DURHAM, N.C. — Chowing down on pizza with a Diet Coke in hand, Athletic Director Mark Jackson basked in the reality of another national championship trophy arriving in Evanston as the Sunday sun set on Duke’s Jack Katz Stadium.
After the dust settled from Northwestern’s 2-1 double-overtime victory over Princeton, the relative newcomer — who had just witnessed a third Wildcat national title in his 15 months at the helm — reflected on what he’s learned from a team he called the “flagship element of our brand” as its initial celebrations wound down.
“Tracey (Fuchs) and I, our offices are right on the same floor,” Jackson said. “She immediately taught me about the culture of Northwestern and what it means to wear the N on your chest.”
Calling her “the best to ever play and probably the best ever to coach,” the ringleader of the University’s 21 NCAA Division I programs wasn’t shy about the impact Fuchs has had at NU.
Just as he had for last year’s field hockey national title game in Michigan and this spring’s women’s golf championship match in Southern California, Jackson knew where he needed to be this weekend with Fuchs’ squad competing in the Final Four.
“My only problem was that I really wanted to be in three places at once because we had cross country on Saturday and then a big football game,” Jackson said. “But, this group of women is so special and the mark they’ve made on the sport, on Northwestern, I just didn’t want to leave.”
He wasn’t the only one who answered the call to support the ’Cats in Durham.
Onlookers know them as Fuchs, women’s golf coach Emily Fletcher and baseball coach Ben Greenspan, but to each other they’re “Trace,” “Em” and “BG.”
With a litany of familiar faces dotting the stands and sidelines for Final Four weekend, the skippers of various NU programs noted that supporting fellow coaches wasn’t an anomaly. It was an expectation.
“If you can squeeze it into your schedule, you absolutely show up, just because we love when people show up for us too,” softball coach Kate Drohan said ahead of Sunday’s championship sundown.
Drohan, along with her twin sister and associate head coach Caryl Drohan, has attended every one of Fuchs’ five-straight national championship appearances and have now seen her win each of the team’s first three titles in program history.
The sisterly duo doesn’t just show up when the field hockey team plays on the brightest stage. They were there on a Monday afternoon in mid-October for NU’s lone regular season loss. They travelled to Maryland in 2024 for the Big Ten Tournament. And they’ve been there for various wins in between.
“I’m a little obsessed,” Kate Drohan said. “I love this team, I love watching this team, I love how hard they play, They’re just really gritty.”
According to Kate Drohan, Greenspan — who coaches NU’s other diamond sport — was driving to Connecticut with his family, but when he heard the ’Cats had defeated North Carolina in a thrilling semifinal game Friday, he took a right turn and travelled to Durham instead.
With Sunday’s win, Fletcher — who took home her own program-first title in May — has now been on site for all three of Fuchs’ championship wins since 2021. This time, she was returning the favor from when Fuchs travelled to Carlsbad, California to watch the women’s golf squad take down Stanford.
“For us as a coaching staff, it just really settles us and gets us feeling a bit centered when we see our fellow coaches and staff around, ” Fletcher said. “I think it’s kind of our comfort zone.”
Fletcher referred to Fuchs as a “full on golf fan” and joked that she “was just as intense” and “locked in” watching from the gallery in California as she was coaching her own team in North Carolina.
And the camaraderie between the two championship-winning programs doesn’t end with their coaches.
When the golf team first returned with their trophy this spring, they came home to a sprinkler bath on Lakeside Field, just as their field hockey counterparts did in 2024 and repeated Sunday night upon arriving on campus.
“I do think it’s the golden era,” Fletcher said. “It starts not only with our administration, but just our connection as coaches across all sports. It’s a tight bond.”
Aside from its recent national titles in field hockey and golf, NU has planted itself firmly among the upper echelon of various other sports in recent years. Led by coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, Wildcat lacrosse has made six consecutive Final Four appearances, dropping championship matches in 2024 and 2025 after winning it all in 2023.
Drohan’s softball squad has played in the NCAA Tournament 18 times during her 23-year tenure and made a Women’s College World Series run in 2022.
And the day before field hockey defended its crown, cross country finished 18th at the NCAA Championships, its highest placement in the modern era.
“I think it’s contagious,” Drohan said. “You see it in the weight room when we’re together. You see it when we have our meals together at Nona Jo’s (the student athlete dining hall in Walter Athletics Center) … I love our team being around these champions as much as we can.”
Back in May, the Women’s Golf Coaches Association Coach of the Year said there was a group chat between all of NU’s head honchos, and while sometimes it’s filled with banter, often it’s used for “heartfelt encouragement and support.”
This weekend in Durham, that wide-ranging support was felt. As Fuchs and company prepared to depart the Tar Heel State and return to the Land of Lincoln, the weight of the moment — adding another piece of hardware to an already illustrious collection of women’s sports’ accolades — wasn’t lost on NU’s athletic director.
“I think it speaks to our head coaches,” Jackson said. “There’s a chemistry among them and a through line among them that is all that is right with college athletics.”
Eli Kronenberg contributed reporting.
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