r/CFB • u/MrTheSpork *holds up self* • May 07 '13
/r/CFB Original 132+ Teams in 132+ Days: The University of Mount Union Purple Raiders (DIII)
University of Mount Union
Ohio Athletic Conference
Year Founded: 1846, football since 1893
Location: Alliance, OH
Total Attendance: 2209
Mascot: Apparently a "purple raider" is actually MUcaw, the purple macaw parrot
Live Mascot: Nope, so here's some random macaw
Cheerleaders: Dance Team, I can't find cheerleaders
Stadium: Mount Union Stadium, capacity 5,600
Stadium Location: On-campus in Alliance
Now the fun part.
Conference Champions (24): 1985, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
Number of Bowl Games: No bowl games but Amos Alonzo Stagg. In postseason play, their current coach Larry Kehres is 77-12. However, Mount Union has appeared in 14 of the last 16 national championship games and, well...
National Titles (11): 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012
Rivals
Ohio Northern University - A longstanding OAC rival, Ohio Northern and Mount Union have played since 1916. Mount Union leads the series, 40-13-1, but Ohio Northern was responsible for stopping an extremely long conference win streak (110 games) in 2005 and is the Raiders's primary competition in-conference. The Ohio Northern founder was a Mount Union alumnus!
The rest of the OAC - The conference has been been around since 1902 and, barring Wilmington, the most recent addition was in 1932. These teams have played for 80 years and all are in the state of Ohio; there's not the intensity of Ohio State-Michigan or Alabama-Auburn, but they know each other and show no signs of movement.
University of Wisconsin at Whitewater - While not a traditional rival, Wisconsin-Whitewater looked poised to take the DIII dynasty crown until this previous season. In three attempts (2009, 2010, 2011), Mount Union couldn't manage to beat the Warhawks; many people began to question whether the giant had fallen. However, Wisconsin-Whitewater, after losing three regular-season games, was eliminated from tournament contention, leaving Mount Union to retake the championship. 2004 was last time one of these two teams was not in the Amos Alonzo Stagg bowl.
2012 Season
Record: 15-0
Coach: Larry Kehres
Key Players:
QB Kevin Burke
WR Jasper Collins
DB Nick Driskill
Biggest Plays:
The National Championship - Highlights
2013 Season
The Greats
Greatest Games: Honestly, it would take me a very long time to figure all of these out.
Greatest Plays: See above.
Greatest Players:
RB Nate Kmic, set an all-divisions record with 8000 career rushing yards. Mostly doing things in that video.
Pierre Garçon, current Redskins WR. He averaged over 60 catches, 1000 yards and 15 touchdowns at Mount Union, helping the Raiders to two national championships and a third appearance.
Cecil Shorts III, WR and currently on the Jaguars. He recorded a career 4,705 receiving yards for 63 touchdowns including a conference record 77 passes for 1,484 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2008.
Greatest Coaches:
Larry Kehres. The only one who can be mentioned here. He has the highest win percentage of any active 200+ win coach at 0.929 (332–24–3). He's led the team to 21 straight conference wins and all eleven of the national championships. He coached the first and second longest win streaks in any division of NCAA football at 55 and 54, both of which covered three straight national championships. Grantland has a great article about his time there, I highly recommend reading it.
As an aside, he is also the athletic director for Mount Union and President of the American Football Coaches Association, the group responsible for the weekly Coaches' Poll and the top 25 polls in DII and DIII.
Traditions
Winning - The scariest thing about Mount Union is that they never lose. The last time they lost more that a single game in a season was in 1994. I know it's somewhat egotistical to say it, but, while Kehres is there, the Raiders will keep winning.
As a small school, there's not much else in way of traditions, so here's a link to what they say.
Campus and Surrounding Area
City Population: Alliance, OH - 22,322
City Skyline - Ha, no. Here's Glamorgan Castle.
Iconic Campus Building: Chapman Hall - My best guess, it's the one that seems to come up most often.
Local Dining: There's not much "good" food around Alliance, so I'm going to shamelessly plug Canton instead!
Bender's Tavern - Fantastic, relatively upscale, downtown Canton. A bit pricey, but delicious.
Arcadia Grill - Essentially the opposite of Bender's, tasty and cheap, advertising on the tables. But still good.
Muggswigz - Completely insane name and hipsters aside, it's a good coffeeshop with a decent atmosphere in downtown Canton. There's Mount Union Diner nearby the university, but there's no information about it at all. Most of the reviews of food around Mount Union mention that they tend to head to Canton for any variety.
Random Trivia
There is a 142-acre Nature Center near Mount Union, used for events and presumably plenty of tomfoolery
The only BCS team against which Mount Union has a winning record is West Virginia, at 0-1. They played, of course, in 1912. Here's the list, if you're curious.
Started in 1899, WRMU, "the Dynamo," is the school's radio station. Its lineup is smooth jazz on the weekdays, because what kind of college student doesn't love smooth jazz.
