North Dakota
In 46 years in North Dakota newspapers, Herald’s Wayne Nelson made his mark with calmness, kindness
GRAND FORKS — Wayne Nelson spent most of his North Dakota newspaper career in sports, an area with a reputation for late-night chaos and deadline demands.
Nelson is retiring this month after 46 years in the industry, the last 28 at the Grand Forks Herald, and those who worked with and around him will remember how the frantic atmospheres and time-limit pressures never changed Nelson’s demeanor and approach.
“Press row can get intense with deadlines and big personalities and coaches not showing up or stats running late but Wayne never turned into a different person when that happened,” said Jayson Hajdu, who worked in the UND media relations department from 1995 to 2018. “He never took it out on you and made a show. That demeanor was even-keel. That was reflected in his coverage. He didn’t veer into sensational … always even-keel.”
Nelson, a fixture at UND’s Hyslop Sports Center, Memorial Stadium and later the Alerus Center and Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, is a five-time winner of the Sportswriter of the Year award (1986, 1988, 1998, 2001, 2009).
He’s a member of the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame and the Grand Forks River Cities Speedway Hall of Fame. He also wrote news stories during the Herald’s coverage of the 1997 Red River flood, helping the paper win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Nelson started in newspapers in Valley City (1976-1980) and Jamestown (1980-1995) before joining the Herald in 1995.
Virg Foss was a sports reporter at the Herald for 36 years, from 1969 until retiring in 2005.
“Wayne brought a calmness to the situation, by his nature,” Foss said. “He was always under control, never in a visible panic mode. That calmness carried over to the staff working with him on those tight deadlines. I don’t know of anyone at the Herald who didn’t enjoy, and benefit from, working with Wayne.”
Pat Sweeney, also a member of the NDAPSSA Hall of Fame, was the sports director at WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks from 1983 to 2014.
“I always viewed Wayne as someone who does it the right way,” Sweeney said. “He’s always fair and accurate. It was never about him. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like him and how many reporters can have that distinction? He was never a guy to get too worked up about anything. He was very level-headed and calm. That certainly helps at deadline time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a frantic mood. He was steady and calm.”
Nelson covered some of the biggest moments in local sports in the last 30 years.
He was in Florence, Ala., for UND football’s only NCAA Division II national championship in 2001. He was in Pine Bluff, Ark., during UND’s national championship stretch of women’s basketball in the late 1990s. He covered UND’s first NCAA Division I Tournament appearances in women’s and men’s basketball in College Station, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah. He covered Virgil Hill boxing fights, a Frozen Four in Milwaukee and Jerome Beasley’s NBA Draft selection.
“His versatility is incredible,” said Herald sports reporter Brad Schlossman, who has worked with Nelson for the last 20 years. “He can transition from writing about dirt track racing to college football to curling to prep soccer seamlessly. His institutional knowledge about this area and state is remarkable, too. It’s not just sports. He can tell you histories of families, businesses, politics and more. When you have so much knowledge on that many topics, not much can fall through the cracks.”
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
In 2009, Nelson was promoted from sports reporter to sports editor.
Herald Publisher Korrie Wenzel said he’ll always remember how Nelson not only managed the Herald’s award-winning sports department, but also the rapport and respect he developed with staff, sources and those he covered. Mostly, Wenzel said, it’s obvious Nelson truly has enjoyed working in sports.
“Wayne could have easily moved into news management or done most anything else he wanted to do in newspapering or in communications, but he stayed true to his heart,” Wenzel said. “He is dedicated to his craft, and the Herald and our readers have benefited from that dedication and expertise.”
Nelson was the Herald’s longest-tenured sports editor since C.D. Locklin, who started on the job upon returning home from World War I.
“You won’t find a manager who understands and cares about the human aspect of his employees more than Wayne,” Schlossman said. “When personal life and family things conflicted with work, the advice from Wayne was always the same: Take care of that, we’ll figure it out here. There’s a reason why virtually nobody in the sports department has left for other jobs during his 14 years as editor. Beyond being good at his job, he’s a great human being who really cares about people around him.”
Zebra mussels are going to ruin all of our lakes right?
Okay, I know I’m going to take some heat on this, but here goes. We’ve been hearing about zebra mussels for a long time now. How they will destroy ecosystems, ruin beaches, clog up water intakes, compete with native species, etc.
