Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald and his wife, Stacy, bought a six-bedroom, 6.2-bath at 2271 Bracken Lane in Northfield for $2.3 million from Scott Casty on Dec. 11.

The 10,000-square-foot home is located in South Northfield.

Mr. Fitzgerald, 35, has been at the helm of the Wildcats program for four seasons, leading them to 27-22 record overall and bowl appearances each of the last two seasons. He took over in July 2006 after the sudden death of head coach Randy Walker, making the 31-year-old former assistant coach and former linebacker the youngest coach in NCAA Division 1-A at the time. Northwestern finished 10-14 in his first two seasons, but went 9-4 and 8-4 in the past two seasons, reaching the Alamo Bowl in 2008-09 and the Outback Bowl last season.

Prior to taking the program's top job, he spent five seasons as linebackers coach at Northwestern and a combined three seasons in the same job at Idaho, Colorado and Maryland. He was a two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year (1995, 1996) on Northwestern's back-to-back Big Ten championship teams, and he became the 15th player or coach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame last year. He also played briefly in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys in 1997 before starting his coaching career.

He's originally from Orland Park, where he played for Carl Sandburg High School.

According to BlockShopper.com, there have been 57 home sales in Northfield during the past 12 months, with a median sales price of $478,750.

Address: 2271 Bracken Lane
Buyer(s): Patrick W Fitzgerald Jr and Anastasia Cm Fitsgerald
Seller(s): Scott Catsy
Sale date: Dec. 11, 2009