
The student-athletes represented 11 different majors, led by sociology and organizational and corporate communications with five graduates each. Huskies also majored in English, math education, accountancy, industrial and systems engineering, psychology, general emphasis and finance, among others.
The latest group of graduates continues a demonstrated track record of success in that area for Huskie Athletics as NIU ranks among the nation's leaders in Graduation Success Rate with an 87 percent mark for all student-athletes in the latest release by the National Collegiate Athletic Association this past November. That rate ranks second in the MAC and is tied for second among all public institutions in the state.
The 14 football graduates will add to NIU's GSR success for that program as the Huskies lead the MAC and rank in the Top 20 nationally with a GSR of 84 percent, which is 10 points above the national average for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools.
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