Anyone who has regularly attended NDSU football games is likely familiar with Bill Ongstad, also known as “The Bison Guy.” Bill’s claim to fame is wearing a full buffalo fur coat to every home football game, and this Sunday he spoke about his passion for the North Dakota State Bison.
Bill started the conversation off by talking about his first NDSU football game experience in 1969. He was a first-year student in college attending NDSU for agriculture. He recalled the cheer “All the way for P.J.” who was the running back at the time. Fans would sneak bottles and pints into the games by hiding them in blankets and their cowboy boots. And there were male cheerleaders called Rajahs that were in fraternities. The energy at the games was still high back in 1969 when they would go on to win the championship game.
He met his wife at the university where she was going for Child Development and Family Relations. The two farmed together for 20 years at Harvey before she took over her family’s Whitman Ranch in 1998. Their farms lay exactly 45 miles apart on the same section line. They ended up having five children together and two of them went to North Dakota State.
Bill continued to go to football games after he graduated and became a more dedicated fan in the late 80s when he started going with a close friend of his, Rocky Hager. Ongstad then became a season ticket holder and has been one since 2004. When 2013 came around, he came across a leather store in the Stockyards area that had a bison cape which he bought. After buying the cape, his sister-in-law got him a hard hat and bison fur on the internet. She then glued the fur onto the cape and mounted horns on the hard hat. A year later, he bought a full buffalo robe at Hensen Fur in Minot, making the piece complete.
Over the years, he has posed in hundreds of photos with fans at the games even though he probably will never see most of them. He explained how last week a college student came up to him and showed a picture of her with Bill around 10 years ago when she was a little girl. “It’s been great fun” he added while telling the story. That is a big reason he loves doing what he does.
Bill has been driven by his passion for NDSU football to attend many games throughout the years. “Well, it’s the desire to be close to excellence,” he replied when asked what it was that made him so committed to this goal. He said that Bison fans and players are goal-oriented and always striving for excellence. Those who call themselves Bison are positive people striving for excellence, and they have pride and tradition which means a lot. He said that it is great to be a part of the Herd.
Bill is a perfect representative of NDSU values. He finds great fulfillment in being a dedicated fan of his school. Lastly, he said that something that he wants everyone to remember is that “you only need to give about half in life to get by, but that’s not excellence. Remember to incorporate excellence in your life.”