Matt Cody takes off with his game-sealing interception, while the Mary Hardin-Baylor sideline erupts behind him. Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

By Keith McMillan
D3football.com

Mary Hardin-Baylor, once a woman's college, launched football behind a local high school hero in 1998. Coach Pete Fredenburg had the Crusaders in Salem at the game's apex by 2004.

Tied with 6 minutes to play, UMHB botched a punt, Linfield scored and held on for its first national championship. Fredenburg and his Crusaders colleagues were disappointed, but also encouraged. The upstart program had won at Mount Union to make the Stagg Bowl, a feat practically unthinkable then.

The loss in Salem seemed like the beginning of something big. "I thought, well shoot, we'll be back here pretty quickly and we'll be over it," Fredenburg later said.

And it was a beginning; UMHB became one of Division III's so-called Purple Powers. But when it came to reaching the Stagg Bowl, from 2005 through 2015, the Cru was always on the outside looking in: Mount Union faced UW-Whitewater in the title game nine times in Salem, and St. Thomas twice. 

UMHB seasons ended with crushing losses to Wesley in 2005 and 2006, and national semifinal defeats against UW-Whitewater in 2007 and 2008. The Cru was knocked out by Linfield, then Wesley twice more. In the 2012 semifinals, a 28-14 fourth-quarter lead at Mount Union ended with the Purple Raiders scoring the game-winning touchdown with five seconds left. In 2013, the Cru played at home, against UW-Whitewater, and dropped a go-ahead touchdown pass in the waning minutes and lost, 16-15. In 2014 and 2015, there were three-point playoff losses to Linfield. Elite seasons that ended in deep disappointment became the norm in Belton, Texas.

So when UMHB, which by then had built Division III's grandest cathedral and beaten Mount Union there in the 2016 semifinals, brought a defense for the ages to Salem, Fredenburg and the Cru finally got to be the Purple Power. Singular. Quarterback Blake Jackson and the Cru offense did just enough to beat UW-Oshkosh, 10-7.

Years of angst poured out as Jackson ran on to the field looking for someone to hug after Matt Cody's game-sealing interception. Jackson, Cody, Baylor Mullins, Teidrick Smith, Haston Adams and others had etched their names into D-III history. 

That win was a changing of UMHB's fortunes, and signaled a changing of the guard in D-III. Mount Union and UW-Whitewater had combined to win 11 consecutive Stagg Bowls, and the Purple Raiders returned to beat UMHB in 2017. Since then, however, Mary Hardin-Baylor and North Central have alternated championships, including facing each other in 2021. The Cardinals will go for back-to-back titles and their third in four years on Friday, when the Stagg Bowl returns to Salem after bouncing to three other locations from 2018 through 2022.

Though UMHB later vacated the 2016 championship for allowing a player to borrow a used Subaru, it became the class of D-III with its wins in 2018 and 2021. We got to hear Fredenburg, in his deep Texas drawl, extol the virtues of D-III as he admitted his plan had been to return to D-I. By finally breaking through in Salem, the Crusaders gave a bunch more programs hope they could have a turn at the top too.