ST. PAUL — With his family as well as his football team, Glenn Caruso, the coach at the University of St. Thomas, established three rules.

“We don’t quit,” he said. “We don’t whine. And we never get embarrassed.” The last manifested itself last Saturday.

After St. Thomas defeated Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 28-14, to reach the Division III championship game, known as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, for the first time, an emotional Caruso teared up repeatedly.

It started when Caruso gathered his three children on the field for a postgame television interview. Then Caruso’s voice cracked multiple times at a news conference, where five dry-eyed players on the podium beamed at their coach and nodded in affirmation when he spoke.