Matt Stewart, KCTV’s morning news co-anchor, has written a book about his football playing days at Northwestern titled “The Walk-On” with a subhead “Inside Northwestern’s Rise From Cellar Dweller to Big Ten Champ.”
The book is expected to be available in about three weeks.
Stewart, who joined KCTV in August 2004 and currently co-anchors the station’s “It’s Your Morning” program, was a walk-on and played strong safety for the Wildcats’ football team that won two straight Big Ten Championships.
He is a graduate of Northwestern’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism and won academic All Big Ten honors in 1997.
Stewart told Bottom line he began writing the book about six years ago shortly after attending his 10-year Rose Bowl reunion.
“I realized that I had a pretty good story to tell, and since none of my teammates had ever written a book about our amazing turnaround from the bottom of the Big Ten to two-time Big Ten champs, I decided to take up the challenge,” he says.
Stewart says being a walk-on at a major college is not an easy thing to do.
“Most people have no idea what it takes to walk-on to a college football program, the sacrifices you make with little to no reward,” he says. ”The scholarship players all get free food, free books, free housing, automatic respect, and media attention, while the walk-on toils in anonymity, playing just for the love of the game.”
He began his college football career at Northwestern as a fifth string free safety and worked hard to move into second-string and earning a full scholarship in his sophomore year with the Wildcats.
In fact, all his hard work paid off when he intercepted a “Hail Mary” pass on the last play of his last game to help secure a 27-24 win over Purdue as his team won its second straight Big Ten title.
Stewart doesn’t hide his admiration for head coach Gary Barnett, who turned around the football program at Northwestern.
“Another reason I wrote this story is because everyone I talk to always wants to know HOW Coach Gary Barnett turned around the losing culture at the school, so I give an inside look at that,” he says.
“The stories and life lessons he taught us then inspire me to this day in the way I approach my broadcasting career.”
Stewart began his media career as a photographer at WOWT-TV in Omaha. He also worked at KCAU-TV in Sioux City, IA, KHGI-TV in Kearney, NE., and WDTN-TV in Dayton, OH.
He is married with two sons and a daughter.