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The Hamline Pipers football team represents Hamline University in college football at the NCAA Division III level. The team was founded in 1882 and has been a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) since the year of the conference's foundation in 1920. The team has won five conference championships since joining.

The team's last winning record occurred in 1995. Since then, the team has gone 52-183 (.284).

Pre-MIAC era (1882-1920)
On September 29, 1882, Hamline and Minnesota played the first intercollegiate football game in Minnesota, with Hamline losing 4-0. The game was played following a track meet between the two schools at King's Fair in Minneapolis. On October 16 of that year, the two teams faced off again, this time with Hamline winning, 2-0. The early Pipers and the early Gophers were relatively common opponents, playing each other seven times in total between 1882 and 1903. When Minnesota had cemented themselves as a solid Big Ten program, the matches became more and more lopsided. The last time they played each other, on October 7, 1903, ended in a 65–0 Minnesota victory. The Pipers also played current Division I teams North Dakota State and South Dakota State. Future professional player Carl Cramer likely played during this period of time, though his exact playing years and college statistics are unknown.

The 1919 team was deemed the "Northwest College Champs" and went 5–0 under Harold Hansen, who would later be an NFL coach for the Staten Island Stapletons.

In December 1909, Hamline and schools from Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Iowa met and formed the Minnesota-Dakota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. This came after Hamline left the Minnesota Athletic Conference in 1906. In 1919, Hamline left the conference following a dispute about eligibility requirements.

Early conference era (1920-1962)
Hamline was one of the charter members of the MIAC when it was founded on March 15, 1920. Prior to that, they were a member of the Tri-State Conference, which was made up of schools of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Their first year in the conference saw them go 2-1-1 in conference play and win the first conference championship, still under the coaching of Hansen, who would join Minnesota as an assistant coach following this season. They were conference champions again in 1921, upgrading their record to 5-0 in conference play and 7–0 overall. The 1921 season saw the Pipers outscore their opponents 163–15, with many of those points coming from a 60–0 thrashing of Gustavus Adolphus. The 1921 Hamline team was considered by some sportswriters to be the best football team in the entire Midwest that year. Hamline was a dual member of the MIAC and the Midwest Conference from 1922 until 1930, when the effects of the Great Depression forced them to withdraw from the conference. Schools were spread widely across the Midwest, meaning travel fees were high and the school was unable to afford such steep prices.

Following this early period of success, Hamline underwent a lengthy championship drought, though they never placed last in the conference until 1939. No official conference play happened in 1943 or 1944, due to World War II.

Conference championships
The Pipers have won the MIAC five times, most recently in 1988.

Head coaches

 * Lew Drill (c. 1906-1907)
 * Fredrick Burgan (1908-1909)
 * Will Baird (c. 1910-1917)
 * Harold Hansen (1919-1920)
 * Ben Beck (1921-1923)
 * D. C. Mitchell (c. 1926-1928)
 * Joe Hutton (1931-1937)
 * John Lackner (unknown-c. 1945)
 * Lyle Koch (c. 1945-1952)
 * Harold Montgomery (1953-1957)
 * Robert H. Rutford (1958-1962)
 * Richard Mulkern (1962-1973)
 * Bob Sadek (1977)
 * Dick Tressel (1978-2000)
 * Donavon Larson (2001-2004)
 * Paul Miller (2005-2006)
 * Jim Good (2007-2010)
 * John Pate (2011-2012)
 * Chad Rogosheske (2012-2015)
 * Chip Taylor (2016-present)

Stadium history
Hamline's first known home ground was Norton Field, constructed in 1906 and featuring a grandstand that seated 700. The field, about a block from campus, was named after Matthew G. Norton, the university's president of the board of trustees. The New Norton Field was built in 1922, in large part to the team's success leading up to that point. The stadium would later be referred to as Norton Stadium, and would have a capacity of 2,000. Norton Stadium lasted until 2003, when $7 million was spent to construct a 4-story multipurpose center and turf sports field. The majority of the money came from entrepreneur Robert Klas and his wife, Sandy, both former alumnus. Klas Field was completed in August 2004 and has an estimated capacity of 2,000.

Macalester
The series between Hamline and Macalester is one of the longest in Division III football. Since their first meeting in 1887, the two universities have played each other 119 times. In terms of all-time record, Hamline leads Macalester 70–45–4.

The Paint Bucket Trophy was developed in 1965 by Hamline alum Chuck Slocum, after constant campus vandalism whenever the schools played each other. The trophy itself is a paint bucket, painted with each school's colors and the school's starting letter. Even after Macalester's exit from the MIAC, the matchup still gets played as one of Hamline's non-conference games.

Augsburg
Augsburg joined the MIAC four years after Hamline, and the two have regularly played against each other, with the first game between the two dating back to at least 1926. The two teams all-time record is 34-44-2.

The Hammer trophy was first introduced in 2005 by Augsburg coach Frank Haege, who wanted to generate some fun for the series. Previously, the hammer was given to the special teams player of the week for Augsburg, but was repurposed to be given to the winner of then series. Since the trophy was introduced, Hamline has gone 4-11.

Professional players
In addition to those who played professionally, other notable Hamline football players include football coaches Shannon Currier, Bernie Heselton, and Mike Markuson, and baseball, basketball, and hockey coach John Kobs. Dick Donlin, drafted with the 21st overall pick by the Baltimore Colts in the 1956 NFL Draft, was the highest drafted player in both Hamline and MIAC history.