A border battle rages on for the 105th time for North Dakota State this weekend, and with it, its 13th trophy game.
The Bison will play for the Dakota Marker trophy during its annual matchup against the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits on Saturday in the Fargodome. The last time the teams played was Oct. 3, in Brookings, S.D., when the Herd won 28-7.
The trophy
The Dakota Marker trophy is the crown jewel between the two teams’ rivalry.
Adam Jones, the then-president of NDSU’s Blue Key Honor Society, initially hatched the idea of the trophy.
Jones proposed the trophy as NDSU and SDSU had simultaneously made the jump from Division-II football in 2004 to Division-I, losing both the University of North Dakota and the University of South Dakota as their home state rivals, respectively. UND and USD remained in D-II at the time.
Aaron Weber, Blue Key’s current president, said the trophy is a great tradition that the honor society has been a part of for more than a decade. He added that he is very privileged to be a part of the tradition, and his role is a small yet important one nonetheless.
Weber said that the trophy was created to strengthen the rivalry between NDSU and SDSU, adding that the two schools should have it as they are “straight down (I-)29 from one another” and are both land-grant institutions.
“We’ve been pretty spoiled,” Weber said. “I’m confident we’re going to have it for another year.”
He added that the trophy is “really heavy,” weighing in at just under 80 pounds. The trophy’s base tacks on another hundred-plus pounds, as well.
The trophy is a “real neat idea,” North Dakota state senator Tim Flakoll said. Flakoll is a former Blue Key member who was a part of the organization in the days when the Nickel Trophy was held in competition with UND.
He added that the Nickel Trophy was always obtained in clever ways, and was once mailed to former N.D. Governor Ed Schafer, saying that he was short on education funding that year.
That trophy, which was one of the longest-running rivalry games in the U.S., was discontinued in 2003.
Flakoll said NDSU’s rivalry with SDSU is one of the “greater wars” NDSU has had.
Jones was unavailable for comment at press time.
Original markers
Dakota markers at one point were the sole divvying objects along the seventh standard parallel, dividing the land into North and South Dakota.
The markers were originally placed every half mile along the state divide, with the endpoints touching the Montana and Minnesota borders.
Seven-hundred-twenty markers were originally placed following a law passed by Congress in 1890 and around half of the quartzite rocks still remain standing today, the Meade County Times-Tribune reported.
Flakoll said that his maternal grandparents had an original marker on the corner of one of their pastures. He added that it weighed around 530 pounds and was over 5 feet tall, four of which stood out of the ground.