(Editor's note: the following story is the fourth in a series of stories highlighting the 1978, 1988, 1998 and 2008 UW-Whitewater championship football teams. They'll be honored as part of the Warhawk Football Alumni Weekend Celebration September 27 and 28 on campus)
2008 was certainly a unique season for UW-Whitewater football. The Hawks were coming off the school’s first NCAA Division 3 title with a 38-28 victory over Mount Union in the 2007 Stagg Bowl. The Warhawks lost 23 seniors off its 2007 NCAA III championship team. Many fans thought 2008 would be a rebuilding year. The Warhawks went through the minefield of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a target on its back. UWW struck one of those mines in its Homecoming/Hall of Fame game vs. UW-Stevens Point at Perkins Stadium.
The Pointers knocked UW-Whitewater from the ranks of the unbeaten, defeating the second ranked Warhawks 17-16 on a two-point conversion with fifteen seconds left. The Pointers' win also ended Whitewater's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record-tying win streak at twenty-five games and UW-W's WIAC record home field win streak at twenty-seven games.
Whitewater quickly regrouped earning a share of the WIAC title for the fourth consecutive year.
(In the adjacent photo, the 2008 Warhawk seniors pose for what is becoming an annual photo with the 2008 seniors letting everyone know that the Hawks are again conference champions. The players are showing four fingers for a fourth consecutive WIAC Title - photo courtesy of Jeff Siesser, Daily Jefferson County Union)
On the heels of its regular season loss to Stevens Point, the Warhawks road back to the Stagg Bowl would be a long one literally. A 37-7, round-one win over St. Johns was followed by a flight to Salem, Oregon to take on Willamette. Following a pulsating30-27 shootout win it was back home to snowy Perkins Stadium for a quarterfinal match-up against Wartburg. The Hawks advanced with a 34-17 win. Back on a plane for a semifinal match-up at Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas). Despite 50 mph sustained winds Whitewater rolled to a 39-13 victory to stamp the Warhawks fourth consecutive trip to Salem, Virginia and the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
With the three road trips in the five weeks of 2008 playoff football Whitewater logged 8,028 frequent flyer miles. Oh, by the way, the Warhawks also traveled to the West coast in late September coming home with a 60-7 victory over Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.
This invitation to WarhawkNation… All former UW-Whitewater football players and coaches are invited back to campus for the inaugural UW-Whitewater Football Alumni Weekend Celebration the weekend of September 27-28. For more information and to make reservations CLICK HERE
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