Watch the Game

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - If there was a secret to the success of the 2003 Saint John's University football team, it was staying focused on the task at hand and not getting caught up in the national attention and acclaim that accompanied the lead-up to SJU head coach John Gagliardi passing Eddie Robinson as the winningest coach in college football history.

Gagliardi entered the 2003 season with 400 wins, leaving him nine away from surpassing Robinson's record 408. But Keating and his teammates stayed away from counting down numbers.

"We knew how many he needed, but we didn't dwell too much on it," Ryan Keating '03, the team's starting quarterback, said earlier this year. "John didn't let us. We just tried to go out every game and put our best foot forward. 

"When we did that, the wins started to pile up."



Indeed, the Johnnies rattled off eight-straight victories, including a dramatic 15-12 win at archival St. Thomas on Nov. 1, 2003 (Gagliardi's 77th birthday) that moved the coach into a tie with Robinson atop the all-time list.

That set the stage for a showdown with Bethel the following week in Collegeville that would not only provide Gagliardi with his first chance to break the record, but decide that season's MIAC champion as well.

Both teams entered the game – played 20 years ago this week on Nov. 8, 2003 – undefeated (9-0). The Royals were ranked No. 10 nationally and the Johnnies were ranked No. 2. That morning broke frigid, but sunny – with temperatures hovering in the high teens by kickoff and a blanket of snow that had fallen earlier in the week contrasting sharply with the bright green Sprinturf field at Clemens Stadium.

Many of the then-school record crowd of 13,107 had already shown up well before the gates even opened that morning.

"I was flabbergasted," said Gagliardi, who first saw the line on his way to pre-game Mass at the Abbey Church. "There were people lining up and the gates didn't open until 10 a.m."

Plenty of members of the press were on hand as well. Almost 100 media credentials had been issued for the game, including to reporters from publications like the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Denver Post and Atlanta Journal Constitution.

They took their places alongside representatives of all the media outlets in Central Minnesota and the Twin Cities. The hometown St. Cloud Times alone had 20 names listed on the pass list.

"It just blows my mind," Gagliardi had told the Times of the attention just a few days before.

All those in attendance were about to witness a memorable matchup. The momentum swung-back-and-forth across the late fall afternoon before Bethel jumped on top 26-22 on a 4-yard touchdown run by standout quarterback Scott Kirchoff with 4:57 to play (causing increased blood pressure for this writer, then the Times beat writer, who had advised going ahead with printing a special commemorative edition to be handed out to fans exiting the stadium at the game's conclusion).

Kirchoff was injured on the play and required an ambulance to take him to St. Cloud Hospital, stopping action for a time.

"That was hard on us, too," SJU All-American wide receiver Blake Elliott '03 said after the game. "Nobody likes to see that happen to anyone. Everyone was really concerned. But besides that, play was stopped for almost 20 minutes and we were jumping around trying to keep warm so we didn't tighten up."

Elliott showed he had stayed limber when he returned the ensuing kickoff 50 yards to give his team the ball at the Royals' 40 after play resumed. Eight plays later, Keating connected with running back Josh Nelson '04 on a 5-yard touchdown pass (right) and Brandon Keller's '05 extra point made the score 29-26.

Bethel got the ball back, but on the first play of the drive, defensive end Jeremy Hood '04 sacked backup quarterback A.J. Parnell, forcing a fumble that classmate Ryan Weinandt '04 – that season's MIAC lineman of the year – recovered at the Royals' 21.

The Johnnies then ran out the clock and sent Gagliardi into the history books.

"I'll tell you who deserves an award," Gagliardi told the crowd from midfield afterward. "It's all you fans who braved the cold. I'm not so sure I'd be here if I didn't have to be.

"I'm just so proud of all the guys I've coached over the years," he continued as the sun sank low beyond the pine trees rimming the natural bowl 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 would go on to win 489 games before retiring after 64 seasons as a head coach at the college level (60 at SJU) following the 2012 season. Five more of those victories came in 2003 as his team remained undefeated all the way through the Division III national championship game where the Johnnies upset Mount Union (Ohio) 24-6 in Salem, Virginia.

It was the legendary coach's fourth and final national title, and it marked the perfect ending to a storybook season.

"I didn't realize how special it was in the moment," recalled Nelson earlier this year. "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."