North Dakota
A quick ‘Hello’ … again … from The South
When a person L-O-V-E-S their job, vacation can be interminable and excruciating.
The very first thought that popped into my head — after buying the plane tickets — was North Dakota’s May sports calendar (which features the glidepaths of track & field, baseball, softball and all the rest for prep student/athletes trying to finish strong) combined with a genuine need for a vacation, along with seeing Mom for Mother’s Day. But THE WORK is important because while my existence in North Dakota only is 15-months-old, those young people have been working hard for years and I owe it to them.
So, The Dickinson Press has allowed me to write from the road and it took a bit of weight offa my shoulders. Having a conscience also can be an encouragement and I know how important y’all’s kids are to you … that matters.
So, since May 5, Florida-Man has returned home and dwelt in his old-stomping-grounds and my southern neighbors, friends and family have been oh-so accommodating (see: photo-gallery contained within) to meet me for cocktails, invite me onto the boat and just relax to shoot-the-breeze. Yes, I’m only a week-in, but the plans are to maximize the next few days before returning to Dickinson.
It still am happy to do the job while I’m on vacation because I love doing it with all my heart … and one of the reasons I’m grateful to Forum for allowing me to write from home is because the stories still need to be told, and the job simply HAS to get done because the games always will go on for the young people we cover in community journalism. I always was sold from the start on community journalism because there is only one place you can read about a game between Richardton-Taylor and Beach (or: Insert area high school teams here _________) so I know how important it is to you.
Nonetheless, my birthday always coincides with Mother’s Day and so I decided to go home for the first time in a few years. The first thing I noticed was that while we in ND have I-94, the East Coast of Florida has I-95, and that’s a striking difference. I brag on my adopted hometown in Dickinson for having very-little traffic, and I’d forgotten just how bad it is down here. It’s misery-inducing.
Don’t get me wrong, the weather is great … but it’s still incredibly hot. And yet, there’s a pool outside to take the edge off and if you’re fishing out on the boat in the Atlantic the water is just over the side (likewise at the beach). Hanging out at the bar for a couple of cocktails with the locals also means one shall sweat a little, but there are awnings, water-mister-fans and air conditioning inside if the humidity starts to create problems. You get used to it.
Connecting the dots of seeing friends also can be complicated, because while I’m on “vacation” they still have jobs to do from Monday through Friday and I don’t like making demands on my buddies. But it’s been relatively easy to catch up with people because I know their habits. Truth-be-told, it’s still quite obvious that life hasn’t changed here much, and there’s less of it to miss each day.
In the meantime, my life has altered dramatically. Frankly, I’m grateful for those changes, because — while it’s awesome to get back down to Jensen — every day in my new home is different. Not one is precisely the same, and while there are similarities each 24 hours is unduplicatable and not one week is anything like the other. I’ve known for quite awhile that I live a charmed-life, and it takes a few days’-worth of time to step away and remind me just how charming it is.
Yeah … I’ve been asked how I could move away from “paradise” to Dickinson — countless times — and I always say roughly the same thing: It was time for a change and I love being a sportswriter. Because I’m somewhat selfish, I managed to work it out and be able to do all that while seeing my Mom and get a few stories in for y’all during the trip.
I’m about halfway in and it’s been fun, and I’ve sent some of y’all snapshots of what I’m been doing … but here are some more just so you know what’s happening down here:
Yes, Florida-Man is back in his element; but I sort of miss the elements up-home and definitely will be happy to get back to the 701 area code (side-note: When somebody asks me for my phone number at a restaurant or to get back in touch with me for something, they say, “Where’s that?” When I tell them “North Dakota” they invariably start doing that ridiculous imitation of the lady in “FARGO” … do they do that to y’all when you’re traveling?!? because it’s annoying).
In any event, I will see y’all in a couple of weeks and be home just-in-time for all the postseason North Dakota prep sports you can handle. See-you-soon.
Gaylon is a sportswriter who originally is from Jensen Beach, Fla. (and, currently writing from there) and his column generally appears on Mondays. He can be reached at
gparker@thedickinsonpress.com
and/or 701-456-1213.
Gaylon is a sportswriter from Jensen Beach, Fla., but has lived all over the world. Growing up with an athletic background gave him a love of sports that led to a journalism career in such places as Enid, Okla., Alamogordo, N.M., Pascagoula, Miss. and Viera, Fla. since 1998. His main passion is small-town community sports, particularly baseball and soccer.
Today in History revisits the Tuesday, December 29. 1959 edition of the Grand Forks Herald and highlights a story on the UND Hockey team being names North Dakota team of the year.
The University of North Dakota hockey team was named “Team of the Year” after winning the NCAA Championship in a 4-3 overtime victory over Michigan State. Forward Reg Morelli was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Runner-up honors went to the Bismarck High basketball team for winning its third straight Class A title.
Sioux Ice Champs N. D. Team Of Year
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (as published by the Grand Forks Herald on Dec. 29, 1959)
North Dakota hockey stock reached a peak early in 1959 when the University sextet captured the NCAA championship with a 4-3 overtime victory over Michigan State.
The feat earned the Sioux icemen the accolade of “team of the year” in the annual Associated Press poll of sports editors and sports directors.
Runner-up honors in the balloting went to the Bismarck high school basketball team, which won its third straight Class A high school title.
The St. Mary’s high school football team, which came from no- where to win the Class A grid crown, won third place.
