Dakota Marker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| NDSU (2) | SDSU (2) |
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| 2005 2006 | 2004 2007 |
The Dakota Marker is the trophy awarded to the winner of the annual college football game played between the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Bison, located in Fargo, North Dakota and the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Jackrabbits, located in Brookings, South Dakota. Both schools are members of the Division I Championship Subdivision Great West Football Conference. In 2008, the schools will continue the rivalry as the newest members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
The Dakota Marker is a model replica of the quartzite monuments that were used to decipher the border between North and South Dakota when Dakota Territory was split into 2 states along the Seventh Standard Parallel. On June 4th, 1891, Charles Bates signed a contract and used quartzite monuments made in Sioux Falls to mark the boundary. Each monument stood seven feet tall and ten inches square at the top and were placed at half-mile intervals. The monuments were inscribed with the initials "N.D." on the north side and "S.D." on the south side. It took the Yankton, South Dakota man the summers of 1891 and 1892 to install the 720 monuments and finish the Dakota border marker project.
The trophy was unveiled to the public on April 21, 2004 at a ceremony just outside Hankinson, North Dakota, a small community that lies adjacent to the North Dakota/South Dakota border.
The trophy is sponsored by the NDSU chapter of Blue Key National Honor Society and the SDSU Student Association.
The Dakota Marker's inscription includes the following: N.D. to represent North Dakota, S.D. to represent South Dakota, and 190 M to represent the distance in miles between Fargo, ND and Brookings, SD.
[edit] Game History
While the two teams had played each other for many years as members of the Division II North Central Conference, the move by both schools to the Championship Subdivision level of football prompted the creation of the trophy, as both schools lost their primary rivals (NDSU with the University of North Dakota and SDSU with the University of South Dakota) who remained in the Division II classification. As both teams became members of the newly formed Great West Football Conference, NDSU and SDSU's annual game took on more importance from a regional bragging rights standpoint as the closest "neighbor" football game either team would play.
Through the 2007 season, the Dakota Marker series stands even at 2-2, with SDSU currently in possession of the trophy. Since the inception of the Dakota Marker series, the home team has won all four contests. The Bison, through 2007, lead the overall series 51-38, with 5 ties. The Bison are 30-12 vs SDSU in Fargo with 3 ties, while the Jackrabbits are 26-21 against NDSU in Brookings, with 2 ties. The series includes 17 straight wins by the Bison from 1976-1992. The Bison have also dominated in recent years, with eight wins in the last twelve games.
The inaugural Dakota Marker game was played in Brookings in 2004. SDSU quarterback Brad Nelson threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Chris Moliter with 39 seconds remaining to win the game for the Jackrabbits by a 24-21 count.
In 2005, NDSU claimed their first Dakota Marker win by a 41-17 score in Fargo. With a back-and-forth game tied at 14 midway through the second quarter, the Bison scored on a short TD run by running back Kyle Steffes to take a lead they would not relinquish. Steffes finished the game with 141 yards to go with his three touchdowns. Although the game's final score was lopsided for NDSU, a second-and-goal situation for SDSU at NDSU's one-yard line early in the fourth quarter would prove critical. SDSU QB Ryan Berry scored on a sneak, but the Jackrabbits were called for illegal procedure that appeared to be a result of the Fargodome crowd noise. After the five-yard penalty, Berry threw an incompletion on third down and SDSU instead kicked a field goal to make it 31-17 instead of 31-21. The Jackrabbits would not get on the board the remainder of the game.
The 2006 game in Fargo between the two teams took on extra significance because not only were the rivals playing for the Marker, the winner of the contest would also win the Great West Football Conference championship. Both teams entered the game with perfect 3-0 conference records. The Bison entered the game ranked #4 in Championship Subdivision, while the Jackrabbits carried the #18 ranking.
In that game, the Bison jumped out to an early 10-0 lead. However, SDSU rallied to lead 14-10 at halftime. The lead changed hands three times in the third quarter, and midway through the final period NDSU clung to a 31-28 lead. With 6:13 left, NDSU senior receiver Travis White, who also caught eight passes for 91 yards in the game, sealed the win for the Bison by scoring on an 84-yard punt return. A record Fargodome crowd of 19,053 fans celebrated NDSU's first Great West title with a 41-28 victory. It was the final game of the year for both teams, who at the time were still ineligible for playoff competition at the Championship Subdivision level. The Bison finished the season 10-1, while SDSU ended their season at 7-4.
In the 2007 meeting, held in Brookings, the Jackrabbits took the Marker back with a 29-24 win. As was the case in 2006, the two teams entered the contest with identical 3-0 conference records and thus played a de facto championship game. SDSU jumped to a 20-3 lead early in the 2nd quarter, which included a 94-yard punt return TD by Paul Aanonson. However, behind a pair of Tyler Roehl touchdown runs and a TD reception by Jerimiah Wurzbacher, the Bison rallied to take a 24-23 lead early in the final quarter. On the ensuing drive, a 42-yard TD run by SDSU's Cory Koenig put the Jacks back ahead, and an SDSU interception with just over a minute remaining sealed the game, Dakota Marker, and SDSU's first (and last) Great West championship. The Jacks finished at 7-4 on the season while the Bison, undefeated and ranked #1 in the FCS coaches poll entering the game, suffered the only loss of their season to finish at 10-1.
The 2008 game will be the first matchup between the two teams as members of the Gateway Football Conference. The game, both teams' final conference contest of the season, will take place on Saturday, November 22nd, at NDSU's Fargodome.
