BisonMav Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Interesting article in SI about North Dakotan's. This is the Grand Forks Herald story on the article. I would agree that Maris is the best athlete who ever lived or played for a North Dakota Team. Great Football and Baseball player and also a good Basketball player. I would put Erstad over Jackson, because Jackson is more famous for coaching than he was as a player. I would have put Norval Baptie, from Bathgate, on the list, but no one ever heard of him after 1950. He is in the Speed Skating Hall of Fame. ND SI Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoteauRinkRat Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 I agree that Jackson is more famous for his coaching, but he was a hell of a basketball player in Williston and was one of the best ever to play at UND. His statistics there speak for themselves, making him very deserving to make the list of top three. I really don't think we need to put a no-name speed skater from the early 20th century on the list, people already laugh at us the way it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BisonMav Posted January 14, 2004 Author Share Posted January 14, 2004 I agree that Jackson is more famous for his coaching, but he was a hell of a basketball player in Williston and was one of the best ever to play at UND. His statistics there speak for themselves, making him very deserving to make the list of top three. I really don't think we need to put a no-name speed skater from the early 20th century on the list, people already laugh at us the way it is. It's probably a joke to the younger crowd, but North Dakota did exist prior to 1950. Here is a link to a short bio on Baptie. Baptie Link Satchel Paige actually played baseball for the Bismarck Barons for two years. They won a national championship, and Paige was undefeated. Willie Stargell played for the Grand Forks Chiefs. But I still like the top three of Maris, Erstad and Jackson. Just think, if Paul Presthaus had not gone to Minnesota, Jackson may have went to Minnesota. I see Presthaus son in on UND's football team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Just a couple of comments on Jackson's place among the all-time greats of ND. First, we have to remember that the NBA of the 60's had far fewer teams than today, so the mere fact that he carved out a fairly lengthy career is pretty impressive in and of itself. Also, he played college ball in an era of freshman ineligibility for varsity sports, so the fact that he still scored over 1,700 points and the fact that he held the all-time UND scoring record for more than 20 years is pretty impressive, also. He also led UND to two final fours in the old "college division" of college basketball. As for his coaching, that is also factored into the equation. If you look at the SI list of a few years back, Amy Ruley was listed as number 8 despite the fact that she's not even a ND native and never played any sport in the state, so Jackson's numerous NBA titles probably did put him over the top of Erstad and others. I have to give a couple of plugs to fellow Grand Forks Central grads Cliff Cushman and John Bennett also. Both won olympic silver medals in the 50's, Cushman in the 440 hurdles and Bennett in the long jump. The odds against a North Dakotan ever winning another olympic track medal are pretty staggering, so you have to give a lot of credit to those guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoteauRinkRat Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Satchel Paige actually played baseball for the Bismarck Barons for two years. They won a national championship, and Paige was undefeated. Willie Stargell played for the Grand Forks Chiefs. . I believe the list is the greatest athletes from North Dakota, not the greatest players to ever have played in the state. Playing a season or two in North Dakota should no qualify you as being from the state. Found it really ridiculous that the Grand Forks Herald article argued that Ed Belfour and others should have been on the list. I don't think the author of the article really understood the questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodakvindy Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 How quickly we forget Virgil Hill. Won a silver medal, has the most ever Lt. Heavyweight title defenses, and helped the state by bringing many of his title bouts to venues around North Dakota. I would rank him second to Maris as an athlete alone. In terms of total sporting impact, I would rank Jackson higher. Also I find the ranking of Phil Hansen and Jimmy K. above Ed Belfour stunning. Must have gotten a lot of westerners in the poll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimdahl Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Before I saw this thread, I saw today that it is linked from the SI front page. Pretty cool pulse of sports fan in N.D. North Dakotans weigh in on sports#1 sport of North Dakotans -- UND hockey. Was there any doubt?#1 most hated sports figure by North Dakotans -- Favre. It's funny, not living near North Dakota anymore, I always feel like I'm the only person in the world who hates Favre; the rest of the world seems to love him. I was grinning ear to ear when his (now) typical choking-by-interception knocked them out of the playoffs.