The University hockey team had taken western championship for the first time the year before, and finished second to Denver in the 1957-58 NCAA tournament.
As the 1958-59 campaign rolled around there were many problems to be solved if the Sioux were to maintain their position atop the college hockey world.
One by one the questions were resolved, and on March 14, at Troy, N. Y., North Dakota went into overtime to cop the coveted NCAA title.
Tremendous spirit marked the Sioux climb to the top. The North Dakota team won four games during the season in overtime, including two in the NCAA meet.
Members of the championship team included George Gratton and Bob Peabody, goalies; Ralph Lyndon, Julian Butherta, Pete Gaze- ly and Bob Began on defense; and Jerry Walford, Stan Paschke, Guy LaFrance, Art Miller, Ed Thomlinson, Joe Poole, Les Merrifield, Ron King, Bart Larson, Bernie Haley, Garth Perry and Reg Morelli, forwards.
Morelli Voted Most Valuable
Morelli was voted most valuable player in the NCAA tourney. Morelli and Thomlinson were on the first team and Lyndon and Poole on the tournament’s second team.
The Bismarck basketball feat of three straight state championships tied a record set by Fargo in 1922- 23-24. The Demons had an overall 21-3 record, averaged 61.6 points per game and held opponents to 49.3 per tilt on the season.
Starters were Ron Carlson and Bob Smith at forward, Rod Tjaden at center and Art Winter and Rich Olthoff at guards.
Carlson and Winter were all-west choices.
Here are “team of the year” choices, points in parenthesis:
- UND hockey (37)
- Bismarck high basketball (24)
- St. Mary’s high football (16)
- Bottineau high basketball (11)
- Valley City Teachers basket- ball (10)
- Williston high wrestling (5)
- Grand Forks Legion baseball (2)
- Shanley high football (1)
- NDAC football (1).
Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.
A storm bearing down on the Great Lakes and New England is expected to bring rain, snow, and high winds over the next few days.
A narrow band from Fargo, North Dakota south to approximately Mason City, Iowa is under a blizzard warning ahead of the storm. That includes parts of of both states as well as parts of Minnesota. Winds in the affected areas are forecast to reach 45 miles per hour and, paired with an expected 3 to 8 inches of snow, are expected to create whiteout conditions through the start of the week.
Michigan’s upper peninsula is under a blizzard warning as well. There, snowfall is expected to be between 9 inches and 2 feet, and winds are expected to reach as high as 60 miles per hour, ABC News reports.
The National Weather Service has issued winter weather advisories for parts of the northeast, from the Scranton, Pennsylvania up through Burlington, Vermont and Portland, Maine. Freezing rain is expected in that area on Sunday and Monday.
Buffalo and Jamestown, New York, are also both under flood watches from Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon.
Back in the Great Lakes region, both Cleveland and Detroit are bracing for high winds. Forecasters expect the cities will see gusts of up to 60 miles per hour on Sunday night through early Tuesday morning.
In the upper midwest, both Minneapolis and Green Bay are forecast to see between 5 to 9 inches of snow. A level 1 of 5 severe storm threat exists in a stretch from northern Indiana south into Missouri. That band includes Indianapolis, St Louis, Louisville, and Nashville. The affected region will be subject to high speed, damaging wind gusts, according to Fox Weather.
The storm began dropping snow on Sioux Falls and Fargo early on Sunday morning, and will continue to sweep east across the northern sections of the U.S. The midwest will begin to see storm conditions on Sunday afternoon, and the northeast will be affected shortly thereafter.
Road travelers in the affected regions should be wary. Parts of the I-95 corridor between Philadelphia and Boston may be made treacherous by freezing rain around 5 pm on Sunday night.
Forecasters believe that the storm system will clear by Monday night, though lake-effect snow is likely to follow in its wake for Great Lakes communities. That snow will likely continue into Tuesday and potentially Wednesday.
In northern New England, wintry precipitation may produce up to a quarter of an inch of ice in the area. While the interior northeast is expected to receive some lake-effect snow as well, forecasters believe snowfall in the region will be lighter.
The storm comes on the heels of another winter weather system that swept across the northeast earlier this week, dropping snow on New York and New Jersey and forcing thousands of flights to be either cancelled or delayed.
LINCOLN, N.D. (KFYR) – Lincoln got its very own cat cafe last week.
Ashley Kneavel learned about cat cafes while visiting another state.
“I fell in love with the concept and wanted to bring something like that to North Dakota,” said Kneavel.
And so with the help of Furry Friends Rockin’ Rescue director Julie Schirado, she got to work.
“About a year ago, I think it was, we started building this together,” said Kneavel.
Furry Friends’ role in the operation? Providing the cats. All of them are pre-vetted, meaning they are spayed and neutered and fully vaccinated.
Meaning they’re also ready for adoption.
“Instead of them sitting at a shop, they get to sit in an atmosphere that’s closely resembled to a home,” said Kneavel.
The cafe has already had three of its four-legged residents adopted.
“It’s a great thing to see when somebody comes in and connects with them on a deep level and takes them home,” said Kneavel. “It’s just… I don’t even know how to describe it, it’s just very rewarding.”
One of her goals in the future is to install a drive-thru window.
To learn how to adopt a furry pal from the cafe, or how to book a visit, click here.
Copyright 2025 KFYR. All rights reserved.
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