Virg Foss article - December 1, 2010
This article appeared in the Grand Forks Herald about 4 years ago. Perspective is a wonderful thing.
December 1, 2010
There comes a time in life when years of bickering, boasting and belittling between fanatical fans of the UND Fighting Sioux and NDSU Bison can be settled in a day.
It happened last Saturday in fact.
Amid much hoopla and rejoicing in Fargo, the Bison finally got to play their first football playoff game ever in the Fargodome.
You couldn’t dial in a Fargo radio station all week without being besieged with commercials imploring fans to back the Bison. The 18-year-old drought without a single playoff game in the Fargodome finally ended.
Bison strong. Be there. Be herd, the ads said.
In a dome seating more than 18,000 for football, a paltry 12,000 plus change showed up for the Bison game against Robert Morris last Saturday night.
That night in Grand Forks, 11,742 fans — a hundred over official capacity — showed up at Ralph Engelstad Arena for the nonconference hockey game between the Fighting Sioux and Notre Dame.
There were ready-made excuses to be had in both cities. Classes were not in session at either school. It was Thanksgiving weekend. People were gone.
Yet 6,000 fans showed up in the Fargodome dressed as empty seats. Up I-29 in Grand Forks, there were people outside one of the world’s greatest rinks trying to buy any extra tickets.
It was a hot topic of discussion in a group of friends I’ve met with outside the rink between periods for years now.
Bison fans have been waiting nearly two decades for a playoff game in the Fargodome. Yet when one came along, one-third of them — 6,000 — didn’t show up.
Where were they? “They are up here watching Sioux hockey,” quipped one of the fellows in our group gathering outside that night. Zing.
It’s true; there’s a steady stream of cars heading from Fargo and points between to Grand Forks on nights Sioux hockey plays at home.
I’ve heard from Bison fans for years that Sioux hockey is nothing but a niche sport on a national scale.
Yet there isn’t an athletic program in the state that draws the national spotlight as does Sioux hockey, on radio, TV or printed press.
Bison fans rightfully are proud of their football success over the years at the NCAA Division II level.
At the Division I level, the Bison have not won a conference football title, let alone a national championship.
There are seven Division I national championship banners hanging in Ralph Engelstad Arena. There are 14 WCHA pennants, too, as winners of the strongest league in the land.
It’s the truth that NDSU never will have an athletic program in any sport to rival the prestige and success of Sioux hockey. For a school and city that like to think of themselves as bigger and better, that hurts. Always has. Always will.
Nov. 27, 2010, will go down in history as the day the drawing power of Sioux hockey and Bison football was put to the test, head-to-head.
It was no contest.
So to those Bison fans who bash and belittle Sioux hockey?
Just shut up.
Foss is a Hall of Fame journalist
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Originally Posted by Farmer63
