# UMass Lowell River Hawks football

The UMass Lowell River Hawks football team represented the University of Massachusetts Lowell in college football at the NCAA Division II level. The River Hawks were members of the Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10), having fielded its team in the NE-10 from 2001 to 2002. The River Hawks played their home games at the Cushing Field Complex in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Their last head coach was Wally Dembowski, who took over the position from 2001 to 2002.

## Conference affiliations

* Club team (1980)
* Independent (1981–1986)
* New England Football Conference (1987–1991)
* Freedom Football Conference (1992–1995)
* Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (1996)
* Eastern Football Conference (1997–2000)
* Northeast-10 Conference (2001–2002)

## List of head coaches
### Key

Key to symbols in coaches list :
| General | General | Overall | Overall | Conference | Conference | Postseason | Postseason |
| No. | Order of coaches | GC | Games coached | CW | Conference wins | PW | Postseason wins |
| DC | Division championships | OW | Overall wins | CL | Conference losses | PL | Postseason losses |
| CC | Conference championships | OL | Overall losses | CT | Conference ties | PT | Postseason ties |
| NC | National championships | OT | Overall ties | C% | Conference winning percentage | | |
| † | Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame | O% | Overall winning percentage | | | | |

### Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards :
| No. | Name | Season(s) | GC | OW | OL | OT | O% | CW | CL | CT | C% | PW | PL | PT | DC | CC | NC | Awards |
| 1 | John Perreault | 1980–1985 | 47 | 18 | 29 | 0 | 0.383 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2 | Dennis Scannell | 1986–1992 | 65 | 45 | 19 | 1 | 0.700 | 23 | 7 | 0 | 0.767 | – | – | – | 2 | 1 | – | – |
| 3 | Tom Radulski | 1993–1995 | 30 | 5 | 25 | 0 | 0.167 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 0.133 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 4 | Sandy Ruggles | 1996–2000 | 50 | 15 | 35 | 0 | 0.300 | 12 | 30 | 0 | 0.286 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 5 | Wally Dembowski | 2001–2002 | 21 | 4 | 17 | 0 | 0.190 | 4 | 16 | 0 | 0.200 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |

## Year-by-year results

| National champions | Conference champions | Bowl game berth | Playoff berth |
| Season | Year | Head coach | Association | Division | Conference | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Postseason | Final ranking |
| Season | Year | Head coach | Association | Division | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | | | Postseason | Final ranking |
| Season | Year | Head coach | Association | Division | Conference | Win | Loss | Tie | Finish | Win | Loss | Tie | Postseason | Final ranking |
| Lowell Chiefs |||||||||||||||
| 1980 | 1980 | John Perreault | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team | Club team |
| 1981 | 1981 | John Perreault | NCAA | Division III | Independent | 4 | 5 | 0 | | | | | — | — |
| 1982 | 1982 | John Perreault | NCAA | Division III | Independent | 2 | 8 | 0 | | | | | — | — |
| 1983 | 1983 | John Perreault | NCAA | Division III | Independent | 4 | 5 | 0 | | | | | — | — |
| 1984 | 1984 | John Perreault | NCAA | Division III | Independent | 5 | 4 | 0 | | | | | — | — |
| 1985 | 1985 | John Perreault | NCAA | Division III | Independent | 3 | 7 | 0 | | | | | — | — |
| 1986 | 1986 | Dennis Scannell | NCAA | Division III | Independent | 2 | 7 | 0 | | | | | — | — |
| 1987 | 1987 | Dennis Scannell | NCAA | Division III | NEFC | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4th (North) | 2 | 2 | 0 | — | — |
| 1988 | 1988 | Dennis Scannell | NCAA | Division III | NEFC | 8 | 1 | 0 | 2nd (North) | 5 | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| 1989 | 1989 | Dennis Scannell | NCAA | Division III | NEFC | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1st (North) | 5 | 0 | 0 | L conference championship | — |
| 1990 | 1990 | Dennis Scannell | NCAA | Division III | NEFC | 8 | 1 | 0 | 2nd (North) | 4 | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| UMass Lowell River Hawks |||||||||||||||
| 1991 | 1991 | Dennis Scannell | NCAA | Division III | NEFC | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1st (North) | 5 | 0 | 0 | W conference championship | — |
| 1992 | 1992 | Dennis Scannell | NCAA | Division III | FFC | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4th | 2 | 3 | 1 | — | — |
| 1993 | 1993 | Tom Radulski | NCAA | Division III | FFC | 5 | 5 | 0 | T–5th | 2 | 3 | 0 | — | — |
| 1994 | 1994 | Tom Radulski | NCAA | Division III | FFC | 0 | 10 | 0 | 8th | 0 | 5 | 0 | — | — |
| 1995 | 1995 | Tom Radulski | NCAA | Division III | FFC | 0 | 10 | 0 | 9th | 0 | 5 | 0 | — | — |
| 1996 | 1996 | Sandy Ruggles | NCAA | Division III | ECFC | 6 | 4 | 0 | 6th | 4 | 4 | 0 | — | — |
| 1997 | 1997 | Sandy Ruggles | NCAA | Division II | EFC | 2 | 8 | 0 | 5th (Bay State) | 1 | 7 | 0 | — | — |
| 1998 | 1998 | Sandy Ruggles | NCAA | Division II | EFC | 2 | 8 | 0 | T–3rd (Bay State) | 2 | 6 | 0 | — | — |
| 1999 | 1999 | Sandy Ruggles | NCAA | Division II | EFC | 3 | 7 | 0 | 5th (Atlantic) | 3 | 6 | 0 | — | — |
| 2000 | 2000 | Sandy Ruggles | NCAA | Division II | EFC | 2 | 8 | 0 | 5th (Atlantic) | 2 | 7 | 0 | — | — |
| 2001 | 2001 | Wally Dembowski | NCAA | Division II | NE-10 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 10th | 1 | 9 | 0 | — | — |
| 2002 | 2002 | Wally Dembowski | NCAA | Division II | NE-10 | 3 | 8 | 0 | T–8th | 3 | 7 | 0 | — | — |