University of Toledo Associate Athletic Director for Communications Paul Helgren shares his 12 favorite Rocket Football victories since 1998, the year he began working with Toledo Football. No. 9 on the list is the Rockets' 33-30 win at Northern Illinois in 2002.
 
Toledo 33, Northern Illinois 30 (Nov. 23, 2002)
 
One of the most memorable wins in my days with the Rocket Football program is a mostly forgotten 33-30 victory over Northern Illinois in 2002. It gets overshadowed by so many other great wins in the early 2000's but for me it ranks right up there.
 
We have grown accustomed to the annual showdown between Toledo and Northern Illinois but in 2002 this was a novel concept. The reason, quite honestly, is that the Huskies' football program just wasn't very good back then. From 1996 through 1998 in Joe Novak's first three seasons as head coach, NIU's record was 3-30. But Novak had a plan and NIU got better, leading the Huskies to back-to-back 6-5 records in 2000 in 2001. He built an outstanding team in 2002, led by running back Michael "The Burner" Turner. Despite the improvement, Northern had yet to clear one important hurdle: Toledo. The Rockets dominated the Huskies, having won eight straight games in the series. Excited NIU fans felt certain that 2002 was their year to finally break through.
 
Northern dominated its first seven MAC opponents in 2002 and held a 7-0 league record going into a late November home game against Toledo. The Rockets, defending MAC champions, were still formidable, their only league loss coming against Ben Roethlisberger and the Miami RedHawks. Both teams were geared for a battle in what would ultimately determine the MAC West Division championship.
 
To say that the NIU campus was excited for the game would be an understatement. The Huskies had not won a MAC title since 1983 and their fans were ready to celebrate. The Rockets got a taste of the enthusiasm when their team buses were greeted by a series of signs along the drive from the Illinois Turnpike to the stadium that said things like "The Rockets are a Dud. Go Huskies!" and other less polite messages. Despite 39-degree weather and a whipping wind, more than 20,000 fans packed Huskie Stadium ready to party. Early on, at least, their team did not let them down.
 
After Toledo's first drive stalled, NIU's Dan Sheldon returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown.  The teams exchanged punts before Steve Azar kicked a 37-yard field goal to put the Huskies up 10-0 late in the first quarter. The Huskies made it 17-0 on a four-yard TD run by Turner early in the second quarter, and it looked like the rout was on.
 
But the Rockets battled back and dominated the rest of the first half. Sophomore running back Trinity Dawson scored from seven yards out, and senior quarterback Brian Jones connected on TD bombs of 44 yards to Lance Moore and 84 yards to Carl Ford to put the Rockets on top. A Jason Robbins' field goal at the end of the half gave Toledo a 23-17 lead heading into the locker room.
 
Northern recaptured the lead on a 12-yard touchdown run following a short drive. Toledo Head Coach Tom Amstutz then reached into his bag of tricks, pulling off a fake punt to upback Patrick Body for a 57-yard gain to the NIU 12-yard line. The drive stalled, however, and Toledo had to settle for a 28-yard field goal by Robbins to retake the lead, 26-24.
 
The Huskies countered with a 16-play drive that was halted on the UT three-yard line. NIU regained the lead, 27-26, on a 23-yard Azar field goal.
 
The situation looked grim for the Rockets when Jones was intercepted on third-and-16 on Toledo's next possession. Northern responded with another long drive but once again had to settle for a field goal. Still, the Huskies now led 30-26 with just 2:51 left. The Rockets needed a touchdown to win. The noisy NIU crowd was alive now; they could practically taste a long-awaited win over the Rockets.
 
Toledo's attempt at a late comeback got off to a shaky start. With the clock winding down and Toledo starting at its own 20-yard line, Amstutz surprised everybody by calling three consecutive running plays that gained a total of nine yards. He called timeout with 1:25 left and the Rockets facing fourth-and-one from their own 29-yard line. It was at this point that NIU's student section began rushing down from their seats, forming a mass of bodies that pressed themselves along the first few rows. With NIU officials holding up signs that read "Don't rush on the field" and "Win with class," a few stray students began jumping onto the field. Security officials did their best to corral them but settled for simply keeping them off the playing field.
 
It was under these stressful conditions that Jones and the Rocket offense went back to work.
 
Coming out of the timeout, Jones hit tight end Andrew Clarke for a four-yard toss and a first down. Consecutive completions to wide receiver Donta' Greene and running back Astin Martin moved UT to the NIU 26-yard line with 41 seconds left. The student section continued its move onto the field, but now there was a growing sense of unease.
 
Toledo's next play, the one that won the game, should go down as one of the all-time great plays by two Rockets who had completely different career trajectories. One was Greene, an all-time Toledo great. A five-foot-seven blazing ball of fire, Greene caught 188 passes in his Rocket career and was a terrific return man. The other was Chris Charleton, a sophomore walk-on who never caught a single pass in his one year wearing the Midnight Blue and Gold. But his contribution on this play forever earned him a spot in Rocket Football lore.
 
In a play called "Right Swing," Charleton and Greene were set out to the right, with Greene in the slot. On the snap, Jones fired the ball to Greene, who caught the ball behind the line of scrimmage. As the NIU cornerback Randee Drew moved in for the tackle, Charleton unleashed a block that sent the defender airborne, his legs flying above over his head like an extra from "The Longest Yard." Greene stepped around both of them and made his way untouched down the sideline and into the end zone for a 33-30 Toledo lead.

"I made the catch and as soon as I turned my head, I saw Chris Charleton make a heck of a block," Greene told the Toledo Blade after the game. "I saw a guy in the air and all I saw was daylight after that."

"The corner came at me hard and I just cut his legs out from under him," Charleton said. "I knew if I got him out of the way, it was going to be a touchdown for Donta'."

The once-raucous Huskie Stadium crowd was now silent. NIU students began to straggle back into the stands. There is a legend that some Northern players had prematurely dumped a bucket of Gatorade on Novak, but I can assure you that never happened. Nevertheless, the play chilled out the Northern Illinois sideline like a New Year's Day swim in Lake Michigan.
 
But the game was far from over. Novak and the Huskies still had 41 seconds and two timeouts left to mount a comeback of their own. Now it was time for Toledo's defense's to step up, and the Rockets did just that, preventing NIU from making the big play. In its last-ditch drive, Northern threw three incomplete passes and completed three others for just 25 yards. Still, they lined up Azar to attempt a 62-yard field goal with nine seconds left that would have sent the game into overtime. Azar's kick was right on the money…but ran out of steam a couple of yards short of the crossbar. The Rockets celebrated yet another triumph over the Huskies, while the NIU fans were left chagrined.
 
As for that Gatorade legend, I think that got its start from a quote from Rocket senior linebacker David Gardner that appeared in the Blade the next day. Asked about the NIU students coming on the field, Gardner pointed to another game from earlier that season that later became known as the Bluegrass Miracle.

"It was the same kind of ending with LSU and Kentucky a couple weeks ago," Gardner said. "They dumped water on the coach and then LSU throws a Hail Mary pass and (Kentucky) loses.

"It's not good to celebrate too early."

Paul Helgren's All-Time Favorite Rocket Victories
9. Toledo 33, Northern Illinois 30 (Nov. 23, 2002)
10. Toledo 42, Air Force 41 (Dec. 29, 2011 – Military Bowl)
11. Toledo 44, Bowling Green 41 (2OT) (Nov. 22, 2005)
12. Toledo 32, Temple 17 (Dec. 22, 2015 - Marmot Boca Raton Bowl)