Back to Back to Back
This Christmas was difficult without Mom so I was extremely grateful for the distraction of the NDSU Bison Football. The team had a great season and they headed into the FCS playoffs as the undefeated, favorite, returning back to back champions, and I was able to watch most of their games on TV, even here in VA.
I shouldn't admit I was trying to skip Christmas, but truth is, I was. Without Mom, it felt empty as hers was the gift each year that caused me the most anxiety and excitement. But, she would have wanted us to celebrate the birth of Christ and exchange gifts, so we did. The scale was smaller, but the love was big.
As the shopping and cleaning pressed on, so did the Bison. The team literally sprinted through the post season defeating each team in a very commanding fashion. No one got close and the road to the National Championship game in Frisco, TX was being paved with delirious Bison fans and an amazing team as January 4th, Championship Saturday approached. I was about to join Bison Nation.
My cousin Allen from North Dakota wondered if I was planning to attend the game, and texted me to find out. At that time, I didn't have plans to go, but he and Lisa did and they would be taking their Ginormous Motor Home. They offered me a spot in it for sleeping and tailgating and I decided to explore the possibilities. The tickets to the game were expensive, the tickets to the Pep Fest were selling out and airline tickets were mostly unreasonable, except if I were to fly out of BWI (Baltimore Washington International) in Towson U's back yard. Towson was the competition for the national championship game, and that idea offered its own unique appeal.
When Tom came looking for me that Sunday afternoon I was holed up in our bedroom re-watching the Towson and Eastern Washington game on DVR TV like a crack addict. I asked him if I should abandon my fantasy to attend the National Championship Game in Frisco, TX. He said, "NO, don't abandon the fantasy, GO! This is a once in a life time opportunity!" At that point I was giddy with excitement and started looking for tickets for real.
A couple hours later I had tickets for the game, the pep rally and flights out of BWI and an Amtrak ticket to get me to BWI and back from Fredericksburg, VA. The stage was set!
Suddenly the Bison Migration included me and the motto, "We Roam Like it's Home" was my motto too! The Bison were favored by 13 points so the 3-peat was very possible, in fact, barring some unexpected event, it was quite likely. Things were going as planned.
The morning I was to depart the ground in VA was covered with fresh icy snow. The roads had been cleared but they were icy. Zach and I made it to the train station at 6:45 AM without any problems and my train to BWI Station was on time. While I waited for my flight to board I talked with the Schuster family from Maryland who's son was a senior on the Towson team. There was a spirit of cooperation and happiness on both sides as we were all sure our teams would win. My flight arrived in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) on time and my cousin Allen, his wife Lisa and Allen's college roommate Don picked me up and we headed for the Pep Fest. There were 10,000+ Bison Fans in attendance on Friday night just to scream, yell, sing the school song and more. The Gold Star Marching Band, the Governor, one Senator, the Mayor of Frisco, hundreds of returning NDSU football players, special videos, a Fargo country rock band called 32 Below, and a complete fireworks display made the night fabulous. But the most excellent part was the crowd of best friends from NDSU. I saw home town friends, college friends, people who knew my family, and people I didn't know at all, but we were really united in our hopes for a Bison Victory. Everyone there was a brother, sister, friend or neighbor of someone I knew.
After the pep rally we went out to restaurants and bars that were completely taken over by NDSU. The restaurant and pub owners completely catered to us as we came in such a Thundering Herd and apparently have a reputation of spending money on food and drink from our two previous years in Frisco at this championship game. The barmaids, bar tenders, and waitresses were wearing Bison T-shirts! The restaurants were decorated with Bison logos! The specials were all about us and we really showed up. What a night!
Then came Saturday morning and the tailgating party. Bison faithful fans packed huge parking lots with buses, vans, pickups, motor homes, and more. The number of Charter Buses was astounding, the number of NDSU BISON buses all painted in green and yellow was beyond my wildest dreams. The NDSU Fan Base was all there in crazy Bison clothes, shirts, jackets, wind breakers, overalls, t-shirts, sweatshirts and goofy hats. The place was electric. The Gold Star Marching Band marched through the tailgating area, the Governor and Senator were posing for pictures with fans, the Alumni Association was there in full force and the whole event was fabulous.
Then came the game. As we worked our way to the stadium from the parking lot it was obvious that NDSU fans outnumbered Towson fans by a large margin. In fact, of the 19,802 fans in attendance, 17,000+ were from NDSU. It was rumored that Towson's pep rally was attended by 350 fans, so it safe to say that they might have had 1000 fans at the game. The other 1000 fans were FCS and conference devotees who were there to see the underdog win or to witness history. It was history they got to witness.
NDSU started out slow and eventually scored the first touchdown in the first quarter. Towson answered with 7 points of their own and we were tied for a while. Towson looked to be holding their own for as we headed into the second quarter, but that's when the Bison opened it all the way up. By half time we were up 21 to 7 and it finished with a Bison 3-peat National Championship victory of 35 to 7. Powerful! Commanding! Awesome! Our Bison did it again and had an undefeated season with a National Championship. Being in that stadium during that victory was the best. It was as if we were at home in the Fargo Dome. We owned it from the first whistle and even won all the little silly games at halftime. We are BisoNation and we have earned our spot in history. I love my school.
Go Bison! I'll never forget this experience as long as I live.
One year later....
The likelihood of winning a fourth National Championship (back to back to back to back) is small. Even the best teams try and can't repeat that many times, but it can be done. The Bison lost only one game in the 2014 football season and weren't rated #1 most of the year, but winning is a tradition at NDSU and they wanted to give themselves the shot.
With tremendous competition in the playoffs including a last minute victory over SDSU in the dome, the Bison earned their way to the FCS National Championship game again. The rival this time was Illinois State University and they had a quarterback and running back who had each made significant statements coming into the big game. Their only loss came to the same Northern Iowa team who defeated the Bison in season, so their records were the same. The Bison had to really bring it if they were going to repeat...again.
Game dame came, and I was there with my generous cousins Lisa and Allen. We had FUN with the thousands of NDSU fans at the pep rally, restaurants, clubs, tailgating and more. The stadium filled up with about 17,000 NDSU fans and about 3,000 determined fans from Illinois State U. We witnessed a game for the ages as NDSU battled to remain the champions of the FCS and win the Missouri Valley Conference. The game came down to the final minutes and through major heroics from the Bison Offense, we won! We stormed the field, collected our trophy, took pictures and cautiously peaked ahead to what would be slight (enormous!) pressure to field another championship team in the fall of 2015.
Back to Back to Back to Back! We did it! We are the BISON from North Dakota State University!
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