[2] Mount Union was founded in 1846 by Orville Nelson Hartshorn as the Select School[6] as "a place where men and women could be educated with equal opportunity, science would parallel the humanities, and there would be no distinction due to race, color, or sex."

The school would not be chartered under Ohio state law until June 9, 1856, after which it adopted the name Mount Union College.

Mount Union sponsors 12 men's varsity teams: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, track & field, soccer, swimming, diving, tennis, lacrosse, wrestling, and volleyball.

The school also sponsors 10 women's varsity teams: basketball, cross-country, golf, lacrosse, track & field, soccer, softball, swimming, diving, tennis and volleyball.

The men’s basketball team was retroactively named the pre-NCAA Tournament national champion in 1897–98 by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.

The Purple Raiders have claimed 13 NCAA Division III Football Championship and 35 OAC titles and have 12 undefeated seasons.

[20] Mount Union holds the all-division record for consecutive victories at 55 from 2000 to 2003, which ended with their loss to St. John's University (Collegeville, MN) in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl (Division III National Championship) on December 20, 2003.

[21] Mount Union previously held the all divisions mark at 54 consecutive games until losing in the semifinals on December 12, 1999, to Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ).

[21] The Purple Raiders won 110 consecutive regular-season games between 1994 and 2005 (which was ended by conference foe Ohio Northern University on Oct 22, 2005), posted 14 undefeated regular seasons, won 16 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships, and had the best overall record in the 1990s (120–7–1, an overall winning percentage of 0.941).