Northwestern's Anthony Walker had a 2015 season that could almost be described as superhuman. Actually, that's exactly how the Wildcats are describing the linebacker these days.
The school has come up with a unique way of promoting its star junior, who earned All-America honors last season after registering 122 tackles and 20.5 tackles for loss. Teammates nicknamed Walker "The Franchise," and Northwestern took that a step farther by designing a logo and marketing campaign around the moniker.
On Tuesday, about 90 media members received a package containing a Walker-themed lunchbox, workout shirt and comic book. The team also released a movie trailer-style video that asks, "Who is The Franchise?," while teasing the date of July 25.
Who is The Franchise? #B1GCats https://t.co/cWUBsg2sP5
— #B1GCats (@NU_Sports) July 19, 2016
"We were looking for a way to have a little fun with [the nickname] and remind people in a friendly, fun way how good of a year he had last year," said Kyle Kelley, assistant director of athletic communications for Northwestern. "So we came up with superhero theme." Kelley and another staffer, Ben Rohde, designed the logo, which incorporates Walker's initials, his No. 18 and an "F" for Franchise. Kelley also developed the comic book ("It's amazing what you can do with Photoshop," he joked). Another trailer will be released Thursday, and the full video will come out Monday, which happens to coincide with Walker's appearance at Big Ten media days in Chicago.
Northwestern promoting star linebacker @__AWalkJr as "The Franchise," with superhero comic book, lunch box & shirt pic.twitter.com/BH7aDKaPsn
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 19, 2016
Walker won't be showing up to that event with a cape or mask, Kelley promises. But Walker has been an active participant in this campaign.
"We've seen him a lot in the office the past couple of weeks because he was so excited about seeing the progress," Kelley said. "When teammates first started calling him 'The Franchise,' he was resistant to that because he's such a humble guy. So we know this is not going to go to Anthony's head, and that's the coolest thing about it."
Northwestern has been on the cutting edge of player promotion before, most notably when it sent out purple dumbbells to media members as part of the "Persa Strong" campaign before the 2011 season. That was a push to get quarterback Dan Persa on the Heisman Trophy radar. Kelley says there is no specific award the school is targeting for Walker, who is already on every major preseason watch list.
"The nation is on alert and already knows how talented Anthony is," Kelley said. "Coming off the season we had, we just wanted to remind people that Anthony was one of the main reasons behind it."