It is a large block of stone. It isn't made of wood. It isn't dipped in gold. It has not been carved into the image of a football. There isn't a corporate logo. The letters "S.D.", "N.D." and "190 M" were written in block letters.
It is made from a relic that was exposed on the Earth's surface by the flow of a river more than 10,000 years ago. The trophy isn't old enough to buy itself a drink. The rough-hewn reward for winning the most intense rivalry in college football is still timeless 18 years later.
The 75 pound Dakota Marker will be hoisted on the floor of the Fargodome by either the North Dakota State Bison or the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. A pair of schools separated by 190 miles by a border that is watched over by an 800-pound stone from the ancestors of the trophy they fight to possess.
The history of the Marker is amazing, and it would be special on its own. When asked about the rivalry in which he went 2-0 as a starter, the Washington Commanders quarterback said it was the story of the Dakotas. "Then you add what is at stake in this game, what always seems to be at stake in this game, and it just adds what the marker means by a hundred."
The teams will kick off at 3 PM on Saturday. The winner will move into the inside lane for the Missouri Valley Conference title and home field advantage in the playoffs.
They are looking for their 10th title in the last four years. Two years ago the Jacks lost the title game by two points. This will be the 10th time they have met as a top 10 team. The most recent one was a win in the national semifinals for the North Dakota State University football team. Two Dakota Marker losses to the Jackrabbits have been the only regular-season losses for North Dakota State. The two teams had a chance to play for the national title in December, but lost in the semis.
Nineteen people from North Dakota and three from South Dakota are on the team. There are 29 South Dakotans on the Jackrabbits' roster. Grant Olson was an All-American at the University of North Dakota State and won three national titles. Josh Davis holds the school record for most catches in a single game with 16 and the quarterbacks coach threw 29 touchdown passes for the Jacks. The All-American running back for North Dakota State ran for 263 yards against Minnesota in a Big Ten money game. Jimmy Rogers played for the Jackrabbits and recorded over 300 tackles. South Dakota State almost took the Dakota Marker in 2007, thanks to a head-in collision with the other side of the field. They matched wits as offensive and defensive coordinators.
"There's a level of frustration because you can't go back in time and redo what you did as a player, and that's why I'm talking about the two Marker games I lost as a player, not the one my team won," he says, trying to That is the reason I am back. You can keep working to have an impact on the game and put our players in a good position to succeed. I think they're nice. I want to defeat them.
Rogers is sitting at a desk covered in old-school books. I didn't hoist the marker. I've never done that so don't ask. Not as a coach. The other guys are allowed to do that. I don't want to be missing my favorite part.
What is that, coach?
I watched them leave the field. They have to leave that field.
Oh yeah. That is how it is.
"We all know each other so well, maybe a little too well," says fourth-year North Dakota State University head coach Matt Entz. The same kids are recruited. Many of the guys I tried to sign are down there. I was close to going to work for the coach at the time. Imagine how different our world would be. This all is very close.
The measure of a true rivalry comes from how much people talk about the game.
He has been the head coach for 26 years and has been on the staff for 36 years. The native of South Dakota is a South Dakota State University graduate. They talk about the game every day of the year. It was not always like that. That is the case now.
The first meeting of Dakota Agricultural College and North Dakota Agricultural College took place in 1903. The three years lost to World War II are the only missing years. The University of North Dakota and the University of South Dakota were the schools with the most venom in the series.
As the 21st century rolled around, both North Dakota State University and South Dakota State University looked at moving from NCAA Division II to what is now called I-AA, now called the Football Championship Subdivision.
If we were going to make that jump, we needed a partner to do it. Both of us agreed that we'd do it together. We shook hands at the border.
A picture taken from a "Yellowstone" script is what it sounds like, it is a moment that is so Dakotas it sounds completely made up. A group of people, including a pair of college football coaches, a pair of athletic directors and a couple of university administrators, leaned into the wind to shake hands.
Stiegelmeier remembers standing by one of the Dakota Markers when they met. The only way to go was with a name and trophy, the Dakota Marker.
The Dakota Territory is the northernmost part of the Louisiana Purchase. The territory was split in half in the 20th century because it was too large to become a state. On November 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed the papers that separated North and South Dakota. He requested that the documents be shuffled so that no one would accuse him of playing favorites because he was warned that the two states were already talking about which would become a state first.
The seventh standard parallel is located at 4556'07" north latitude. Everyone needed to know where the border was. The process began with the help of the North Star above the prairie. The tristate corner was found by a group of men. They filled the posthole with a 7-foot-long, 800-pound marker and buried it halfway. The part of the marker above ground was marked with "ND" to the north, "SD" to the south and "M" to the east. The initial monument was added to this marker.
The crew marched from Minnesota to Montana. It took a long time. The two-day snowstorm covered their work under a 30-foot snowdrift. They spiked a total of 720 markers into the ground, which were delivered by steamboat and train to be picked up by his team.
The Dakota Markers faded from the memory of most Dakotans. They sank under their own weight. Angry farmers dug up others. Many were thought to be fence posts. Volunteer groups were formed to try to save the markers that were left.
A drive earlier this week to find the initial monument was met with questions from twilight combine operators and one woman who came out onto the front porch of her farmhouse. This is where the marker is. You made it all the way out here in that car!
Stiegelmeier said that people who had lived here their whole lives had no idea what a Dakota Marker was. They do now. Thanks to a sporting event.
Not just a sporting event. Regardless of what NCAA designation the game is played under, it will probably be the greatest football game of the season. There are people around neighbors. There are people who are enemies. They have to cross the line each fall to get a marker to show us where it is. They fight for a trophy that is unique to them.
We want to fight.
We were all in this together when this game began under the new idea of the Dakota Marker. Let's move up and have fun. It lasted less than a game. The Jacks threw a 22-yard touchdown pass with 39 seconds to go to win the game. They know we mean business and they know they mean it. We need to beat them to win a national championship. We need to beat them anyways. I don't care if we are 0-6 at the start.
My record is 11-7 and I have been a part of 18 of them. I recall the losses more than the victories now. I recall that they have won the Marker twice in a row.
As he talks, a vein begins to grow from his neck. Rogers does the same thing. They both recall games. There was a 2-point conversion at the end of the 2008 season. Easton Stick in the year 18. Both schools hosted College GameDay. There are four playoffs games.
Both of them sat up straight. Both of them get teary eyed. The faces of both of them turned red. It's clear that the color is unmistakable. The color is quartzite.
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