In the NFL, Chicago Bears running back Garrett Wolfe is a mostly anonymous special teams player. But at Northern Illinois, where he played from 2003 to 2006, he's a star. Wolfe is perhaps the best football player in the school's history, and he led the nation in rushing during his senior season.
So when a gunman killed five students and himself at Northern Illinois on Thursday, Wolfe felt personally affected, even though he didn't know anyone involved. He told the Chicago Sun-Times:
''I got a phone call, then flipped to the radio and then the words started: 'shooting,' 'injuries,' 'Northern Illinois University.' I was stunned and ran in the house just as they started to mention 'deaths' on TV. I was very shocked and very saddened.''Wolfe's words echoed those of many Northern Illinois students: "It's all so sad, so tragic. I love NIU.''While Wolfe knew none of the victims, he eerily recalled taking the same class in the same auditorium inside the ill-starred Cole Hall.
''When they said 'oceanography' and 'Cole Hall,' all I could think was 'unbelievable,''' he said. ''I took that class in that room my sophomore year. I could picture every door, every aisle, the stage, everything that they were reporting on. In a million years, you would never, ever imagine something like that happening in a setting like that.''
