2010 Men’s Basketball Team won the NCCAA Division I Championship.
NWC, an NCAA Division III school, was dubbed the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) basketball tournament’s “Cinderella squad” after their quarterfinal win, finished the 2009–10 campaign with a 22-7 overall record, winning 18 of its final 19 games of the season. No victory was sweeter than the final game, as the Eagles defeated King College (Tenn.), an NCAA Division II team that had beaten Appalachian State, a team who had just missed a berth in the NCAA Division I tournament.

2010 Women’s Volleyball awarded the NCAA Student-Athlete Sportsmanship Award for female athletes, in part for making “honor calls.”

2008 Northwestern joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III.
Northwestern became an active member prior to the 2008–09 academic year after a four-year provisional membership. Prior to joining the NCAA, the college was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

2005 Football Doubleheader, Double Win!
Coach Kirk Talley and the Eagles football team made college sports history by playing—and winning—two games in one day! The Eagles played Trinity Bible College in the morning and Macalester College in the afternoon. The event was covered by ESPN and other local and national media.

1996 The Ericksen Center was completed, giving NWC an intercollegiate level sports and physical education facility.

Between 1976–1986, the Eagles cross country team and others ran 24-hour relays, raising funds for student scholarships. The relays generated enough funds for two $500 scholarships per year for about 15 years.

After a college-wide ban, the NCAA reinstated dunking in basketball. Brian Budish ’79 had the honor of Northwestern’s first dunk. (Budish was the athletic director at Meadow Creek Christian School in Andover, Minn., for 26 years until his death in 2007. As a triple-sport star, he was inducted in the NWC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.)