Mount Union Paints Town Purple Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times Vince Kehres, center, succeeded his father as the head coach. ALLIANCE, Ohio - Football practices at the University of Mount Union are technically closed to the public, but often, former coaches and players, and even their parents, will stop by. Family is always welcome. Then there is the daily visitor who arrives inside a custom purple golf cart with "Go Mount!" written on the side in white script and a front hood resembling a "57 Chevy. Larry Kehres, the man behind the wheel, is more than a member of the Mount Union family. Before retiring as head coach in May, he led the Purple Raiders to 11 national titles. These days, he roams the sideline without a whistle or clipboard, observing the tenure of the team's first new coach in 28 years: his son, Vince. "Larry's the man on campus," said Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Cecil Shorts, who played for Mount Union from 2007 to 2010. You'd think he's the president of the school. Few people have meant more to the university in the last three decades. Larry Kehres has developed Mount Union, a small, private college in northeast Ohio, into the nation's pre-eminent N.C.A.A. Division III program. The Purple Raiders played in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, Division III's national championship game, 16 times. The team's success also paralleled campus growth - both in construction and in enrollment - and became a source of local pride in this former steel town, where "For Lease" signs and boarded-up storefronts are frequent sights along the main highway that runs through town. "Mount Union pretty much is the community," said Brenda Heslep, a bartender at the Naborhood Inn, a popular spot near campus, where the walls are adorned with signed team photos commemorating many of the national titles. Their growth is astronomical. Mount Union is probably one of the biggest employers in town. The streets are not draped in purple the way scarlet and gray cover Columbus, Ohio, home of the state's biggest college football attraction, the Ohio State Buckeyes. But Shorts, who was reared in Cleveland, said Purple Raiders football still meant "everything" to the town of a little more than 22,000 residents. "There's not too much going on; I think the biggest thing there is a Walmart," Shorts said. Every Saturday, the whole town comes out and goes to the game. Gary DePrill, who has lived in Alliance for the last 63 years, said capacity crowds at Mount Union Stadium were not always the case. Sitting at the bar at the Naborhood, DePrill recalled how pregame tailgating parties used to consist of "a few guys sitting around on hay bundles." Now, residents and alumni carpool to away games and gather by the hundreds for pregame brunches when the Purple Raiders are at home, as they were for last Saturday's season-opening 30-27 victory over Franklin (Ind.). Larry Kehres, 64, undoubtedly takes pride in how the program has evolved. He grew up 30 minutes north, in Diamond, Ohio, and played quarterback for the Purple Raiders, graduating in 1971. He has worked at the university since 1974, including for a time as the swimming coach. In 1985, he was named athletic director, a position he still holds. One of Kehres's philosophies was not to cut any player who committed himself to practicing with the team. That often led to rosters nearing 200, full of players who were 2 inches shorter or 20 pounds lighter than a prototypical higher-level recruit. The current starting quarterback, Kevin Burke, is charitably listed as 5 feet 10 inches, 185 pounds. "We always thought we could build a player up in terms of what he might lack," Kehres said. We were always looking for the guy who was passionate about getting a chance to play. While piling up 332 victories at Mount Union, Kehres also produced a handful of pros, including Shorts and Washington Redskins receiver Pierre Garcon. Last spring, four Mount Union players signed undrafted free-agent deals with N.F.L. teams. As the football program rose in stature, so did the rest of Mount Union's athletic teams. Since Kehres has been athletic director, Mount Union has added varsity sports like men's and women's lacrosse, and women's soccer and golf. Recently, Mount Union Stadium added new artificial surfaces, a new scoreboard and a new press box, as well as separate locker rooms for the soccer and lacrosse teams. And the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex recently underwent a $17 million renovation to install a new indoor track, swimming pool and fitness center for students. When Kehres was hired as athletic director, there were 984 students at Mount Union; current enrollment is 2,200. "People that haven't been here in 20 years wouldn't recognize it," Vince Kehres said. There's so many new facilities, cafeterias, residence halls. It's almost a different place. You can attribute that to whatever you want, I guess, as you look at things, but we've had a lot of success in football the last 20 years. Vince Kehres, who was an assistant on his father's staff for 13 years, is not concerned with the shadow his father casts not only on the sideline, but also over the entire university.