On November 28, 1926, the 6–2 Carnegie Tech football team shut out Knute Rockne's undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish 19–0 at Forbes Field.

[8][9] Carnegie Tech's AP ranking history: The team lost 26 straight games from 1942 through 1948 (the 1944 and 1945 seasons were cancelled due to World War II).

In the last game of the 1948 season, the team beat Grove City, 7–0, on a 51-yard touchdown run by freshman halfback John Luchok.

Despite Gasparella's professional pedigree, the Tartans struggled under his leadership, only posting three winning seasons in the twelve years he was head coach.

[11] This merger gave Gasparella and the Tartans a wider recruiting net, allowing Carnegie Mellon to attract athletes interested in both the sciences and the humanities.

In 1968, Gasparella affirmed and supported Carnegie Mellon's first move into the Presidents' Athletic Conference.

Following Gasparella's departure, Carnegie Mellon hired Indiana University head coach Chuck Klausing.

[14] Including his time at IUP, Klausing had a record of 124-25-2, making him the nineteenth winningest coach in college football history.

In just his second season as Carnegie Mellon's head coach, Klausing lead the Tartans to their first ever PAC football championship in 1977.

The 1978 and 1979 seasons also featured division III playoff berths, where the Tartans reached the semifinal rounds in both years.

[15] After the Carnegie Mellon's three-peat, the Klausing-lead Tartans won three more conference championships in 1981, 1983, and 1985 and made two more Division III playoff appearances.

In 1979, Lackner graduated from Carnegie Mellon with an undergraduate degree in history and was immediately retained by Coach Klausing as an assistant on his staff.

In 1990, the Tartans moved to the University Athletic Association, where Carnegie Mellon rose to newfound prominence.

On September 19, 1998, Lackner passed Walter Steffen, who guided Carnegie Tech to an 88–53–8 mark from 1914 to 1932, as the winningest coach in school history, when the Tartans defeated Bethany College, 38–7.

[18] In 2006, the Lackner-lead Tartans posted an 11–1 season, the most wins in school history and their sixth appearance in the NCAA playoffs.

In 2019, Carnegie Mellon linebacker and long snapper Brian Khoury was signed to the DC Defenders of the XFL.

In 2014, the Tartans moved back to the PAC, but failed to replicate the same successful start that they had in the UAA, not winning a conference championship until 2021.

The Tartans win streak existed until the sweet sixteen of that year's playoffs, when they ultimately fell to the National Champion North Central Cardinals.

[26] At the peak of the rivalry, games between Pitt, Duquesne, and Carnegie Tech would regularly draw crowds of well over 40,000; which was more than the World Series at the time.

The Panthers earned their revenge the following season however, as they defeated the Carnegie Tech Tartans 6-0 in front of a ruckus crowd of 55,000 at Pitt Stadium.

Despite starting with a perfect record that year, the Tartans lost out the back end of their season, including losses to rivals Notre Dame and Duquesne.

With the Tartans' 7-22 home loss to Duquesne in the last game of the season, they became one of the only teams to be swept in the Pittsburgh City Title series the year after winning it.

While matchups between Pitt and Carnegie Tech were typically (but not always) showcased by more offense, the games between Duquesne and the Tartans were almost always defensive battles.

Under tradition, a King takes to the track every home game between the third and fourth quarters, to quest for the Grail, with his loyal steed, Patsy.

The Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, which many Carnegie Mellon football players are members of, also sets up a tailgate on the rooftop of the East Campus garage.