Fans Were ‘North Dakota Nice’ After Hawkeye Game

The Hawkeyes lost over the weekend to North Dakota State, 23-21. It was a great game, just not the outcome us Hawk fans were looking forward to. I attended the festivities on Saturday - here's my report:

We all know what happened. I won't bore you with that. The thing that surprised me the most was the amount of NDSU fans that made the trip to Iowa City. It was crazy to see so much green and yellow. They were everywhere! At times it sounded like it was an NDSU home game!

I will say this, the NDSU fans I encountered were pretty cool. Most of them were drinking heavily before the game and having a great time. They were smiling and enjoying themselves in the big IC. This was a vacation for most of these people. They love their football team and their football team is pretty good....we found that out the hard way.

When it was all over, the fans didn't rush the field. They didn't taunt us after the game. They just smiled, cheered and exited the stadium. They were thrilled that their team came into our house and took care of business. I've never seen such happy fans after a game, it's as if they just won the National Championship.

The final act of coolness for me was at the post game tailgate party. Our group was out of beer. We had lost the game and now our cooler is empty. What else could go wrong? Next to us was a group of giddy NDSU fans. They had won, we had lost and they were all smiles. They felt bad for our group and kindly offered up a beer. Not one beer, an entire twelve pack. They sat with us, talked about the game, and shared a cold brew on a warm Saturday afternoon. I quickly forgot about the game and realized there is much more to college football then then final score.

We lost the game but I was happy I met some new friends and witnessed such an exciting game. I still bleed black and gold, but the NDSU fans will always have a soft spot in my liver...I mean heart.   GO HAWKS!