In this, my final column, I’d like to extend my hand to everyone in the Northwestern sports world I’ve maligned, from Pat Fitzgerald to Pat Houlihan.

Here goes.

First, to my favorite team and (often) fiercest adversary – NU football. The Wildcats were my breakfast, lunch and dinner this fall, when I got to know Fitz and the players far better than any of my professors.

Suffice to say, it wasn’t always the most blissful relationship. A couple of critical articles here, some too-detailed blogging there, and I was persona non grata among the football brass.

Well, Fitz, this is my mea culpa. Everything I did, I did because I wanted to cover the team to the best of my abilities, and that sometimes meant coming down on you or the team. But you have done a fantastic job in an incredibly difficult situation – taking over after the tragic death of your mentor and having to put that aside to run the program – and you have created a Purple and White force to be reckoned with in just three years. Even losing C.J. Bachér and Tyrell Sutton hasn’t blunted your momentum – some pundits are still predicting NU’s second-ever bowl win next season.

You’re one of the best (if not the best, as you might say) college coaches in the land, and you’re certainly the best coach under 40. Keep on keeping on, and I look forward to the day when NU goes 1-0 in a bowl game.

Then there was the time when I referred to Welsh-Ryan Arena as “a cathedral of mediocrity.” Good times. Back then (as in last year), that wasn’t far from the mark. The men’s and women’s basketball teams combined for two Big Ten wins, one each, and spent the entirety of the season at the bottom of the conference.

This year, Welsh-Ryan has been home to anything but mediocrity. First-year coach Joe McKeown has led women’s hoops to three wins and turned sophomore center Amy Jaeschke into a Big Ten superstar. And they’ve got nothing on the men’s team, which in this season alone has three conference wins over ranked teams, eight wins in conference and an outside shot at the first NCAA tournament berth in school history.

In the long-suffering history of NU basketball, that’s more mythical than mediocre.

(A special postscript to coach Bill Carmody: You’ve long been one of the Daily’s favorite punching bags. Hell, we’ve written a “Fire Carmody” column almost annually in recent years. Just know it’s not personal. We just don’t get how you could be shut out of the postseason for 10 years – and hey, that should end this year, right?)

To Ted Leo & the Pharmacists: I still don’t know who you are, and I don’t understand how some people so fiercely defend your music. But you’ve got some incredibly loyal fans, so you must be all right.

And who could forget the biggest imbroglio of all, when I started a message board firestorm with the inanely title column, “What if NU left the Big Ten?” It was a hypothetical column, which mattered to exactly zero people as they called for my firing (or worse, my head).

Just know that in my mind, the Cats should always have a place in the Big Ten as a bastion of academic standards and good character in a conference full of Ohio States.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. But that’s all the time we have. It’s been real.

And for all those pissed-off people I missed, you can find me hiding behind what used to be Tim Doyle’s hair.