Many people have a right to be proud in the wake of UW-Whitewater's stunningly thorough 31-21 victory over powerful Mount Union (Ohio) Saturday in the NCAA Division III football championship game.

First-year coach Lance Leipold should be proud after giving the Warhawks the nudge they needed to put them over the top following back-to-back losses to Mount Union in the final.

Defensive coordinator Brian Borland should be proud for devising a game plan and getting his players to execute it perfectly against what was billed as the greatest offensive juggernaut in Division III history.

Senior tailback Justin Beaver should be proud for winning the Gagliardi Trophy as the top player in Division III and for putting Whitewater on his back when Mount Union threatened late in the title game.

Senior quarterback Danny Jones should be proud for doing what he set out to do when he transferred from Cal Lutheran this year and that's win a national title for his new school.

All 23 seniors should be proud since most of them were important cogs on a team that had a three-year record of 42-3 and finally gave the school its first national football title in their final try.

Of all the people in Whitewater that are proud, however, none are beaming more this week than former coaches Forrest Perkins and Bob Berezowitz.

You see, the Warhawks team that manhandled Mount Union was not some one-year wonder. Whitewater's title was the culmination of more than 50 years of great football at the school, a run started by Perkins, perpetuated by Berezowitz and topped off by Leipold.

Since 1956, the Warhawks have compiled a 362-162-5 record with 20 conference titles and only five losing seasons under Perkins (29 seasons), Berezowitz (22) and Leipold (one). They reached the national title game in 1966, 2005, '06 and again this year, finally winning Saturday.

"It's a culmination of everybody who has ever been in a Warhawk football uniform," said Berezowitz, who, like Leipold, is a former Warhawks quarterback.

"A three-year run like we've had didn't happen by accident. A lot of people have worked many years and many hours to make this happen -- people that played at (old) Hamilton Field, people on that '66 team and the other playoff and championship teams along the way. They put the bar a little higher and (this year 's team was) just a bunch of great athletes and coaches who believed that they could win. I mean, nobody gave us a chance."

Well, one person did. When the St. Louis Rams activated rookie Derek Stanley, a former Whitewater receiver, for his first NFL game Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, Berezowitz saw it as an omen.

"When Derek Stanley got activated Saturday morning, I said, 'This is our day,' '' Berezowitz said. "Before the ballgame on D3football.com, they asked me, 'What's your prediction?' and I said, 'All you Mount Union people listen and listen clearly. The Warhawks 27-24.' They were just a little arrogant. They had been there so many times. They were primed to get beat."

Berezowitz didn't have the score quite right, but that was about all. Among other observations, he said Beaver "saved his best game for last, " that Jones' mobility gave the offense a critical added dimension, that the return of the entire defensive staff gave the veteran unit the continuity it needed to dominate and that the Warhawks were finally able to overcome Mount Union because they were relaxed on their third straight trip to the Stagg Bowl.

"The more you're there," Berezowitz said, "the better you are."

Whitewater is proof of that. In what was an excellent college game to watch -- a notion, incidentally, that is shared by Packers general manager Ted Thompson -- Whitewater brought home the title and proved that the line of succession from Perkins to Berezowitz to Leipold had worked as planned.

"That's part of that family tradition we have here," Berezowitz said of Leipold's somewhat controversial selection as his replacement. "It was a tough call for our chancellor and (athletic director), there's no doubt about it, but it worked out fine."

Berezowitz said Perkins, now 87, was "just elated" that Whitewater finally won a national title. As for Berezowitz, he was proud of "the 23 seniors, the transition, the job Lance did, the staff that stayed. It just was a nice smooth transition."

Whitewater football has a way of doing that.