How Did You Become a Sioux Fan?

[bincitysioux]

Just curious as to how so many devoted followers here came to be North Dakota fans, and how closely we all follow and support our favorite teams............

Was it ingrained in your blood from birth to love the Sioux?

Did you just end up at UND or in the state of ND?

Are you a former student or student athlete?

Did you just catch a North Dakota sporting event on TV and it caught your eye?

I grew up and still live on the same North Dakota farm I have my whole life (33 years).............about 100 miles from Grand Forks. I never had a predispositon to UND or any college for that matter. I grew up knowing of UND of course, mostly from watching Sioux-Bison football and basketball games on TV as a kid. I actually didn't even know that North Dakota had a hockey team until I arrived on campus in 1996. The reason I became a Sioux fan initially was because my fresman year of high school, the men's basketball team was travelling around the state to area schools and putting on a show. I got picked out of the crowd to be on a team with Scott Guldseth, Rico Burkett, Broderick Powell, and Chris Gardner in a pick-up game. Later I received an academic scholarship to UND and was exposed to Sioux hockey, football, and basketball.

Today, my family of four are devoted followers of North Dakota athletics and have season tickets to football and hockey, and try to attend basketball games whenever they fall on the weekends. My daughter lobbies hard to get us up to one or two volleyball games each year as well which turns out to be alot of fun.

What's your story?..................

[sprig]

Family friend who lived in GF (when I was a kid) followed Sioux hockey closely in the late 60's, he was a good friend of Earl Anderson, a Sioux player at the time. Chose UND for college in the early 70's, and went to all football, basketball, and hockey games then, helped a broadcasting student move stuff into what was then the new winter sports building just before its opening. Watched Sioux hockey for a couple years in the old barn. Sioux were not good then (in hockey), but had a lot of success in both basketball and football. Friends that stretched out their stay at UND to 5-8 or so years were around for the early Gino years, so traveled there often to see the Sioux in the early 80's. One friend was in med school, so I got it on a student ID as Dr. (whoever was not able to go to the games); often I think I was Dr. Fasbender, although I never met him. Have been introduced to the current Sioux football Dr (Mann) and hockey Dr (Greek) through this friend, so when we travel to games now together we often spend some time in the Dr. suite.

Back in the early 80s I lived in northern SD, so, when I wasn't traveling to GF, I crossed the border to Oakes and watched the Sioux with another UND alumni who owned the Cabin. Most of his friends were Bison graduates, so we watched Bison football also with them (during Bison's good years with Bentrim, etc). Since they also like to watch Sioux hockey, we got along great, although I avoided any comments concerning the BIson and didn't wear any anti-Bison Tshirts left over from college days.

Usually make it over to GF once a year, and, to the post season tourney at the X the last couple years. We've been doing a thanksgiving trip to the ralph each year for the last several and will all meet there again this year for the CC series. Whenever I've come if there are more than just hockey in town we try to take in all of them (football, men's and women's basketball). While I'm hockey first, I follow the other Sioux teams, and avoid the hockey vs other sports arguments on this site.

Had at least one friend that took part (very unsuccessfully) in the Bison/Sioux basket ball halftime show that featured Sioux/Bison football players fighting at center court. Always good entertainment, but most of us were just there to watch, and not take part.

[darell1976]

My dad took me to my first hockey game in 1984 vs CC (I was 8) and my first football game in 1985 vs E. Strousburg (PA), I would ride my bike to Memorial Stadium or walked to the Hyslop or the old REA I loved that I lived just blocks from those venues. Since moving to Fargo in 1999 I still bleed green and white and listen to the Sioux either on the radio or catch them on tv, and try to drive up for a game, I still haven't seen a game yet in the Betty but will soon. Even though my wife is a die hard Bison fan and she is slowing turning the kids towards them I will always be a Sioux fan!!!

[ticklethetwine]

Growing up in Grand Forks how could you not be a sioux fan. My mother has worked out at UND for 45 years and needless to say she was able to get me and my little brother into most of the mens hockey games when we were little. Most of her student workers worked at the game so they would always let us in, of course this was at the old arena but it was lots of fun. My brother actually got to be a stick boy for the team for a couple years. They used to pay him in six packs of pop and hockey sticks. The hockey sticks were the old christian bros wood sticks. They have the name of the player stamped on the handle. Lets just say we have some Bob Joyce, Tony Hrkac, Ian Kidd, Brian Williams wood sticks that currently reside in our Sioux room. Lots of memories of the sioux playing in the old building. I remember it was almost like clock work when the Gophers or Badgers came to town that a dead gopher or badger would go sliding across the ice. I must say compared to back then the atmosphere is much toned down for that kind of stuff. Even if the nickname is retired we will always be home of the Fighting Sioux.