#1 sports enemy of North Dakotans -- Minnesota. Gee, it's not that NDSU-SDSU rivalry/lovefest #1 North Dakota athlete -- Roger Maris. I'm a little surprised Kleinsasser made this list, but I guess he is fresh in people's minds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hansel Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 My favorite part is Ed Schultz being tied for second as enemy of the state Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoteauRinkRat Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 How quickly we forget Virgil Hill. Won a silver medal, has the most ever Lt. Heavyweight title defenses, and helped the state by bringing many of his title bouts to venues around North Dakota. I would rank him second to Maris as an athlete alone. In terms of total sporting impact, I would rank Jackson higher. Also I find the ranking of Phil Hansen and Jimmy K. above Ed Belfour stunning. Must have gotten a lot of westerners in the poll. I definitely agree that Virgil Hill is usually forgotten in these types of polls. I don't think the westerners voting has anything to do with it. Last time I checked, Oakes and Carrington were not in western north dakota. I don't think that Ed Belfour, who only played one year at UND, should be considered one of our greatest athletes ever. He could be considered one of manitoba's greatest athletes, but not north dakotas. If you look at other states, most of the athletes make the list of the state, where they grew up at, or went to high school at, not necessarily what state they played their professional sports at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eskimos Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 I have to agree with CRR. I don't see how being from western Nodak has anything to do with Kleinsasser and Hansen being up higher on the list than Belfour. Belfour has gone on to have an exceptional NHL career, after backstopping the Sioux to the national championship in his only season with them in '87. But I do not believe that qualifies him as being one of North Dakota's greatest athletes, where Maris, Erstad, and Jackson are great athletes and native North Dakotans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodakvindy Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Didn't mean the westerner thing as a slight, I am one myself, but that area is not nearly as in to hockey and it would make more sense for two NFL athletes to be rated higher than a hockey player. There have been many years where there was little or no media coverage of the Sioux hockey team in the western part of the state. Radio affiliates often pre-empt games for local high school sports or are of a low power unavailable outside of Bismarck or Minot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoteauRinkRat Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 You are looking at it as a football vs. hockey thing. I'm looking at it as two kids who grew up and played high school and college in north dakota and then on to the pros, versus someone who only played one year of college in north dakota. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jloos Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 My favorite part is Ed Schultz being tied for second as enemy of the state I second that. I find it very peculiar that Ed is going to be the 'voice of the Democrats'. Can you imagine listening to him and Rush back to back? No matter your political ideology you have to agree both are self-absorbed windbags. The state pen should take a look at pumping these idiots radio programs into solitary confinement, or would that count as cruel or unusual? Virgil Hill should be on any list describing the greatest atheletes from the state. This site has been up for a while, I believe DMT posted something about it a few months back. The Minnesota site is also interesting Minnesota Greatest although I would switch 2 and 4 no offense to Dave Winfield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoteauRinkRat Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 The site was up and you could vote on your favorite players, but just got updated with the results of the polls, since this is the week North Dakota appears in SI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jloos Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 The site was up and you could vote on your favorite players, but just got updated with the results of the polls, since this is the week North Dakota appears in SI. I see, I didn't realize exactly what was going on. No offense to Bismark but this entire thing loses any shred of credibility by naming Bismark SI's ND "sportstown". I cannot see how they would not pick Fargo or GF. Personally I would pick GF, even though I'm from Fargo. You don't see people from GF flocking to Fargo for any sporting event, like people from Fargo do for Sioux hockey. Maybe I'm wrong. Do the Bismark Bobcats average 10,000 a game? How about Bismark state's football team? I'm not sure how popular curling is in the state. The curling rink in Fargo is not exactly a hotspot. Although anyone that has not curled shoud, it is a great sport. Any sport that has a bar within yards of the playing field has got to be somewhat interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BisonMav Posted January 15, 2004 Author Share Posted January 15, 2004 I was surprised about Bismarck too. Bismarck IMO is the best site for the North Dakota Class B basketball tourney. Can't think of anything else that draws a big crowd like that