GRAND FORKS -- The year was 1953 or 1954, I can't remember which. I was a student at South Junior High in Grand Forks then, before we moved away to Northfield, Minn., not far away from Kenyon, where I spent my grade school years.
My ties to Minnesota were more established than a connection to North Dakota then. But my father, the first pastor at Calvary Lutheran in Grand Forks and an avid sports fan himself, took me to my first college hockey game, in the old and cold Winter Sports Center.
The opponent? The Minnesota Gophers. already a budding major rival of the then-Fighting Sioux of North Dakota U.
I knew little about hockey, and I certainly didn't understand how intense the rivalry was even then between the bordering states.
With stronger ties from my eight years in Minnesota following my very early years in Montana, I of course had a reason, I thought, to cheer for the Gophers as I sat next to my Dad.
My cheering didn't long. My Dad, the new pastor in a new church, looked at me and said, 'son, I'm the new pastor trying to build a congregation. It won't help me do that if you sit next to me and cheer for Minnesota.' "
So he told me to either cheer for North Dakota, or go find another seat away from him to sit in.
So I got up and moved, finding an open seat on the other side of the rink. There, I cheered for Minnesota. The UND fans around me didn't like that much, either.
We left Grand Forks in 1955 but I returned here in 1969 to take a job as sports editor of the Grand Forks Herald. I stayed as a sportswriter for the Herald until my retirement in 2005.
Back in Grand Forks, one of my reporting beats at the Herald was covering UND hockey, a job I loved. Since then, I have written for UND Media Relations every hockey season.Â
Hard to find better jobs than that, right?
So here we go again this weekend, the Gophers back in town to battle the North Dakota FIGHTING HAWKS.
If I was a kid now, I'd be sitting next to Dad and cheering for North Dakota. My Dad passed away in 1973, but somehow, he knows his only son is now cheering for the right team!
Under the recruiting and coaching of Gino Gasparini, UND soon became a national power after he took over the program as head coach in 1969.
The program has remained powerful under the men who followed Gasparini, including now with former UND player under Gasparini,
Dane Jackson, at the helm for his first year.
This rivalry has had so many great moments, great games, too many to mention here.
I remember the time this rivalry nearly ended, when Don Lucia coached the Gophers.
He said the rivalry had become too intense, that they needed to take a break from playing each other for a while.Â
I recall saying to him that this is the rivalry and games that the fans AND players on both sides most enjoy.
Thankfully, though they are no longer in the same conference, the rivalry has continued and will, hopefully, forever.
Virg Foss has written about UND hockey every season since 1969. He can be contacted at virgfoss@yahoo.com.
