The North Country Trail Association (NCTA) recently honored two women with Northern Michigan University connections during its annual awards ceremony, held virtually this year because of COVID-19. May graduate Lynnae Branham received the 2020 Rising Star Award and Professor Emeritus Lorana Jinkerson received the Thomas L. Gilbert Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Northern Michigan University junior Morgan Kolimaga of Sun Prairie, Wis., is one of 14 students across the country selected to serve on the 2020-21 National Panhellenic Conference Student Advisory Committee (NPC SAC).  

NMU alumnus Martin W. Grosnick (BS '68, MA '76) recently won the grand prize in the Pangolin Photo Safari Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. His winning image, selected from 1,000 entries, shows a leopard basking in the subtle rays of sunrise on Kenya's Masai Mara. The Copper Harbor native's first serious foray into wildlife photography occurred at Isle Royale National Park. He served as the park's postmaster over four summers after high school and honed his camera skills in his spare time.

Put Your Hand on the Line, an award-winning documentary about the 1975 Northern Michigan University football team's remarkable turnaround from losing every game one season to winning the NCAA Division II National Championship the next, will stream online as part of the 2020 Dances with Films Festival. Showings are scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 31, and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The 1975 Division II National Championship football team was not the only squad in NMU history to dramatically reverse its fortunes following a winless season. In 1956, the Wildcat football team finished 7-0-1 after losing every game the previous year.