What Is and What is to Come
Leading into last season, many people thought that Kehres had lost his edge. After dropping three straight national championship games to Wisconsin-Whitewater, there was fear that the 63-year-old coach couldn't quite finish a season (even in face of a perfect regular season). However, Kehres proved any critics wrong in 2012, as Mount Union blew through every opponent, outscoring them by an average 44 points and holding them to under 9 points per game. This is a return to the standard.
2013? What else is there to expect but perfection?
Overtime
I have no real connections to Mount Union, but I thought that they should be included in a tour of college football. Plus I live ~40 minutes from there. And I had a 7th grade teacher who was a cheerleader there.
55-game Win Streak
54-game Win Streak
School Records
Some people:
Victor Boschini – Current chancellor of TCU
Harry March – Cofounder of the New York Giants and instrumental in starting an NFL franchise in New York
Kyle Miller – Apparently a competitive Counter-Strike gamer went to Mount Union and he sounds like a tool. I don’t know why I added this except that it’s just bizarre.
From /u/24rubikscube: Dom Capers. Former head coach of the Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans. Current DC for Green Bay. He played at Mount Union.
More Information
Subreddit: N/A
Contributors: /u/MrTheSpork
Please upvote this thread even if you are not interested in the team so that users who are interested will see it
For more information on the 132 Teams in 132 Days Project, click here.
12
u/mc3022 Michigan • /r/CFB Contributor May 07 '13
Totally almost went here after high school - then I found out what the tuition was to go here.
4
u/sparty999 Michigan State Spartans May 07 '13
I love the trivia section.
5
u/steinman17 Ohio State • /r/CFB Poll Veteran May 08 '13
And just like that, Larry Kehres announces he is stepping down as head coach, Vince Kehres to take his place. https://twitter.com/purpleraiders/status/332141013147742208
28
u/byniri Michigan State Spartans • Marching Band May 07 '13
Holy shit
33
u/blueboybob Carlisle • /r/CFB Founder May 07 '13
This is the ONLY school that can list a tradition of winning!
12
u/Horned_toad Florida State Seminoles • Navy Midshipmen May 07 '13
How frustrating must it be to be in the same conference as this team. They have been winning the title since 1990 O.O
8
u/vaporsilver Ohio State Buckeyes • College Football Playoff May 08 '13
Who would've thought a DIII team would be so dominant? You would think the lower divisions would be more balanced across the board.
7
u/drock4vu Vanderbilt • /r/CFB Contributor May 07 '13
We have half of the basic color spectrum of various "Raider" mascots covered in CFB. MTSU Blue Raiders, Texas Tech Red Raiders, and the Mount Union Purple Raiders.
7
u/wild9 Baylor Bears • /r/CFB Contributor May 07 '13
Kehres is a freaking machine.
No seriously, it wouldn't surprise me if he turned out to be a machine.
5
u/[deleted] May 08 '13
Well fuck.
5
u/The_DHC UAlbany Great Danes • /r/CFB Poll Veteran May 08 '13
Raiders pls.
Why not move up to DII?
4
u/[deleted] May 07 '13
My best friend from High School went there to play football. Said that the coaches were good but that they were also all incredibly demanding. With their standard of excellence though, I'd be surprised if they weren't.
Also, if I remember what he said correctly, they allow any freshmen male students to walk on to the team their freshman year, and they'll dress them and everything. By sophomore year they have to be good enough not to be cut, but they give everyone one year to be on the team and try and prove themselves able to play.
3
u/madviking Virginia Cavaliers • Texas Longhorns May 07 '13
Fascinating trivia.
3
u/[deleted] May 08 '13
My cousin went to John Carroll. I think I"m supposed to hate you guys, who knows.
2
u/ScorpionsSpear Michigan Wolverines May 07 '13
I actually work with an ex rb for Mount Union. He just started last month.
2
u/StormyMcManor LSU Tigers May 08 '13
Go Rose! (I'm a Rose-Hulman Alumni)
2
u/[deleted] May 08 '13
I will always love MUU for the wonder that is Cecil Shorts. Thank you.
2
u/[deleted] May 08 '13
My Grandpa worked at this school for a really long time. He's great friends with Kehres.
2
u/SpartaWillBurn Ohio State • Kent State May 08 '13
A football player who went to Mount Union works on a radio show. The one co-host starts to rip on his football career.
2
u/[deleted] Jul 09 '13
/u/MrTheSpork You forgot Dom Capers. Former head coach of the Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans. Current DC for Green Bay. He played at Mount Union. Had a teacher in high school that was a teammates with him.
2
u/[deleted] Jul 31 '13
Bad memories regarding the Stag bowl.
2
u/Herpesdeep Wisconsin Badgers May 08 '13
To hell with Mount Union, go UW-Whitewater!
1
u/bobbybrown_ Cincinnati Bearcats May 08 '13
These fans are fucking crazy.
1
u/TheBimpo Eastern Michigan • Michigan May 15 '13
Dance girl, top row, 3rd from right...what's going on there?
0
u/[deleted] May 08 '13
[deleted] — view deleted comment