[Frozen4sioux]

I first became a Sioux fan by my dad taking me to Sioux games when I was a kid Hockey games where the best, but i remember bundling up I ten layers for football games too.

For me it was the hockey games and that great atmosphere in the old ralph that will forever cement the Fighting Sioux traditions.

The new Ralph has been great but my memories of the old place with my dad can't be replaced.

I only hope the games I've been taking my boys to create the same level of excitement and memories.

[Hayduke]

It was in a dark alley in downtown Fargo, North Dakota.

I was there visiting my uncle as a 12 year old boy. I went to a movie at the Fargo Theater. During the movie, three NDSU football players began heckling me and calling me, "four eyes". When I left the theater, they cornered me in a dark alley.

The first one said, "Hey, give me your money so we can buy alcohol and drive drunk all over Fargo, it's a Bison tradition!". But, I refused. The second one lunged at me with a knife. I disarmed him and threw him to the ground. I put him in an armlock and waived the knife at the other two, who ran screaming like little girls. The one I held on the ground cried and cried. He made me promise not to tell anyone how three supposedly burly football players from NDSU were taken down by a scrawny twelve year old kid. I let him go.

Today, I broke that promise.

And that's why I am a fan of the Fighting Sioux. Cuz they don't pick on young boys, try to steal and drive around Fargo drunk.

It's my story and I'm sticking to it!

[remington_270]

A member of the football team in the late 80's worked for my dad in the summers. He got us tickets to a football game one fall. I don't remember who they played or if they won.

But I do remember grabbing a stack of plastic cups in the stands after the game. I still have them today. There must be at least 40-50.

[CMSioux]

Attended in the late 70s, seldom missed a hockey, basketball or football game. Stood in line for Wisconin hockey at -30, sang along to "Old Mcdonald had a farm" at SU games, watched badgers, gophers even a live chicken get thrown on the ice, saw a rubber chicken on a pole hung over the Denver goalies head, those were the days.

[UNDColorado]

I grew up playing hockey and football in Devils Lake so it was only natural that UND hockey was who I looked up to as a kid. I still remember my first ever Sioux hockey game that I attended with my squirt team to this day. I mainly remember how big it was and how bright the lights were. As I grew up I started going to a football here and there. Since nobody wants a hockey player who is 5'9" with average speed, so after high school I decided that an education at UND was the best bet. In college I went to almost every football and hockey game; simply awesome! The education paid off and now I am out working and skiing in Colorado.

Moving away has had no adverse effect on my allegiance to UND. I watch hockey games online or at a bar in downtown Denver called Jacksons. Last year I watched the football games online but now I have FCS and I was able to catch Thursday's win! I also was at the CC series down in Springs last winter, this year I get to see DU and Northern Colorado in football! I have family up there so I try to coordinate visits with Sioux sports (this year hunting and the Icebreaker tourney and maybe the football game that afternoon).

I am grateful as an alum and a fan that I can follow Sioux sports as closely as I currently can. I live 1,000 miles away and I get just as much coverage as I would if I still lived in Grand Forks, short of regularly attending the games in person.

[darell1976]

A member of the football team in the late 80's worked for my dad in the summers. He got us tickets to a football game one fall. I don't remember who they played or if they won.

But I do remember grabbing a stack of plastic cups in the stands after the game. I still have them today. There must be at least 40-50.

I used to do that too as a kid. I would take them home wash them out and have like 50 of them. I wish I still had them. Now they use 20oz bottles. Its not the same.

