When Adam Crum arrived at football practice last year, his teammates had several questions to ask him. And they were all about wildlife.

“When I first got here, everybody kind of wanted to get to know me because there are all of these misconceptions and stories about Alaska,” Crum said. “There were really random questions about polar bears and penguins.”

The redshirt freshman and backup center is from Anchor Point, Alaska, a small town on the Kenai Peninsula, 200 miles south of Anchorage.

“I don’t know much about him other than he’s from Alaska,” senior running back Noah Herron said. “We’ve joked, ‘Do you play on ice?’ He says they just play normally. But it’s still funny — because he’s from Alaska.”

Crum and his teammates don’t play on ice, but that’s only because of an unusual schedule. The high school football season starts in late July or early August and lasts just eight games. By mid-October, conference champions are crowned.

“It’s just very different,” the 6-1, 270-pound Crum said. “At my school we didn’t even have a strength program. And the size of the guys is a lot smaller up there. I played linebacker up there, and I was a monster to everybody.”

Crum was such a monster he earned all-state honors and was Alaska’s Defensive Player of the Year his senior season.

But those awards didn’t impress too many recruiters. Stanford’s coaches told Crum his honors were the equivalent of finishing all-city in Los Angeles.

Football is on the rise in Alaska, but with the lack of talent and the awkward schedule, it’s hard for high school players to get noticed by Division I programs.

“It’s real tough,” Crum said. “Myself, I kind of lucked out in that I had two older brothers who played in college. One of them went to a D-III school, the University of Puget Sound. And the next one played at the University of Idaho, and he was pretty highly recruited.”

Crum received several letters from recruiters and accepted a scholarship at Air Force. But the Falcons dropped Crum before the Feb. 5, 2003, signing day.

Crum, whose father played at Arkansas, sent tapes across the country, hoping for a shot as a walk-on. He nearly accepted a spot at Montana when Northwestern recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach Pat Fitzgerald recognized a familiar name.

“His brother played with us at Idaho when I was coach up there, so I knew all about him,” Fitzgerald said. “His tape, we thought, was very strong for a young man who wanted to walk on. And his work ethic has really shown that we were right in our evaluation.”

After a few calls from NU coaches, Crum was convinced he would fit in with the school and the football program. Without visiting, Crum arrived for the 2003 season.

“This is actually the farthest east I have ever been, other than in the bowl game when we went to Detroit,” Crum said. “I’ve been to every state west of here, but I never actually visited before I came. I never took a visit here. I just kind of did it on a leap of faith, and when I got here everything just ended up working out.”

The Alaskan Assassin, as Crum’s teammates call him, borrowing the name from Trajan Langdon’s days at Duke, finally earned a scholarship three weeks ago. And though the linebacker-turned-backup-center has yet to play, coaches are excited about his talent.

“He’s a great student and he’s very driven,” Fitzgerald said. “What he has done in our program so far is a direct reflection of his character. He’s a fun kid to be around every day.”

Not everyone gives Crum a hard time for being from Alaska.

“I don’t make fun of him,” starting center Trevor Rees said. “I like hunting and fishing and stuff, so we’re always talking about going up to his house, finding some moose or caribou or something, catching some salmon.”

Reach Teddy Kider at [email protected].