One year ago, ESPN’s College GameDay program came to Fargo to celebrate North Dakota State’s football success. The stars did their schtick, we rolled out of bed pre-dawn by the thousands to watch the spectacle and a baby bison walked the red carpet outside the Fargo Theatre to the adoration of a worldwide television audience.
A star was born. Its name was Corso.
Fargo was the center of the college football world for that one day. The weather was perfect, the setting in downtown Fargo was perfect and the team ended up being perfect.
How do you top that? Can you top that?
We’ll soon find out.
The ESPN crew is coming back this weekend to celebrate the success of the mighty Bison. The rumors of a return visit began circulating Saturday morning when a GameDay producer sent out a tweet indicating if the Bison beat Weber State later that day, the show would return to Fargo. The Bison did their part, winning 24-7 in Utah, and ESPN fulfilled its promise. It announced it was doing a Fargo sequel.
“I haven’t even coached a home game myself and now GameDay is coming. It’s great for our community, it’s great for our university, I’m excited for my players,” Bison coach Chris Klieman said after the victory. “What a neat thing to have them come back. It just shows how much Fargo-Moorhead means to GameDay. We’re excited.”
The question becomes the one I asked rhetorically a few paragraphs ago: How do you top, or even equal, what happened last year?
Last year’s GameDay was so unexpected that everybody just sort of walked around the entire week like a bunch of slack-jacked rubes. Downtown Fargo was transformed into a Hollywood movie set with ESPN’s big-time stage. The city did whatever ESPN asked, including closing off streets and providing security.
The day was unlike any I’d experienced before in 25 years in the Fargo-Moorhead media.
As I wrote in a web site column on the evening of GameDay’s visit:
It was part community celebration, part shameless groveling, part kegger party, part pathetic insecurity, part chest-thumping, part psychiatrist’s couch, part street dance.
It was also well-deserved.
Mostly, it was just damn fun.
For one day, we got to be the place where everybody else wanted to be. For one day, we were cool. For one day, others were envious of us.
They like us. They really like us. I can live with that.
Could this visit be even bigger and better?
Bigger, for sure. I visited with NDSU president Dean Bresciani in Ogden, Utah, before the Bison’s game against Weber State. The president said ESPN had contacted the school not long after NDSU’s victory over Iowa State. ESPN’s producers asked Bresciani whether he thought the same number of Bison fans would turn out to cheer on the GameDay crew.
“I said no … there’ll be more,” Bresciani said.
He’s right. With a little more lead time and an idea of what to expect, there could be one helluva party Saturday morning in Fargo.
Does that mean it’ll be better? Much will depend on the weather. One year ago, it was a perfect September day – sunny, calm and temperatures in 60s and 70s. The forecast this time doesn’t look so bright. And there’s always the fear of the second time being too contrived and not living up to expectations. There’s always something good about spontaneity and the unexpected.
But what is NDSU and Fargo to do? Say no to the mighty ESPN and all that worldwide air time for the city and the school. No chance.
There is nothing to do but enjoy the ride while it lasts. I need to keep reminding myself that it wasn’t so long ago – 2002, to be exact — that NDSU was a Division II program that went 2-8 under Bob Babich. Nobody, not even the great visionary and interior decorator Joe Chapman, could’ve envisioned Bison football becoming what it has become.
I thought last year’s GameDay visit was a once-in-a-lifetime happening for NDSU and Fargo. Just one more thing I’ve been wrong about in the Bison’s move to Division I.
(Mike McFeely is a talk-show host on 790 KFGO-AM in Fargo-Moorhead. He can be heard weekdays 2-5 p.m. Follow him on Twitter @MikeMcFeelyKFGO.)