Duhawks

Nobody at Loras College set out to build a champion; a conference title arrived in 1948, when the Duhawks shared the Midlands Conference crown, and they followed it with back-to-back division championships in the IIAC Northern in 1950 and 1951.

A Detroit Free Press reporter fused "Dubuque" and "Hawks" into "Duhawk" in 1924. Before that it had gone by St. Joseph College, then Dubuque College, then Columbia College, and the football team carried each name in turn — the St. Joseph's Duhawks, the Dubuque Duhawks, the Columbia Duhawks.

Elmer Layden passed through in the middle of that transition, coaching at Columbia College in 1925 and 1926. The program has sent players on to the league as well: Howie Ruetz went from the Duhawks' defensive line to a 1951 draft selection by the Los Angeles Rams and on to the Green Bay Packers, while Bob Hanlon, a fullback, was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals and played for the Pittsburgh Steelers.