Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
by Keith Norman
Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013
Just for Fun!
Residents of this area are great football fans. The Blue Jays and Jimmies have wonderful fans who follow their games, and the small town residents are there to cheer on the Class B’s schools of the region.
Across North Dakota, many people are counting themselves fans of the North Dakota State University Bison these days.
Of course, a couple of national championships and a winning streak will boost the fan base.
That wasn’t true back in 1937 although the fans were following the team even then.
There are some differences. What is now known as NDSU was known as the Agricultural College, and the University of North Dakota team was known simply as the Sioux at that time.
UND had dropped its “Flickertail” nickname in 1930 but didn’t add the “Fighting” to the Sioux until later.
The Northern Pacific Railroad ran a special passenger train from Bismarck to Grand Forks on Oct. 30 for the game between “A.C. and the U.”
This train picked up passengers at each stop along the way ultimately delivering almost 1,000 football fans to Grand Forks.
Once the fans arrived in Grand Ford, they formed into a parade from the depot to the stadium. Leading the way was a 62-piece band from New Rockford along with a number of state’s political figures.
According to the newspaper reports, Jamestown contributed the greatest number of football fans to the railroad trip with 167 people.
Keep in mind that this is still in the midst of the Great Depression and money was tight. Still a lot of North Dakota Fans found funds to buy a train ticket, game ticket, a few snacks and a hotel room for Saturday night. The train left Grand Forks at 11 a.m. Sunday for the return trip.
The game was a bit of a blowout with the UND Sioux defeating the Bison by a score of 27 to 0. In fact, the Bison did not have a great season in 1937 with a 5 and 4 record. One of their notable losses came in the opening game of the season when the University of Minnesota Gophers clobbered them 69 to 7.
