The 2023 football season marks the golden anniversary of the NCAA Div. III national championship, which was first awarded in 1973. 

Beginning with Wittenberg's defeat of Juniata that year — a Juniata program making some more history in 2023 as a charter member of Landmark Conference football — some luminaries of the game have held the NCAA Div. III title. 

Hall of Fame coaches leading the most dominant programs in the sport's history rank among the all-time champions to have emerged from the Stagg Bowl. 

For the uninitiated, the Div. III National Championship Game is named for Amos Alonzo Stagg. The program for which Stagg is famous for building into an early 20th Century power, University of Chicago, claims a pair of national championships and the first-ever winner of the Heisman Trophy. But the Midwest Conference member Maroons have never won a Div. III title. 

The championship does reside in Illinois, however, with North Central winning its second in the last three seasons to cap the 2022 campaign. The Cardinals bested Mount Union in last December's Stagg Bowl, 28-21, marking the second time each of their title runs culminated against one of the traditional powerhouses of Div. III. 

North Central beat Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2019, 41-14. It was the first time in 10 Stagg Bowl appearances UW-Whitewater played an opponent other than Mount Union. 

The two programs dominated the division with incredible run of seven straight years playing each other for the Div. III championship from 2005 through 2011. Mount Union won three of those matchups — all under legendary coach and 2017 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Larry Kehres — and four going to UW-Whitewater, all claimed by coach Lance Leipold. 

Leipold has since gone on to restore life to a long-struggling Kansas Jayhawks program. Before going to Buffalo ahead of the 2015 season, Leipold won another two titles in 2013 and 2014 to give UW-Whitewater six all-time. 

Mount Union, meanwhile, won seven Div. III national championships before the UW-Whitewater rivalry began. The Purple Raiders' prominence under Larry Kehres began in 1993 against Rowan, a program that reached five Stagg Bowls but never broke through, and culminated with the coach's 11th national championship to cap the 2012 season. 

His son, Vince Kehres, coached Mount Union to its 12th and 13th national titles in 2015 and 2017, alternating the crown with Mary Hardin-Baylor. Between Texas' 2006 Rose Bowl Game defeat of USC and Sam Houston winning the truncated spring 2021 FCS championship, Mary Hardin-Baylor was only program in the Lone Star State to win a national title.

The Cru won three national championships under coach Pete Fredenburg in 2016 and 2018, and in 2021 denied North Central its bid for a three-peat. The 57-24 Mary Hardin-Baylor romp played out in Canton, Ohio, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

The Canton-based Stagg Bowl marked the first time the Div. III National Championship Game was played in the state of Ohio since 1983-1984, when Kings Island hosted. Kings Island was the first locale after the 10 initial installments of the Stagg Bowl were held in Phenix City, Alabama. 

Phenix City welcomed the Stagg Bowl back in 1985 through 1989, then Bradenton, Florida, played hosted for three years through 1992. 

Salem, Virginia took over in 1993 and the Stagg Bowl called Salem Stadium home every year through 2017. It returns this year, 2023, in commemoration of 50 years of Div. III national championships. 

Last year, Annapolis hosted the Stagg Bowl and Shenandoah, Texas, had honors in 2018 and 2019. Canton's turn in 2021 was significant not only for bringing the Stagg Bowl back to Ohio, but the impact the outcome had on a bit of Div. III history. 

If not for that loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor, North Central would be embarking on the 2023 season seeking a milestone that neither Mount Union nor UW-Whitewater achieved in either of their dynastic runs. Both ran off three-peats: Mount Union from 1996 through 1998 and again from 2000 through 2002, and UW-Whitewater from 2009 through 2011. 

However, only Augustana has ever pulled off a four-peat. 

The Vikings dominated Div. III from 1983 through 1986, claiming four straight national championships under 1998 Hall of Fame inductee coach Bob Reade. Reade's teams didn't lose a single game in that stretch, and suffered only one setback from 1982 onward. 

The lone blemish came in the '82 Div. III National Championship Game when West Georgia claimed its only Div. III title. 

First-and-only-time champions bookended the Augustana four-peat, with Wagner claiming the 1987 crown. The Staten Island-based program held its four Div. III Playoffs opponents to a combined 30 points en route to the national championship, culminating in a 19-3 defeat of Dayton. 

Dayton was seeking its second Div. III national championship after having won the 1980 title under coach Rick Carter. His successor, Mike Kelly, oversaw a long and successful period for Flyers football from 1981 through 2007, which included a transition to Div. I, snapping Augustana's winning streak with a 38-36 win in the 1987 Div. III Playoffs, and a Div. IIII national championship in 1989. 

Dayton's second championship followed Ithaca winning its second in 1988 — nine years after the Bombers' first — and preceded Allegheny winning its first and only in 1990. Ithaca won another Div. III national championship in 1991. 

Wisconsin-La Crosse claimed a pair of titles in 1992 and 1995, with Albion winning its only championship in 1994. These were the last programs outside of Mount Union or UW-Whitewater to win Div. III national championships for the next 20 years, save three programs: 

- Pacific Lutheran, which in 1999 handed Rowan its fifth Stagg Bowl defeat since 1993 

- Linfield, which in 2004 beat Mary Hardin-Baylor in the only Stagg Bowl from 2000 through 2015 not to include one of either Mount Union or UW-Whitewater 

- St. John's in 2003, putting one final championship bullet-point on the illustrious coaching resume of John Gagliardi. 

Gagliardi, a 2006 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, won a record 465 games in a career that began in 1949. The legendary figure led St. John's to national titles at the NAIA level then successful transitioned over to NCAA Div. III with the first of two times won in 1976. 

Claiming national championships at multiple levels puts Gagliardi in exclusive company with such noteworthy names as Jim Tressel. And while Jim Tressel never coached a Div. III champion, his father did: Lee Tressel oversaw the 1978 national champs at Baldwin-Wallace, beginning a family tradition that carried over to Youngstown State and Ohio State.

The NCAA Div. III national championship indeed boasts an impressive lineage. Below is every winner since the title's inception in 1973: 

Albion: 1994

Allegheny: 1990

Augustana: 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 

Baldwin-Wallace: 1978 

Central (Iowa): 1974 

Dayton: 1980, 1989 

Ithaca: 1978, 1988, 1991 

Linfield: 2004 

Mary Hardin-Baylor: 2016, 2018, 2021  

Mount Union: 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017 

North Central: 2019, 2022 

Pacific Lutheran: 1999 

St. John's: 1976, 2003 

Wagner: 1987 

West Georgia: 1982 

Widener: 1977, 1981 

Wisconsin-La Crosse: 1992, 1995 

Wisconsin-Whitewater: 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 

Wittenberg: 1973, 1975