What game/season hooked you on Bison football?

[Christopher Moen]

As the saying goes, "Once a Bison, Always a Bison," therefore, the day I was born.

In actuality, I became a fan of NDSU starting in the late 80s because how much of a legend Bucky Maughan was in my area. He was good friends with Skip Nalan (former coach of my high school and a legend himself, especially for the University of Michigan) and ended up coaching a few of Skip's best wrestlers at NDSU. A few of those guys would go on to coach high schools in the Northern Minnesota and had a lot of great stories to tell. Heck, my high school German teacher use to tell great Bucky stories when he attending Moorhead State at the same time.

[BisonNeil]

I'm a junior in high school in the fall of 1968; my brother is a freshman at NDSU. I went to Fargo to visit him one weekend in September. The Bison were playing at Dakotah Field that Saturday afternoon (don't remember who the opponent was). I've been following Bison fortunes ever since.

Same year for me but it was later and I wasn’t at the game. When NDSU won their second natty in the Pecan Bowl against Arkansas State I read about it and decided I needed to see a game at NDSU next year. I was a senior in the fall of 1969 and went to the first home game with my older brother which the Bison blew out their opponent. It confirmed what I suspected, I was going to enjoy Bison football.

[MankatoBison]

1st Gopher game. That got me watching/listening to games whenever possible.

K-State game. That got me attending games whenever possible.

Coming to NDSU from MN in the late 90's there wasn't a lot of buzz to get me interested until the success in the D1 era started. I remember my dad mentioning once during my first tour that NDSU had a good football team, but until the success after the D1 transition there wasn't much happening to get a new student from outside the area like me hooked. My "good old days" stories are remembering listening to Scottie Miller call the Steve Walker comeback against Cal Poly.

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP I remember I was at our hunting cabin, huddled around the radio. Good times

[EC8CH]

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP I remember I was at our hunting cabin, huddled around the radio. Good times

A similar story for me about the K-State game. Was at the lake cabin and had satellite TV available but since FS1 was brand spanking new I couldn't get that channel. Had to have Scottie tell me that epic comeback story over the radio too. I was pissed at the time not being able to watch it live, but looking back now it makes the memory even fonder.

[AKBison]

First D1 game against Valpo hooked me. Georgia Southern 2 Semi-final took it to a whole another level, it was easily the best gameday experience I have ever been apart of.

[WhoRepsTheLurker]

Great thread

Started paying attention in 2007 when they beat my alma mater. Became a fan in 2011 when they beat my alma mater again. Became a fanatic after the KSU game.

Was first made aware that the program was special in the 80s. Dated a girl that went to NDSU. Went to her apartment once and she was hanging out with one of the players (a captain, I believe … it was many beers ago). I remember thinking 'might be a challenge to scare this guy off' but it wasn’t like that at all. He was a righteous dude and we talked college football.

Next girl I dated in the late 80s had a best friend whose boyfriend went to NDSU. The rest of the click (all gopher fans) called him 'Bissson'. I remember asking 'what’s up with that'? That’s when I learned how to say it correctly …

[totoinfl]

Went to a Bison game with my brother who was a Junior at NDSU...fall of 1967...I think it was homecoming and maybe Morningside...I just remember the parade, the student section (yes it was crazy then)...didn't become an option to go anywhere else and my first home game as a student was Northern Arizona...last year of the Jim Wacker era...Sept 1978.

[thebootfitter]

I'm a bit like TAB, got hooked in the 80's which was an easy time for that to happen. Since I lived in the way North with WDAZ, I remember having to stay up until 11 PM on Sundays to watch the Rocky Hager show which was my only way to see extended highlights of the games.

However, I drifted away a bit, after college as it was just D2 football; hard to be the serious about when living in the big city (MSP) at the time. (BTW, I still was at a game just about every year.....) But, like Gabe, that '06 Gopher game "sealed the deal" as I fully grasped for the first time what was actually possible. Have been a complete nut case ever since.

