Duquesne has won or shared 18 conference championships, all since 1995. The Dukes have qualified for the NCAA Division I Football Championship playoffs three times, earning automatic bids as NEC champion in 2015, 2018, and 2023.
The Dukes started play in 1891 and have had a continuous program since 1969. They were Northeast Conference co-champions in 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2024 and outright champions in 2015 and 2023. Previously, Duquesne football was a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, winning or sharing 11 conference titles.
Duquesne was the ECAC Bowl champions in both 1995 and 2003 and NCAA Division I FCS Mid-Major national champions in 2003. Duquesne was rated #1 in NCAA Division I by the Massey Ratings for the 1941 season and won a NCFA Club National Championship in 1973 after the program was revived in 1969 by then student-athlete Sam Costanzo in cooperation with university administration.
Duquesne is noted for establishing numerous firsts in collegiate football. Former head coach Elmer Layden is credited with devising the system of hand signals that officials use today. The signal system was put to use for the first time on November 11, 1928, when Duquesne hosted Thiel College at Pitt Stadium. Layden was also the first coach to use two sets of uniform jerseys for home and away contests. In 1929, graduate student manager John Holohan conceived the idea of the first night game at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. On the evening of November 1 that year, the Dukes made history by defeating Geneva College, 27-7, in front of more than 27,000 spectators. This led to the Duquesne Football team's nickname "the Night Riders."
At the club level, Duquesne won the 1973 National Club Football Association national championship at Three Rivers Stadium and was runner-up in 1977.
The Dukes football team also boasts the greatest all-time intraconference winning streak (tied with the University of San Diego) in NCAA Division I FCS history with 39 straight wins in the MAAC. The 39-game streak also ties for the second-longest intraconference winning streak in NCAA Division I Football history, five games shy of the all-time record.
Duquesne defeated Ohio University in the fall of 2021 for the program's first victory over a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent since the divisions were created in 1978.
The Dukes had some success before NCAA college football's alignment into divisions. Duquesne won the 1934 Festival of Palms Bowl and 1937 Orange Bowl. The Dukes turned down invitations from the Cotton Bowl, Sun Bowl, and Olympic Bowl in 1939.
From 1933 to 1942, Duquesne was among the elite college football teams in the United States, garnering the sixth-highest winning percentage (71-22-2, .762) in the nation behind Alabama, Tennessee, Duke, Fordham and Notre Dame. In 1941, Duquesne finished the season undefeated and untied, earning a No. 8 Associated Press ranking while leading the nation in scoring defense, rushing defense and total defense. (Duquesne also led all of NCAA Division I football in scoring defense in 2002 and rushing defense, passing defense and total defense in 2005.)
