‘Ice in his veins’: Brother Rice graduate John Richardson comes through in the clutch as Northern Illinois kicker

There are two sides to Northern Illinois kicker John Richardson.

To hear some tell it, the Brother Rice graduate is as cool and calm as they come before attempting a field goal.

“He’s a clutch field goal kicker and has that ability where he truly has ice in his veins,” said NIU special teams coach Nic McKissic-Luke of Richardson, an Orland Park native. “There is no pressure on him at any point in time. He doesn’t put any pressure on himself.

“That’s why he’s able to make those kicks in the clutch. He’s one of the best in the country because he approaches every field goal the same. No one attempt is more important than the other with him.”

But after the kick?

Well, hundreds of thousands of people saw a different side of Richardson in an ESPN-televised game on Nov. 10, 2021, when he nailed a 32-yard field goal as time ran out in a 30-29 Mid-American Conference victory over Ball State in DeKalb.

YouTube has videos on its website with various titles — “the best kicker celebration ever,” “the kicker is a savage for this” and “John Richardson hit the game-winner for NIU and has the time of his life celebrating.”

It all started with the Bronze Stalk Trophy, a traveling award that goes to the winner of the game.

“Our whole plan was after we won the game, we were going to storm their sideline and go grab the trophy,” Richardson said.

But two things happened.

First, he was the only one running to the Ball State sideline. Second, the trophy wasn’t there.

So, after the clinching field goal, he ran toward the Cardinals’ sideline, motioning with his left arm for his teammates to come join him.

He threw his arms up in the air when he couldn’t find the trophy, running back to the field while hitting his left biceps with his right hand.

“Everybody was kind of confused and didn’t know what was going on,” Richardson said. “But the trophy wasn’t over there and I just kind of ran around the field like banging on my arms like I had ice in my veins. That was kind of fun.”

The ESPN announcers laughed as teammates tried to track him down to celebrate.

Comments on YouTube about the unusual celebration ran the gamut. Some enjoyed the joy. Some thought it was excessive.

One predicted Richardson would get cut from the team for the spectacle. That was highly unlikely given that he nailed three field goals and three extra points in the game.

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This season, the redshirt junior continues to climb the charts of Northern Illinois’ career kicking leaders.

He ranks fifth with 45 field goals, including a school-record 22 in 2021. He has four career game-winning kicks for the Huskies.

Richardson also is 99-for-99 on extra-point attempts, two shy of his personal record at Brother Rice in which he booted a state-record 101 straight before having one blocked against Loyola as a junior.

Some view extra points as automatic, and while Richardson has made it look easy over the years, there’s still a ton that goes into it.

“A lot of it is the operation and some of the blocking,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s difficult for the wing to extend to the outside. That’s the kind of a thing that can go wrong.

“There is also a high or low snap, a fumble on the snap. But knock on wood, it’s hard to miss an extra point. When you’re that close, you have to catastrophically hit the ball bad.”

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.