John Gagliardi stood at midfield in the chilly early-November twilight, surrounded by a sea of media members, family, friends, players past and present and other assorted well-wishers.
Only minutes before, his Saint John's University football team had beaten a dogged Bethel squad in dramatic fashion, wrapping up the 2003 MIAC title and providing Gagliardi with his 409th career victory – moving him past Grambling legend Eddie Robinson as the winningest coach in college football history.
Now it was time for the icon to speak.
"I'm just so proud of all the guys I've coached over the years," Gagliardi said as the sun sank low beyond the pine trees surrounding Clemens Stadium. "I owe it all to them.
"People always ask me how it's done. I tell them it's talent, luck and prayer."
Gagliardi and the Johnnies had a balanced mix of all three that year, and the result was a magical season that, at times, felt as if it were lifted from the pages of a Hollywood script.
• The nail-biting victories.
• The compelling personalities and emotion-packed storylines.
• The historical achievements.
• And, of course, the ultimate happy ending.
But as wide receiver Blake Elliott (
left), the brightest star on a roster full of them, is quick to point out, there was nothing pre-ordained about what Gagliardi and the Johnnies accomplished in 2003. It took lots of hard work, an ample dose of good fortune and decades upon decades of past success to allow for everything to come together the way it did.
"The major storyline was already 50-some years in the making at that point," said Elliott, who returned for a fifth season that fall on a medical redshirt and earned the Gagliardi Trophy (named for his head coach) honoring the nation's top player at the NCAA Division III level.
"It was truly the confluence of so many different things that made for what became a story that far exceeded the Saint John's bubble. But it wasn't easy. We knew we had a lot of eyes on us. John started that season with 400 wins. So we had to win a bunch of games in a row just to set up the game against Bethel.
"It's like John told us before the season started … 'Guys, all we have to do is go undefeated.' That's kind of a tough thing to accomplish."
But the 2003 Johnnies were a veteran unit. Many of the team's key players were already in their third or even fourth season as starters. SJU had been to the Division III national championship game in 2000, falling 10-7 to reigning titan Mount Union (Ohio) on a last-second field goal.
And the Johnnies had advanced to the national semifinals in both 2001 and 2002. So this was a battle-tested unit, ready to bear the weight of high expectations and weather the surrounding glare of attention they knew the 2003 season was likely to bring.
"What sticks out most about that team to me is just how calm and resilient it was," said Ryan Keating, the starting quarterback who returned after shattering his right arm in 16 places the year before. "We kept the same demeanor whether we were winning or losing. Fortunately, most of the time we were winning.
"But even when things got tense, it never phased us. We always knew someone was going to step up and make things happen."
SJU made a lot of things happen through its first seven games, winning them all by an average margin of almost 37 points, and allowing only two teams (Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Concordia) to come within 20.
That set up a matchup with archrival St. Thomas for what would be Gagliardi's record-tying 408th victory. The Tommies were struggling that season, but that didn't matter on a blustery afternoon in St. Paul when they took a 12-7 lead into the fourth quarter and led 12-9 until junior kicker Brandon Keller hit a 20-yard field goal with 3:16 left to play.
Then, a fumble recovery by sophomore cornerback Mike Zauhar on the first play of the next St. Thomas possession set up a 25-yard drive that culminated in a game-winning 35-yard field goal by Keller in the final seconds of a 15-12 victory.
"If he'd have missed, we'd have strung him from the bell tower (of the Abbey Church)," Gagliardi – who was celebrating his 77th birthday - joked to the media afterward.
"John never changed his personality no matter what the situation was," Keller recalls now, 20 years later. "Even with all the attention and acclaim that was coming his way that season, he stayed the same man. I think that was a testament to the kind of person he was. He never tried to be somebody that he wasn't. He stayed consistent and that rubbed off on all of us as well."
The win over the Tommies meant the following week's showdown with fellow unbeaten Bethel would not only bring the possibility of Gagliardi breaking the record, but decide the conference champion as well.
A then-record crowd of 13,107 packed Clemens Stadium on Nov. 8 despite a temperature of around 18 at kickoff and a windchill that hovered just above zero. Almost 100 media credentials had been issued for the game, which matched up two teams both ranked in the top 10 of that week's Division III top 25.
As one would expect in such a clash, the momentum see-sawed back-and-forth with Bethel taking a four-point lead on a 4-yard touchdown run by standout quarterback Scott Kirchoff with 4:57 remaining.
Kirchoff, though, suffered a bruised larynx on the play and had to be taken from the field by ambulance. The Royals then kicked the ball to the dynamic Elliott for the first time on the afternoon. He returned it 50 yards to the Bethel 40.
