Two Milwaukee-area natives helped make college football history as the Indiana Hoosiers captured their first-ever national championship. Marquette graduate Riley Nowakowski and Homestead alum Anthony Chung played key roles in the program's historic title run.
"This is what everyone dreams of—becoming a college athlete, winning a national championship," Chung said.
The magnitude of the achievement hasn't fully sunk in for either player.
"It's insane every time I think about it. I mean all the work that has gone into this moment," Nowakowski said.
Watch: Local athletes win national championship with Indiana
Nowakowski scored the first touchdown of the championship game for the Hoosiers.
"You know they called the play, and I was really excited, obviously, but Miami took a timeout. We already showed it, so I was like, "oh we are probably going to change the play. We are going to check into something else." I was a little bit disappointed, but we get back in the huddle, and Cig is like we are staying with the same play. We are still going to run it. I was like, all I got to do is just get the hand off and fall forward. It was just a yard. My dad always taught me fall forward, you get two extra yards," Nowakowski said.
Keith Klestinski, Nowakowski's former coach at Marquette High School, watched the historic moment unfold from home.
"At that moment, I am thinking, man, this is just the culmination of a good person, a good athlete, doing great things on a football field. He is so deserving of it," Klestinski said.
The coach expressed pride in how Nowakowski has represented the school.
"This is what we coach for. As high school coaches, as high school teachers, it is what we hope for in our students and what we want to give them," Klestinski said.
Both players witnessed firsthand how Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti transformed the program's culture.
"Just his standard. The culture he creates. It is how you win football games," Chung said.
"One of his greatest talents is uniting a group of men towards a united goal," Nowakowski said.
As they return to Bloomington, Indiana, they are still soaking it all in and hoping not to wake up from this dream.
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