Penguins

Four national championships in seven years is not a common thing in the Football Championship Subdivision, and Youngstown State got all four under one coach, Jim Tressel. The run started in 1991 against Marshall, 25–17, was repeated against the same opponent two years later, 17–5, then Boise State fell 28–14 in 1994, and the last of the four came down to a single point against McNeese State, 10–9, in 1997, the same year the Penguins also took the Gateway Football Conference title.

The program traces back to 1938, well before any of that, and plays out of Stambaugh Stadium, known locally as "the Ice Castle," in front of a capacity of 20,630.

The rivalry with Akron ran on its own trophy, the "Steel Tire," contested every year from 1940 to 1995; Youngstown State holds the series 19–14–2. Northern Iowa, North Dakota State and Kent State round out the list of opponents the Penguins take most seriously.

Tressel's title teams sent a run of players into pro football and beyond — Ron Jaworski and Cliff Stoudt both quarterbacked in the NFL, and Ed O'Neill, who played defensive line for the Penguins before he was Al Bundy or Jay Pritchard, is perhaps the program's most unlikely export. Mark Mangino and Bob Davie, later head coaches at Kansas and Notre Dame respectively, both came up through the same roster.

Four Division I-AA championships.