It’s not often you see a former All-American in Daniel O’Keefe’s 11 a.m. Theory of Persuasion class at Frances Searle. Ten years ago, Darnell Autry started at running back in the Rose Bowl. A decade later, he is right back where he started.

Like his classmates, he is paying for his education with student loans and financial aid rather than the football scholarship he had the last time. But he spent the last ten years differently from the students around him.

Still, to hear him say it, you wouldn’t notice anything unusual about Autry’s life since playing in Pasadena, Calif.

“I’ve pursued an acting career,” Autry said nonchalantly. “I lived in L.A., in Vegas, in Philly, I played football in Philly, I played football in Chicago.”

Since leaving school during his junior year in 1996 to enter the NFL Draft, the last running back to start for the Wildcats in the “Grandaddy of Them All” hasn’t quite found what he’s looking for.

The Bears selected Autry in the fourth round of the 1996 NFL Draft — but after an uneventful stint in Chicago until 1997 and a brief tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2000, he ended his football career.

Autry was advised by agents and teammates in choosing to leave the game, but the choice was his alone. Ultimately, Autry said he was “isolated” in the decision to end his career.

“It’s that mental game that everybody has to be able to overcome,” Autry said. “I didn’t love it enough to fight for it … When I got cut the second time by Philly, I didn’t love it enough to go to Canada or play Arena ball.”

But he did love acting. As a theater major in the School of Communication, Autry’s acting attracted the attention of the NCAA, nearly costing him his athletic eligibility.

During the summer of 1995 Autry was offered a role in “The Eighteenth Angel,” a horror film starring Rachel Leigh Cook and Stanley Tucci. NCAA regulations at the time prevented athletes from having summer jobs. After being told the movie would make him ineligible, Autry successfully challenged the regulation.

“Well, I hope it’s a positive precedent,” Autry said. “But I hope that it didn’t lend to athletes taking advantage of it. The purpose behind it was so that if you were a theater major, you could do the same as what a computer major would do, and that is work within your field … If you were a theater major, if you wrote books, if you did anything in the entertainment field that was your major in school, then I believe you should have the opportunity to pursue that.”

Autry dabbled in acting after the Bears cut him, until 2000, when he joined the Eagles. In 2002 he had a recurring role on the WB sitcom “What I Like About You” and an appearance on CBS’s “The District,” among other appearances.

Colorado head of football operations David Hansburg, who was a graduate assistant at NU in 1996, was not surprised by Autry’s persistence.

“That might be a tougher business than the NFL,” said Hansburg. “It’s great that he’s up for the challenge, but that’s the type of person he is … I think he’s got the charisma to make it in whatever it is he chooses to do.”

Now, Autry has chosen to earn the degree that he left behind in his run to professional football.

“The only regret that I’ve ever had in my life is leaving Northwestern early and not graduating,” Autry said. “I think that if I had graduated college, I would have given myself the choice of whether or not I wanted to play in the NFL or go to the corporate world.”

Once a Heisman Trophy finalist who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, his name gets a nod of slight recognition in roll call during class. But typically he goes unnoticed by his considerably younger classmates.

“I had a kid tell me that he used to watch me when he was a kid,” Autry said. “It’s so far removed … When I was at the spring game, it wasn’t so much the kids as it was the parents who said, ‘Go get his autograph.'”

Autry isn’t the only former player currently spending his days in Evanston. He’ll be able to share his days on campus with teammate Pat Fitzgerald, who currently serves as the linebackers coach and head recruiting coordinator for the Wildcats.

Fitzgerald, the most decorated defensive player in school history, said he couldn’t be happier that Autry has come back to complete his education.

“He knows where the football office is and knows how to get there,” Fitzgerald said. “I envision seeing him around a lot more and our relationship being a lot more like it was when we were in school together.”

Anyone who hopes to see Autry on the sidelines for the Cats, however, is only getting their hopes up.

“If I was going to return to football coaching, I would definitely coach little league,” Autry said. “Coaching them little whipper snappers, I think that would be fun for me.”

For now Autry plans to take four classes every quarter, until he completes his degree. He is looking to intern in various industries, such as real estate or the financial industry, until he finds a job that suits him. While he will still act, it will only be a side pursuit.

Autry is on track to graduate next summer, but he hopes to complete his coursework in time to be on the field at what he knew as Dyche Stadium once again.

“My dream is to walk with the kids for 2006 in June,” Autry said. “I picked Northwestern because of the academics. If football should not work out, then I had a degree that meant something … I’m done with my football career. Now I have to come back and finish unfinished business.”

Reach David Kalan at [email protected].