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The Conference Titles |
| NCAA DIVISION III FOOTBALL |
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 The history of Cal Lutheran football and which conference we have played in at what time is divided principally by the Shoup and Post-Shoup years. During Coach Shoup’s years from 1962-1989 the Kingsmen were in the very tough NAIA’s District III Western Football Conference, comparable to the NCAA Division II teams of today.
During the Presidency of Jerry Miller from 1981-1992, growing out of concerns that too many resources were going to sports, a decision was made for Cal Lutheran to leave the NAIA District III Western Football Conference and to join the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, an NCAA Division III conference. This meant doing away with scholarships for football, and Bob Shoup thought this was a very bad idea and fought this decision on all levels. During this period with no scholarships to entice better players, the Kingsmen won 38 games and lost 51; the only extended losing period in Cal Lutheran’s history. Shoup’s position was that a player or a team only get better by playing someone that is a real challenge.
Bob Shoup left Cal Lutheran in 1989, and Cal Lutheran joined the SCIAC in 1991. Kingsmen football during Shoup’s years as coach collected an incredible 14 NAIA District 3 titles in 17 years and were either an NAIA Division II National Finalist or Quarter Finalist on four occasions. The teams during these Years were listed in the top 10 winingest football teams over the last 50 years with a 182-81-6 record.
The SCIAC was founded in 1915 with five member schools, but presently have nine which include Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, La Verne, Whittier, Occidental, Pomona-Pitzer, Redlands, Cal Tech, Chapman and Cal Lutheran. Most all of these colleges were originally affiliated with various Christian churches, but only Cal Lutheran has maintained its affiliation with its Christian roots.
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Cal Lutheran earned its first SCIAC co-conference championship in 1997, six years after joining the California intercollegiate Athletic Conference. In 2007, Head Coach Ben McEnroe '93 took over the reigns of Kingsmen football and attained another co-conference championship his very first year. Since then the Kingsmen won four straight conference titles and have posted a 43-8 record through 2014 under Coach McEnroe, an 84% winning percentage with 62% being SCIAC Championships.
With the margins by Coach McEnroe has been beating his SCIAC opponents, and the fact that he spent four years coaching at a very tough Humboldt State, a Division II school, it appears that we have another legendary coach in the making...with his eye on not only more SCIAC championships, but National as well. |
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