The North Dakota Fighting Hawks represent the University of North Dakota, competing as a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) in the NCAA Division I's Football Championship Subdivision. From 1973 to 2008, they played in the NCAA's NCAA Division II, winning the national championship in 2001. From 1955 to 1972, they competed in the NCAA's College Division where they participated in and won three bowl games.

North Dakota fielded its first football team in 1894. In 1922, they were one of the nine charter members of the North Central Conference (NCC), where they competed until 2008 when they upgraded all of their athletic programs to the Division I level and joined the Great West Conference. They joined the Big Sky Conference in 2012. UND has won 26 conference championships, including 14 outright titles. They have qualified for NCAA postseason play 19 times, most recently in 2023. North Dakota was ineligible for post season play during its transition to Division I from 2008 to 2011.

North Dakota left the Big Sky Conference for all sports in 2018, joining the Summit League. Their football program joined the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2020. Although being classified as an independent for football in 2018 and 2019, they played a full Big Sky schedule with their games counting in the conference standings for their opponents, but the Fighting Hawks were ineligible to compete in the conference championship.

History

Charles A. "Jack" West era

The University of North Dakota football program experienced moderate success from its inception in 1894. In the first 33 years of the program, the Flickertails won 109 games against just 87 losses, and had three undefeated seasons in 1896, 1899, and 1903. But it was in 1928 when Charles A. "Jack" West arrived on campus in Grand Forks that would transform North Dakota into one of the most successful college football programs in the nation. West came to UND from South Dakota State, where he spent 9 successful seasons that included 3 NCC championships. West immediately turned around what was at the time a mediocre football program at UND, winning NCC titles in his first four seasons at the helm.

Over the course of 15 seasons, West amassed a record of 89–35–6, won a total of 8 NCC Championships, and retired as the winningest coach in North Dakota history, a distinction he would hold for 57 years. North Dakota experienced just three losing seasons during West's 15 years as head coach, and won 9 games in a season on three occasions. West did not coach the team in 1942, and the university did not field a team during the war years of 1943 and 1944. His final season was 1945. It was during this era in 1930 that the university adopted the nickname Fighting Sioux for all of its sports teams. West also served as athletic director for North Dakota and was inducted into the UND Hall of Fame in 1975.

Marv "Whitey" Helling era Following Jack West's 15-year tenure as leader of the Fighting Sioux football, the program compiled a record of just 44–44 over the next eleven seasons and did not win an NCC title in that time frame. Marv "Whitey" Helling would change the fortunes of North Dakota and usher in a new era of success for the university. Arriving in 1957, Helling's squad captured the NCC Championship in his second season in 1958, the program's first in 16 seasons. Helling's teams continued to improve as he built his program, reaching its peak from 1964 to 1966. Those three seasons produced a record of 25–4, two NCC Championships, and two Bowl appearances. The 1964 team won Helling's second NCC title behind and 8–1 record. In 1965, the team went 9–1 and played in the Mineral Water Bowl where they soundly defeated Northern Illinois. The only blemish that season came at the hands of their arch rival, the North Dakota State Bison. A 6–3 loss at Dacotah Field in Fargo dashed the national championship hopes for the Fighting Sioux. North Dakota State went on to win the national championship that year. Helling's 1966 team gave him his third NCC championship. They were invited to play in the Pecan Bowl, one of four bowl games used at the time by the NCAA to determine the College Division National Champion. They defeated Parsons College in the game which was on national television as the NCAA's "Game of the Week" and finished the season with an 8–2 record and a No. 5 ranking in the final AP Poll. Four players from the 1966 team would sign contracts with NFL teams. Helling would coach one more season at North Dakota in 1967. In 11 seasons as head coach, he compiled a record of 60–35–3. Helling was inducted into the UND Hall of Fame in 1988.