Eight plays later, Keating connected with senior running back Josh Nelson on a 5-yard touchdown pass with just over two minutes to go that proved to be the game-winner in a 29-26 victory (
right).
"It was just a swing pass to the left and I remember catching it and racing for that pylon with a defender coming to get me," Nelson recalls. "I went to the ground and the ground caused a fumble. So I was nervous. But I stood up and threw my arms in the air to show I was in the end zone for a touchdown.
"Fortunately, the referee agreed."
Indeed he did. Which meant that – after closing the regular season with a 50-0 nonconference win over Crown the following week – the Johnnies were able to turn their attention to the postseason and attempting to get back to the national championship game – a goal they'd fallen just short of the year before in a heartbreaking 41-34 loss at Trinity (Texas) in the national semifinals.
"Losing that game the year before really left a bad taste in our mouths," said Cam McCambridge, an All-American linebacker who was also back for a fifth season on a medical redshirt and finished the 2003 campaign with 115 tackles. "We felt like we had something to prove to people."
SJU rolled past St. Norbert (Wis.) 38-13 to start the playoffs, then withstood a challenge from Linfield (Ore.), winning 31-25 against a team that would take the national title one year later. That was followed by a 38-10 win over RPI (New York) in the national semifinals, earning the Johnnies a trip to Salem, Virginia to play for a national title.
Waiting there, though, was Mount Union – a team that had won a national record 55-straight games (including beating the Johnnies in the national championship game in 2000 and 35-14 in the national semifinals in 2001). The Purple Raiders had just beaten Bridgewater (Va.) 66-0 in the other semifinal and had scored 55 points or more in eight of their 13 games.
But SJU was not intimidated. In fact, the Johnnies welcomed the challenge.
"It almost had to be Mount Union to cap that year off," said Isaac Flenner, then a junior starting tight end. "That was the icing on the cake."
It didn't start off so sweet, however, as Mount Union took a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter. But as time expired in the first half, junior running back Jake Theis took a hand-off and rumbled 14 yards for a touchdown, bouncing off a Purple Raider defender and into the end zone to put SJU on top 7-6 at halftime.
A 22-yard field goal by Keller late in the third quarter extended the Johnnies' lead. Then, early in the fourth, Elliott – who had begun lining up in the backfield at times late in the season in an effort get the ball in his hands more often – took a hand-off and broke free up the middle on a 51-yard touchdown run.
It was an impressive run by any standards, but even more so when you consider he was playing with a pulled hamstring suffered in the Linfield game.
"During the first half, I'd been babying it a little," Elliott said. "I didn't want to get hurt right away and end up sitting out the whole game. But as the second half went on, I started to feel more and more comfortable and I was able to let it all hang out."
The play was the culmination of an emotional season for the multi-time All-American, whose younger brother Adam had been involved in a serious car crash in the spring of 2003 that left him in a coma for a time.
He eventually regained consciousness and Elliott spent hours each day at his side, helping with his rehabilitation.
"For me personally that season, football was an oasis," Elliott said. "It was a place to get away. You talk about pressure. That was real pressure, watching my brother survive and try to regain as much function as he could after an accident like that. The pressure to win a football game on Saturday is nothing compared to something like that. So having the chance to escape that reality for just a little while each day on the field was truly a blessing."
Elliott's touchdown put SJU on top 17-6, but Mount Union didn't go away quietly. The Purple Raiders advanced all the way to the Johnnies' 1-yard line on their next possession, but the SJU defense held firm – holding Mount Union to no gain on two-straight running plays and forcing a third-down pass that Zahuar picked off at the goal line and returned 100 yards for a touchdown that put the game out of reach (
left).
Final score: SJU 24, Mount Union 6.
Now Gagliardi – who retired with 489 victories after the 2012 season and passed away at age 91 in 2018 - had not just the record, but his fourth national championship – the first for the program since 1976.
"I need to go buy a lottery ticket," Gagliardi said afterward, his eyes uncharacteristically moistening at least a little. "This has been my year."
A year no one associated with SJU football will ever forget.
"I didn't realize how special it was in the moment," Nelson said. "But now, as you look back on it 20 years later, it's hard not to use the word magical when you think about how all the stars aligned for everything to work out the way it did."
"Certain stories are just meant to be written," Keller added. "And with every passing game, that season just felt like it was going to end magically. Looking back, it was a story that seemed meant to be told.
"But we had to make it happen and I'm really proud we were able to do that."
Elliott shares those sentiments, and said the bonds he formed with his coaches and teammates have remained strong in the years since.
"You talk about a dream season," he said. "How special is it to get to play football at a place like Saint John's and be part of an amazing experience like that? And to do it with people you care deeply about and who are still a big part of your life 20 years forward?
"It doesn't get any better than that."