in Bismarck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND Fan Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 My opinion on the Bismarck issue. Although I currently live in Florida, I have lived in Grand Forks, Bismarck and Fargo. My perception is that Bismarck is easily the best sports town of the three. I believe that the primary reason is that as they do not have one of the state universities located there, they "value and appreciate" athletic events and competition because it isn't as commonplace there as it is in Fargo or GF. The fact that Bsimarck is centrally located within the state and has decent facilities is also a factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoteauRinkRat Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 The fact that Bsimarck is centrally located within the state and has decent facilities is also a factor. that's why it is a joke, because they only have "decent" facilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leifolson Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 I don't think I've even been to Bismarck in nearly 10 years. Granted, I've lived in California for the past 3 of those 10, but in the 7 years prior to that...and I've maybe been there 2 times in the past 15 years. When I did go to Bismarck, it usually wasn't to go to any sporting events. I suppose that it is probably the center of Western State sports, but since that comprises maybe 30 percent of the population, I still find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have named GF or Fargo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 My opinion on the Bismarck issue. Although I currently live in Florida, I have lived in Grand Forks, Bismarck and Fargo. My perception is that Bismarck is easily the best sports town of the three. I believe that the primary reason is that as they do not have one of the state universities located there, they "value and appreciate" athletic events and competition because it isn't as commonplace there as it is in Fargo or GF. The fact that Bsimarck is centrally located within the state and has decent facilities is also a factor. I guess it just all depends on how a person wants to define what it means to be a sports town. For me, I couldn't live in Bismarck because I love college sports and Mary and BSC aren't too enticing to me personally. They do a nice job with hosting state tournaments, however, and in terms of providing opportunities for participatory-type sports, maybe they are better than GF and Fargo. Although I'm sure many NDSU fans would disagree, I think Grand Forks is the best sports town in terms of having the most and best variety of games to attend. UND football, mens and womens basketball and hockey, state high school hockey every year, state track every other year, state football every other year, recently hosting state Class A girls basketball and state volleyball, occasional NHL exhibition games, world junior hockey coming up, dII mens basketball elite eight coming up, etc. Really, about the only major state sporting event Grand Forks doesn't have is state Class B boys basketball, which admittedly is probably the best ND high school event. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BisonMav Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 Fargo has had a lot offer also. The American Legion World Series, FM Redhawks, Roger Maris Golf Tourney, Roger Maris Museum, The World's Fastpitch Softball Championship is in Fargo this year, the North Stars have played exhibition games, the Timberwolves exhibition games, Virgil Hill fights, sports memorabilia shows and stores. I do like Joe DiMaggio's in Grand Forks, one of my favorite sports bars to eat at, but they do have one here in the Twin Cities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND Fan Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 When I recently referenced Bismarck as the best sports town in the state, I was solely referring to the people living there and the surrounding area - not type of number of sporting events they host. I found a much larger percentage of people (young and old) truly interested in sports than in Fargo or GF. And, as I said, I think part of the reason for this is that they do not have access to high quality college sports, etc. so they value what they do have more and pay closer attention to all ND sports and MN pro sports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I got my SI yesterday, and as expected, UND and/or Grand Forks were well-represented in the ND feature. Some of the highlights were UND hockey being listed as the favorite college team, four of the six "alltime best" athletes being Grand Forks or UND athletes, four of the five "numbers" factoids being about UND athletes or coaches (including Bowenkamp's dII title game record 28 completions), and Grand Forks having the most factoids in the "who and where" section. NDSU fans can't be happy about being referred to as the "Bisons." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choyt3 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 NDSU fans can't be happy about being referred to as the "Bisons." But now they are D I (aa)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BisonMav Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 But now they are D I (aa)! That we are happy about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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