Jerry Olson era Jerry Olson took over the reins of Fighting Sioux football in 1968. After suffering through 3 subpar seasons from 1967 through 1969 that saw the program produce just 11 wins against 21 losses, Olson got the team back on track to its winning ways in 1970, the first of six consecutive winning seasons. The 1971 season produced the first of 4 NCC Championships for Olson. The 1972 season under Olson may very well be considered the high water mark for North Dakota Football. The average margin of victory for the Sioux that season was over 27 points. The eventual NCC Champs defeated traditionally strong opponents such as Montana, Montana State, South Dakota, South Dakota State, and Northern Iowa in dominating fashion as well as adding a victory over UNLV in Las Vegas. The lone defeat that season came at home, a 5-point loss to hated rival, the North Dakota State Bison. This loss would prove very costly to the Sioux. After the regular season, UND was invited to play in the Camellia Bowl, one of four regional bowl games that the NCAA used to determine the College Division National Champion. Entering the game carrying the No. 3 ranking, the Fighting Sioux would meet undefeated and No. 1 ranked Cal Poly. North Dakota would win the game by a rather convincing 17 points, upsetting the favored Mustangs and bolstering their hopes of being awarded the programs first national title. However, the loss to NDSU proved too much to overcome as the pollsters crowned undefeated Delaware as College Division National Champions for the second straight year. For the second time in 7 seasons, a regular season loss to rival NDSU cost the Fighting Sioux a national title. They finished the 1972 campaign ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll. Olson would coach 5 more seasons at North Dakota, adding two more conference titles in 1974 and 1975. With a record of 9–0, the 1975 team was the first UND squad to qualify for the newly created Division II Playoff tournament that replaced the Bowl and polling process of the College Division. North Dakota entered postseason play as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. They played host to unranked Livingston in the quarterfinals of the playoff where the heavily favored Fighting Sioux were stunned and handed their only loss of the season. Jerry Olson compiled a record of 54–39–4 in 10 seasons at North Dakota and was inducted into the UND Hall of Fame in 1981.

1980s The decade that followed the Jerry Olson era was one of mixed results. Olson's assistant Gene Murphy took over and coached the team in 1978 and 1979. Murphy's 1979 team qualified for the Division II playoffs, but fell in the quarterfinals to Mississippi College finishing the season with a 10–2 record. In 1980, Pat Behrns took over as head coach. Although he amassed a record of 36–27 in six seasons leading the program, North Dakota never qualified for the playoffs nor did they win a conference title under Behrns' direction. Following a dreadful 3–8 season in 1985 that culminated in a 49–0 loss to arch rival NDSU Bison, Behrns resigned as head coach of North Dakota. Roger Thomas was hired to replace him prior to the 1986 season. To add insult to what was already a forgettable decade in the annals of UND football history that yielded no conference titles and no playoff berths, 1980 marked the last time that the Sioux would defeat the rival NDSU Bison until 1993, twelve consecutive meetings.

Roger Thomas era Roger Thomas took control of the North Dakota football program prior to the 1986 season. He was previously an assistant in the Canadian Football League and at the University of Minnesota, as well as serving as offensive coordinator on Gene Murphy's staff at North Dakota in 1978 and 1979. Thomas took on the challenge of restoring UND's football program to national prominence. Thomas' approach was slow and methodical. In his first six seasons UND went 38–33–1, finally breaking the playoff drought in 1992 and beginning a string of four consecutive playoff appearances. Thomas' teams seem to steadily improve each year. 1993 proved to be North Dakota's breakout season under Thomas, returning the program to national relevance. UND Defensive Coordinator Dale Lennon had installed a very aggressive 3–4 base defense explicitly designed to thwart the veer offense that was employed by arch rival and national power, the North Dakota State Bison. When the two foes met in 1993, the Fighting Sioux defeated the Bison for the first time since 1980, in a 22–21 thriller, that would prove to turn the balance of power in the North Central Conference for the rest of its existence. The program won the first of three consecutive NCC titles in 1993. North Dakota qualified for the playoffs and advanced all the way to the semifinals before falling to IUP and finishing the season 10–3. 1994 produced another conference championship and another playoff berth for Thomas' squad. As icing on the cake, UND was pitted against NDSU in the 2nd round of the playoffs and were victorious over the Bison for the second time in the same season. North Dakota again advanced to the semifinals before falling to North Alabama and finishing the season with a record of 10–3. The 1995 season resulted in Thomas' third straight conference championship and fourth straight playoff berth. For the second straight season, UND and NDSU would square off against each other in the playoffs. This time it was NDSU that avenged their loss just two weeks prior to North Dakota. The Bison blasted the Sioux 41–10, ending their season. UND finished 1995 with a 9–2 record. Thomas would coach the Fighting Sioux for three more years, qualifying for the playoffs once more in 1998. He stepped down after that season to accept the role of athletic director for the university. Roger Thomas retired after 13 seasons as North Dakota's all-time winningest coach, with a record of 90–49–2.

Dale Lennon era