I have a hard time with all of the hype of “renewing therivalry”. To me, it’s been too longsince the last time they played and the rivalry just isn’t there anylonger. We have a whole generation ofkids/students who never got a chance to experience how excited the whole statewould get for this game. The currentplayers were in elementary school or younger the last time the game washeld. The teams used to be made up of alot more numbers of ND kids on them. Ourpopulation has been inundated large numbers of foreign refugees and oil fieldtrash who could care less about this once important piece of North Dakotanculture. We’ve lost a ton of traditionwith the retiring of the Sioux nickname, the nickel trophy and being perennialcontenders playing in the same conference. In fact the only thing that seems to have not faded in 12 years is thearrogance and huge inferiority complex of the bison fans. It feels more like starting from scratch andif they could figure out a way to play every year, it could maybe grow into arivalry again. This weekend’s game is nothingmore than a novelty.
Don’t get me wrong. Iwish we could go back to the way the things used to be in our state with a lotof things, (easier land access, uncrowded roads and lakes and the Sioux makingthe bison their bitches on a regular basis) but I guess this is “progress”. I was fortunate to attend the last 8 gamesplayed between the two schools and truly loved the rivalry, so I will end thiswalk down memory lane with my top 5 memories of when it was still a rivalry.
5. After the bisonwon, a man, who had obviously lost a bet, came streaking through the MemorialStadium parking lot wearing nothing but his underwear yelling “go bison, gobison”.
4. The old barn thatstood along I-29 about halfway between Grand Forks and Fargo which got re-paintedon a regular basis with insulting phrases about one school or the other.
3. Stealing thenickel trophy the week before the game was always classic. One year some UND students stole it from theNDSU student union in the middle of the night by going through the ductwork. Another time, some NDSU studentsdressed up as janitors and took it right out of UND’s locker room.
2. Just the wholeatmosphere surrounding the game. Youcould feel it building all week before the game and then on game day in theparking lot and walking into the stadium it was just electric.
1. The JimKleinsasser game. I had to sit for acouple hours in the parking lot, tailgating, listening to some obnoxious (evenby NDSU standards) bison fans telling me how UND didn’t have a chance becausetheir only good player was a tight end and what good was that going to do. JK proceeded to torch the bison for 3 TD’sand bring the nickel back to Grand Forks for another year.