Similar story here too. I don't recall a specific game, just that I would listen to all the games on the radio that I could and watch the championship games on TV starting in the mid-eighties or so. I remember having some sort of football board game with dice to determine plays and yards, and I would ask my older brothers what would happen if the Bison played the Bears. (This was right after the '85 Bears' Superbowl.) My brothers, of course, said the Bison would be demolished, but I wasn't convinced. :-)

I went to most home games in school from '93 - '96. I moved away after college in 1997 and sort of fell out of touch. And it was the first Gophers game in 2006 that hooked me back on the program. I was watching that game at a bar in Atlanta with some uninterested friends, but they started cheering for those "little guys in green" and were disappointed when they couldn't pull out the win on the score board. What a game changer!

I probably went to most of the games while a student including the first season in the Fargodome in 1992. I was involved with the Student Alumni Association (and later helped form Bison Ambassadors from that group) and we would often be hosts in the president's suite. That was especially nice on very cold games.

Wasn't the first season in the Dome fall of 1993? That was my freshman year, and I am pretty certain I remember that being the first year games were played there. I don't think the dome opened until after the season ended the year before.

[Christopher Moen]

Similar story here too. I don't recall a specific game, just that I would listen to all the games on the radio that I could and watch the championship games on TV starting in the mid-eighties or so. I remember having some sort of football board game with dice to determine plays and yards, and I would ask my older brothers what would happen if the Bison played the Bears. (This was right after the '85 Bears' Superbowl.) My brothers, of course, said the Bison would be demolished, but I wasn't convinced. :-)

I went to most home games in school from '93 - '96. I moved away after college in 1997 and sort of fell out of touch. And it was the first Gophers game in 2006 that hooked me back on the program. I was watching that game at a bar in Atlanta with some uninterested friends, but they started cheering for those "little guys in green" and were disappointed when they couldn't pull out the win on the score board. What a game changer!


Wasn't the first season in the Dome fall of 1993? That was my freshman year, and I am pretty certain I remember that being the first year games were played there. I don't think the dome opened until after the season ended the year before.

FargoDome didn't open until December 1992, so the first game was probably the September 4, 1993 game against Pittsburg State. NDSU won 35-16 with an attendance of 18,059. I believe this was the infamous game where Beachy hurt his knee and sadly ended his career.

[BattleBorn]

Sorry in advance as this may suck a little fun out of this thread, but it shows how important Bison football has been to me and my dad. My dad took me to my first Bison game in 1990 (Cal Poly playoff game). My parents were divorced, and anytime the Bison played on Dad's weekend, we'd go. Sometime in elementary school, my mom and I moved to Winnipeg. I started playing hockey and didn't see my dad as much, but he'd still take me to Bison games when I'd come to Fargo. One game (I think it was a night game in 1994 or so), NDSU gave out evergreen saplings, and I planted mine in the backyard in Canada. My Bison tree was still there the last time I went up to a Jets game. That tree meant a lot to me as it represented something that I did with my hero, my dad.

Once I started playing hockey, we didn't get to go to many games together. We had a bit of a falling out as I was a young man who knew everything, and we didn't talk a whole lot. That all changed one wonderful Saturday when I had an extra ticket. A few beers in the tailgate lot, some honest conversation, and a beatdown of Youngstown State later, and we patched things right up.

After that, we didn't miss another game together (whether at the Dome or watching on TV). We had the best relationship a father and son could ask for, until he passed away unexpectedly the night before the 2017 opener (only 59 years old). It really bothers me that our last game was that JMU game in the Dome, so the title game gave me a little closure.

That was also my first trip to Frisco. I traveled alone to Frisco, sort of a pilgrimage my dad and I always said we would do (but never did). It was a very emotional trip. Friday night, I joined Honeybooboo and Pyro's crew. They made me like I'd been part of their group for years. I don't know if they had any clue how much shit was going through my head on that trip, but I guess they do now! That weekend really helped me to cope and move forward. Thanks to you guys and your group.

Again, I am sorry as I sorta sucked the fun out of this, but it was nice to get this out. I may be a sloppy mess, and I might delete this later, but for now here it is. I live in Louisville now, and my whole house is Bison. I met some amazing friends (NDSU alums) down here at watch parties. Would dad and I have patched things up without Bison football? I'd like to think so, but it's really hard to say. At any rate, Bison football opened that door for my dad and I, and introduced me to some amazing people from across the country. Not sure of the exact moment it happened, but all of the above, and I got hooked on NDSU football for life.