Kolpack: He married into Bison football frenzy and loves it

Forum photo Opinion by Jeff Kolpack Today at 6:11 PM Listen Comments Share Share this article Opinion Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. The Trust Project What is this? HONOLULU — The journey started with a 5 a.m. flight that lasted five hours from Baltimore to Seattle on Alaskan Airlines. From there it was another five hours to Honolulu. Hey, Arturo Freije married into this. He married into following North Dakota State football, jumping on the bandwagon when he met his wife Brenda Freije, an NDSU graduate. He was fully decked out for the sun of Honolulu in a yellow NDSU bucket hat, yellow rimmed sunglasses and a “We Are Bison Nation” T-shirt. ADVERTISEMENT “Been the best ride of my life other than my wife,” said Aturo, who went to school in the Washington, D.C.,area. The Bison football game at the University of Hawaii is at 10 p.m. (CT) Saturday. That’s 6 p.m. Honolulu time, it just seems more than four time zones away. Arturo and Brenda were at the Air Force game this season, have been to Frisco for the FCS national title game and saw games in Tennessee. This one took some extra effort. “Along the way we’ve seen everybody,” Arturo said of Bison fans. “It was just an amazing feeling being that we’re all coming together and traveling this far together.” The Hawaii game represents another step up in the traveling Bison fan road show that essentially started in the 1980s in the old Division II North Central Conference. Games at the likes of St. Cloud State, South Dakota State and of course North Dakota were by far the most well attended by a visiting team in the league. Success and distance were two main reasons, with St. Cloud a 2-1/2-hour drive, Brookings 3 hours and UND a short jaunt up Interstate 29. This fall has been different in travel. NDSU fans were spotted at a variety of areas on Oahu and specifically the touristy Waikiki Beach. ADVERTISEMENT Perhaps the best way to check out the landscape was a Thursday bicycle tour that Arturo, Brenda and 12 others participated in. Honolulu is a metro city that seemingly has the look and density of a smaller San Francisco. That’s the thing about the Mountain West Conference, it’s brought destination games into the picture. Sacramento is an underrated city in California. The Air Force Academy experience was both breathtaking in scenery of the Rocky Mountains and culture in the life of a cadet. Albuquerque had a southwestern charm to it as well as a New Mexico football team that has energized its fan base. The Lobos game this year remind me of the 2011 Bison in taking a major step up in caliber. Las Vegas is Las Vegas. Two Bison fans, Steve Arntson and Ronda Hannesson who live in the Phoenix area, had a faster way of checking out Oahu: rent a motorcycle from a downtown Honolulu bike shop and zip around the island. “Coming to Hawaii is a great attraction, something different to a new conference,” Arntson said. “The Mountain West has been a lot of fun and enjoyable for us. We’re going to the tourist spots here, the north shore, and really have a great time visiting and meeting great people. There are a lot of NDSU fans wearing their colors so we identify each other pretty well.” We won’t leave you without passing on some local language knowledge: Aloha, this is Lepi coming to you on Thursday from Waikiki Beach, an ono place where pau hana lives in prime time. Here ends my lesson in the local Hawaiian language. Aloha of course is hello or goodbye, Lepi means Jeff, ono means delicious and pau hana stands for ending work and time to socialize. ADVERTISEMENT Aloha. Comments Share Share this article Opinion Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags BISON FOOTBALL BISON MEDIA ZONE INFORUM BISMARCK MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE Opinion by Jeff Kolpack Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough," "Covid Kids" and "They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel." He is also the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August. 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