[108498]

I moved to Grand forks AFB when I was two in 1994. My parents took my family to all the home basketball and football games from 1996-2003. Let me tell you my three sisters and I were cheerleaders beond sight. We always were down on the track behind the visitor team cheering loud.The games outside were could rainy/snowy but worth a lifetime of memories.I grew in a few years to live through North Dakota. Even after being away from ND the last 8 years, I think about the sioux everyday. I watch and lesson to as many games as I can on sioux insider. Since I was little I have always dreamed of attending university of North dakota;however, I knew I would never have a way to afford the fee on my own. Now that I am in college. I have finnaly found the miracle that will help me reach the goal. It will be through the Daniels fund. They are a group that helps young leaders who have a low income family live their college life dreams.I have my college all but paid for.I love the sioux and can not wait to finish from the community college to get back home. My real home that is und.

[sioux34]

Dave Gunther offered me a scholarship. I've been a fan ever since.

[dakotadan]

Growing up in western NoDak I loosely followed UND football and hockey. But by no means was I a die-hard fan. Once I got into high school and began looking at colleges, UND and UMary were the only schools that I was even interested in.

About this time, my next door neighbor Hunter Berg began playing basketball for UND. At that point I started following all of the Sioux programs closely and made my choice to attend UND.

I will now forever be a North Dakota fan till the day I die.

I do remember being very small and watching a UND/NDSU football game at my grandmother's house. I don't know why but I decided that I was going to cheer for UND and I remember jumping around on her couch (or davenport as she always called couches) cheering for the Sioux.

[GF_siouxfan]

I'm sure I was an infant during my first Sioux hockey game at the Old Ralph. I remember walking threw the doors running around the bldg like a bat outta hell. The numerous pucks ive caughten. The numerous "Let's Go Sioux" chants ive started with the band when they were snuck back in the top corner. It was more family time than family dinner. It's a memory I have with my family that is awesome and I love the Sioux. Used to keep up with it. Now it's whenever my dad talks about it or I come on here. Can't wait to get back to Nodak to watch the Sioux and to hang out with family.

Go Sioux

-GF_SIOUXFAN. 1989

[mizzou/sioux]

Just curious as to how so many devoted followers here came to be North Dakota fans, and how closely we all follow and support our favorite teams............

Was it ingrained in your blood from birth to love the Sioux?

Did you just end up at UND or in the state of ND?

Are you a former student or student athlete?

Did you just catch a North Dakota sporting event on TV and it caught your eye?

I grew up and still live on the same North Dakota farm I have my whole life (33 years).............about 100 miles from Grand Forks. I never had a predispositon to UND or any college for that matter. I grew up knowing of UND of course, mostly from watching Sioux-Bison football and basketball games on TV as a kid. I actually didn't even know that North Dakota had a hockey team until I arrived on campus in 1996. The reason I became a Sioux fan initially was because my fresman year of high school, the men's basketball team was travelling around the state to area schools and putting on a show. I got picked out of the crowd to be on a team with Scott Guldseth, Rico Burkett, Broderick Powell, and Chris Gardner in a pick-up game. Later I received an academic scholarship to UND and was exposed to Sioux hockey, football, and basketball.

Today, my family of four are devoted followers of North Dakota athletics and have season tickets to football and hockey, and try to attend basketball games whenever they fall on the weekends. My daughter lobbies hard to get us up to one or two volleyball games each year as well which turns out to be alot of fun.

What's your story?..................

I grew up in a small community in west central Minnesota. For years and years I lived and died with the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. Putting all my eggs in one basket often wound up with "lost Saturday" feelings some fall afternoons. I was interested in majoring in journalism. UND at the time happened to be the closest school I could attend to major in journalism. When I first arrived on campus in the fall of 1962 I knew I would soon have to make a choice when the Fighting Sioux played the Gophers in hockey. It so happened that was the season (1962-63) the Sioux swept the Gophers all four games in the regular season series and then went on to win it all with a 6-5 victory over nemesis Denver in the NCAA Division I national championship game. From that time hence I knew damn well who to pull for in the Sioux-Gopher rivalry. I have been a dedicated Sioux fan ever since. In the meantime I have learned not to pull all my eggs in one basket. Since friends and relatives have attended numerous colleges and universities around the United States, I have acquired a number of teams to root for. I went to graduate school at the University of Missouri-Columbia, so naturally became a Missouri Tigers fan. But a niece attended graduate school at archrival Nebraska-Lincoln, so have learned to pull for the Huskers on many occasions as well. Having a half-dozen or so schools (or more) to follow on Saturday afternoons usually means any given Saturday usually isn't a total wash.