Dakota Marker

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 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 itself was the brainchild of Adam Jones, then President of the NDSU Chapter of Blue Key National Honor Society.

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.

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 at the time. 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 2011 season, the Dakota Marker series stands even at 4-4, with NDSU currently in possession of the trophy after having won the last two meetings. Since the inception of the Dakota Marker series, the home team has won six of the eight games. The Bison, through 2011, lead the overall series 53-40, with 5 ties. The Bison are 31-13 vs SDSU in Fargo with 3 ties, while the Jackrabbits are 27-22 against NDSU in Brookings, with 2 ties. The series includes 17 straight wins by the Bison from 1976-1992.

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.

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 in front of a record Fargodome crowd of 19,053 fans. The Bison entered the game ranked #4 in Championship Subdivision, while the Jackrabbits carried the #18 ranking. After several lead changes throughout the game, NDSU was up 31-28 with 6:13 left when Travis White, who also caught eight passes for 91 yards in the game, sealed a Bison win and the conference title by scoring on an 84-yard punt return. The Bison would add a late FG for a 41-28 win. 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 10-1, while SDSU ended their season at 7-4.

In the 2007 meeting, held in Brookings, the Jackrabbits took the Marker back and claimed their only Great West championship with a 29-24 win in front of a record 16,345 fans, the largest crowd to ever see a football game at the Coughlin-Alumni Stadium to date. 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, but 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. 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 featured a close contest once again, this time in Fargo. With NDSU up 24-17 midway through the final period, SDSU capped a late drive with a 1-yard TD pass from Ryan Berry to JaRon Harris to bring the Jacks within a point. SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier, with his team already out of playoff contention, gambled and sent his offense out for the two-point conversion. Berry hit Mike Steffen, who had not caught a pass all game, for the two points and SDSU had a 25-24 lead with 2:20 remaining. The Bison had a chance to come back, but Bison QB Nick Mertens was intercepted by Conrad Kjerstad and the Jackrabbits ran the clock down to 2 seconds from there. Mertens' last-gasp pass only took the Bison to midfield, giving the Jackrabbits their first win in Fargo since 1962.

In the 2009 contest in Brookings, SDSU made it three straight Dakota Marker wins with a 28-13 victory. The game was broken open early in the 2nd quarter when Bison QB Nick Mertens threw a pass into the left flat that was picked off by SDSU's Derek Domino, who returned it 16 yards for an SDSU touchdown and a 14-7 lead. It was the first of Domino's two interceptions in the game, and the Jackrabbits would lead the rest of the way.

The 2010 game in Fargo, won by NDSU 31-24, turned on two key interception returns for touchdowns by the Bison. In the first quarter, defensive lineman Coulter Boyer picked off SDSU's Thomas O'Brien on the Jacks four-yard line and scored to give NDSU the early 7-0 lead. The Jacks would come back to force a 14-all tie as the third quarter drew to a close, but a D.J. McNorton touchdown run late in the period gave NDSU the lead for good at 21-14. After an early 4th quarter field goal, NDSU's Josh Gatlin put the game out of reach by picking O'Brien off and returning it 51 yards for a game-clinching touchdown.

The 2011 matchup in Brookings saw the Bison, who entered the contest 6-0 on the season, capture their second straight win in the series by a 38-14 count. It was NDSU's first win in Brookings since 1999 and their first road win in the Dakota Marker series. The Bison led 10-0 at the half, thanks in large part to two missed field goals of short distances by SDSU's Justin Syrovatka. After the teams traded TD's to start the 2nd half, the Bison put the game away at the 10-minute mark of the final period, as NDSU's Ryan Smith broke the game open with a 41-yard punt return for a TD.