25 Years Ago, The Division II Football National Championship Went The Distance

Should-be Hall of Famers, a national championship tie, repeated heartbreak and the longest game in college football title-round history make up this 1999 classic.

Quez Rumph may be the greatest return specialist you’ve never heard of. In four years at Division II program Carson-Newman, the wide receiver returned five punts for touchdowns—one of which came in what could be the greatest game you never saw.

Rumph took a punt 86 yards to the house in the 1999 NCAA Division II National Championship Game, played between his Carson-Newman Eagles and the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats on December 11.

If you’re at all familiar with Division II football, chances are you’ve heard of Northwest Missouri State. The program claims six national championships since 1998—equal to Alabama’s total over the same period.

The Bearcats’ second championship came in that 1999 National Championship Game, a rematch of the 1998 title round. The year prior, head coach Mel Tjeerdsma’s Bearcats cruised to a 24-6 win over Carson-Newman, led by quarterback Chris Greisen.

Greisen set a then-NCAA Division II Championship Game record with 22 completions, including two touchdown passes. Northwest Missouri State’s defense stifled Carson-Newman’s prolific rushing attack, holding the Eagles to 91 yards on the ground en route to a 24-point response to Carson-Newman’s initial 6-0 lead.

The 1998 loss to Northwest Missouri State was Carson-Newman’s second defeat in the National Championship Game in three years. In 1996, the Eagles fell to Northern Colorado, 23-14, as the Bears claimed the first of two straight Division II titles under coach Joe Glenn.

Glenn is one of those coaches whose career highlights the shortcomings of the College Football Hall of Fame’s rigid win-percentage threshold. Glenn belongs to an exclusive club, having won three national championships and titles at multiple levels.

After guiding Northern Colorado to consecutive championships in 1996 and 1997, Glenn coached Montana to the 2001 Division I-AA championship. Although Montana is a perennial powerhouse, Glenn’s Grizzlies claimed the program’s last championship that year.

Like Glenn, the late Carson-Newman head coach Ken Sparks should be in the College Football Hall of Fame. Over 37 seasons at Carson-Newman, Sparks led the Eagles to five NAIA national championships before successfully transitioning to the NCAA in 1993.

One of Sparks’ five NAIA titles perhaps foreshadowed Carson-Newman’s heartbreak in the 1999 NCAA Division II Championship Game. Fifteen years earlier, in 1984, Sparks’ Eagles faced Central Arkansas while seeking a second consecutive championship.

The Eagles had defeated Mesa State the previous season, 36-28, holding off the host Mavericks in the fourth quarter to hand Mesa State its second straight NAIA Champion Bowl loss.

In 1984, Carson-Newman rallied after Central Arkansas scored 13 of its 19 points in a single quarter. The Eagles scored two of their points on a safety when tackle Allen Stevens sacked Bears quarterback Jeff Fusilier in the end zone.

Those two points proved crucial, as Carson-Newman’s offense and special teams produced only 17 despite gaining 433 yards. If you’re doing the math, that means both teams scored 19 points.

Both were declared NAIA national champions. The Johnson City Press recounted from Conway, Arkansas:

Because the NAIA abandons the playoffs’ overtime system in the title game, the teams were declared co-champions. It marked the first time in 20 years the NAIA championship ended in a tie and only the second time in NAIA history.

“It’s a real unusual situation to tie. You don’t feel like celebrating,” said Sparks. “Maybe we’re being too greedy.”

Stevens, who made the critical sack for the safety, told columnist Victor Hull, “I’m sad because I’m a senior, and this is my last game… I would have liked to win or lose it in an overtime.”

The NAIA’s title-game tie rule was especially odd given that earlier playoff rounds used overtimes. By then, the NCAA had adopted overtime rules for Divisions I-AA, II, and III in 1981.

Before 1999, the Division II National Championship Game had never needed overtime. That year’s title round required four overtimes, following what might be the wildest fourth quarter in college football history.

In the 1998 National Championship Game, Carson-Newman started with a lead but faltered over the next three quarters. The 1999 rematch flipped the script.

After surrendering the game’s first touchdown, Carson-Newman responded with 24 unanswered points to lead 24-7 at halftime. Rumph’s punt-return touchdown was among the Eagles’ scores before intermission.

Carson-Newman dominated on the ground, rushing for an incredible 419 yards—an enormous improvement from the previous year. Meanwhile, the Eagles intercepted Bearcats quarterback Travis Miles three times.

Everything pointed to a Carson-Newman victory—except for the fourth quarter.

NCAA.com recounted the blow-by-blow of a record-setting final period, during which Northwest Missouri State outscored Carson-Newman 30-14 to erase a 16-point deficit and force overtime tied at 44-44.

The teams battled through three overtime periods before Miles, who had struggled until the fourth quarter, threw a game-winning touchdown to J.R. Hill.

Miles broke the Division II National Championship Game completions record set by Greisen the year before. His touchdown pass to Hill, marking his 24th completion of the game, set another title-game record. Hill’s game-winning catch, his third touchdown of the day, was also historic.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel described the game as “Carson-Newman’s worst Florence nightmare yet.” Florence, Alabama, was the longtime home of the Division II National Championship Game, and Carson-Newman lost there six times from 1993 to 1999.

Rumph, reflecting on the heartbreak, told the News-Sentinel: “I’m a godly man. I know everything happens for a reason… That team kept going. They kept fighting.”

Northwest Missouri State had additional motivation, having lost freshman defensive end Phil Voge in a car accident just a month prior. Phil’s brother, senior Matt Voge, wore Phil’s number for the rest of the season, including in the championship game.

“You have to understand what this team has been through,” Hill told the News-Sentinel.

Indeed, Northwest Missouri State’s journey underscored the distinction between loss and true tragedy.

Rumph’s maturity in accepting the defeat is noteworthy. Perhaps the Bearcats’ championship reflected the resilience they demonstrated in the face of personal tragedy.

Northwest Missouri State went on to win another title under Tjeerdsma in 2009. Tjeerdsma retired in 2010 and was inducted into the NCAA Division II Hall of Fame the same year as Sparks.

Carson-Newman never returned to the championship game, but Sparks guided the Eagles to eight more playoff appearances and six South Atlantic Conference championships before retiring in 2016.

Sparks passed away four months after coaching his final game, succumbing to prostate cancer. He left behind an extraordinary career record of 338-99-2.

Ken Sparks belongs in the College Football Hall of Fame—just as Travis Miles, J.R. Hill and Quez Rumph and the rest of the contributors that December Saturday deserve to be commemorated for delivering the greatest game in national championship history.