UW-Oshkosh athletics, along with the NCAA is taking the week of April 6-12 to celebrate the impact Division III sports and their athletes have on the campus and the surrounding Oshkosh community, known as D-III Week.

The week is part of the Division III’s Identity Initiative, which was introduced in 2010, and describes Division III as “a place where student-athletes can follow your passions and develop your potential.” 

Women’s gymnastics head coach Lauren Karnitz, who just took home her fourth National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) title on March 20, said she’s able to recruit top athletes from around the country to come to UWO over other schools in other divisions. 

“We had a recruit here today from upstate New York,” Karnitz said in an interview with WRST-FM on March 30. “It’s one of those things, [where] she’s choosing between us and not doing gymnastics and going to Clemson. There’s a good chance we can get this kid over Clemson, you know? And Clemson’s a beautiful campus, beautiful school, and has ACC football, right? But like, there is something special and different about [this] city, which makes it, I think, really easy [to recruit to].”

From the mid-1950’s to 1978, UW-Oshkosh was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in men’s sports, while being a participant in women’s sports under the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). UWO won one championship in the AIAW across the five sports offered to women, which is the 1980 women’s gymnastics national title. Following the disbandment of the AIAW, women’s sports moved to NAIA competition.

During UWO’s time in the NAIA, nine national titles returned to the Oshkosh campus, with eight of them being in men’s gymnastics, winning back-to-back titles in 1973 and 1974, along with six-straight championships from 1978 to 1983. The ninth is the 1986 women’s gymnastics championship.

Oshkosh got its start in D-III with baseball, which moved from NAIA following the 1978 season. In the Titans’ 22 seasons at the NAIA level, they collected seven district championships and three area IV titles. Following the move to the NCAA, Oshkosh has collected 18 regional championships, and won the 1985 and 1994 Division III national championships. Baseball also holds the longest consecutive postseason appearance record at UWO, after making the D-III tournament 21 straight seasons from 1979-99. 

Baseball’s move in affiliation started the era of dual affiliation between the NAIA and NCAA D-III, which lasted until the beginning of the 1990-91 school year. The only exception to this was during the 1984-85 school year, where UWO competed exclusively in the NCAA. 

By 1990, 11 of the university’s 19 offered sports competed with NCAA affiliation. 

“Considering our current and future needs, our goals and resources, a single national affiliation was warranted,” former UW-Oshkosh Director of Athletics Lynn King said in a 1990 news release. “Our decision to join the NCAA Division III exclusively is in the best interests of UW-Oshkosh. As always, we will continue to work hard to provide a quality athletic and academic experience for our student-athletes.” 

With the move, UWO became the third school in the Wisconsin State University Conference, now known as the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), to align only with NCAA D-III, following UW-Platteville and UW-Whitewater. 

The move to NCAA D-III paid off for the Titans. Since 1990, UWO has won 28 national titles across ten sports. Women’s track and field holds the most trophies, collecting nine indoor and nine outdoor team titles between 1994 and 2014. 

Titan athletics has also reached the postseason 146 times since 1990, and has hosted 30 NCAA Division III national championship events.

In addition to women’s track and field, other sports rose to prominence following the move. 

Women’s basketball won its first national title in 1996, finishing the season with a perfect 31-0 season, and have reached the 20-win mark every year since the 2012-13 season except for 2020-21, when UWO played 11 games due to COVID-19. 

The highest finish men’s basketball reached in NAIA was third place in nationals after winning their fourth district championship. It would take 27 seasons and seven postseason appearances for the Titans to make it to the national title game, and an additional season for the black and gold to reach the top of the D-III men’s basketball world, winning the 2019 national championship. Since then, UWO has made the tournament three additional times, including a quarterfinal appearance in 2022-23.

Women’s volleyball has appeared in the NCAA Division III tournament 21 times, compiling a match record of 38-22, and appearing in three straight elite eights. After finishing runner-up in 1994, UWO won its first national title on Dec 5, 2025, after not dropping a set the entire national tournament. The Titans are the first team to accomplish that feat since 2004.

UWO volleyball head coach Jon Ellmann thinks that something that makes Oshkosh successful is that everyone with the team takes care of each other.

“I believe that my current role within this amazing university is to be the caretaker of the women’s volleyball program,” Ellmann said. “It was here before me, and it will be here long after me. My goal is simple, do the best that we can while we’re here and in as many ways as possible, leave it better than where we found it. It’s the same perspective that our student athletes have about their time in a Titan jersey.”

Ellmann said he is always impressed by his athletes’ work ethic. 

“The women in our programs here at UW-Oshkosh are not only leaders in their programs and on this campus, they’re tomorrow’s world leaders,” Ellmann said. “Seeing these women graduate and move on to what’s next gives me a lot of optimism about the future.” 

When men’s soccer rejoins the athletic lineup in the fall of 2027, it will inherit a legacy only described as one of the most decorated in UWO, WIAC, and D-III history. Oshkosh posted a 423-122-55 all-time record, including a 19-12-3 record in tournament play, along with two WIAC conference titles and 14 NCAA tournament appearances from 1984 to 2015. 

The team was suspended due to state budget cuts, and Title IX guidelines on gender balances. UWO is sixth in D-III history in consecutive winning seasons with 31, ninth in consecutive wins, 11th in both shutouts during a single season and consecutive home victories, and 18th in consecutive matches without a loss.

NCAA D-III has shaped the trajectory of UWO athletics into a national powerhouse. With D-III week being a time to build awareness and understanding towards D-III, it’s also a time to reflect on the past, and see how it not only influences the present, but sets a golden standard for the future.