You’ve seen the commercials and billboards from North Dakota Game and Fish, “Clean, Drain and Inspect.” Zebra mussels are a problem, but is it really all doom and gloom? More on that in a moment.
Zebra mussels are now in several North Dakota lakes and rivers, and you can bet more will be added in the future.
They include the Red River, Lake LaMoure, Lake Ashtabula, Lake Elsie, the James River, and the Sheyenne River all in eastern North Dakota.
So far western North Dakota has been spared, but you can bet zebra mussels are coming. Here’s a map and more on ANS-infested waters in North Dakota.
Humans are considered the primary transporter of zebra mussels, but there are other spreaders. According to Researchgate, waterfowl can transfer zebra mussels at the larvae stage.
What are we going to do about millions of migrating waterfowl each year? Not to mention other shorebirds, reptiles, and even mammals.
I’m very familiar with zebra mussels. I have a cabin on Enemy Swim Lake in northeast South Dakota. We’ve had zebra mussels present in the lake now going on for 3 years.
(A very small zebra mussel that was found on our beach this past weekend.)
Enemy Swim is located about 5 miles south of Pickerel Lake in South Dakota. Pickerel Lake has had zebra mussels for a few years longer than my lake.
Despite joint efforts from Fish and Game, cabin owner volunteers, and interns from Fish and Game with inspection points at the boat ramp, zebra mussels still found their way into my lake. I know we all did our part to prevent it, but I sometimes think that eventually, nature will take its course.
Will zebra mussels really ruin a lake?
There’s a lot of big claims and theories out there. No doubt it will affect your beach life. You will have to wear water shoes because zebra muscles can be sharp and could cut your feet. I know I swim with my water shoes normally anyway, as I don’t like creepy crawlies touching my feet in the water.
Will zebra mussels cause your lake property values to crash?
To be honest, no sign of that anywhere. Much of Minnesota’s lakes are infested with zebra mussels. People are still spending millions of dollars for cabins on Minnetonka, Pelican, or Detroit Lakes area lakes.
Even Pickerel Lake, next to my lake has people snatching up some very expensive million-dollar cabins. You can’t even find a cabin for sale on my lake. According to swnewsmedia, there’s no link between a drop in property values and zebra muscles.
Zebra mussels will actually clear up the water they infest.
This might improve the fishing, depending on the lake. Species like Smallmouth Bass, Perch, Walleyes, and even panfish are known to gorge on zebra mussels. You might catch bigger fish because of this.
With cleaner water means you will have more sunlight and more vegetation in the lake. Again, this is thought to improve the size of the fish. Fish will have more places to hide and grow bigger. It may cause anglers to adapt to new strategies to catch fish. In some cases, it could make fishing more difficult.
As far as whether zebra mussels will destroy the ecosystem of lakes?
I’m going to come right out and say it. I think this is highly exaggerated. I’m not a biologist and don’t claim to be one.
Zebra mussels have been in the Great Lakes since the 1980’s. The Walleyes and Smallmouth Bass have never been bigger. People are still catching fish and lakes are still alive.
Zebra mussels have been in Minnesota lakes now for decades and the cabin owners I know say nothing has changed except a little extra cleaning on the docks when they pull them out each year.
Lakes like Lake of the Woods, Mille Lacs, and all of the lakes around Detroit Lakes are still alive and well.
Let’s face it: Even the highly prized Walleye is an invasive species to lakes in our area.
In conclusion:
When zebra mussels reach your favorite lake it will certainly change the ecosystem. Your “lake life” will likely have to adapt to some necessary changes.
However, will zebra mussels turn your lake into a barren wastewater? I don’t think so. Adapt or die. That’s life in a nutshell.
Do I want zebra mussels in our lakes? No, of course not. However, I’m being realistic. Sometimes you have to look for the good with the bad.
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North Dakota
Color of Hockey: Rangers prospect Emery 'comfortable' heading to North Dakota | NHL.com
Murphy played quarterback for North Dakota from 1960-62 and was its coach from 1978-79. He left a lasting impression on Eric Emery, especially after Cal Fullerton went 12-0 in 1984. Murphy died Oct. 29, 2011.
“I guess I kind of transported into EJ, the sense of respect I have for Gene Murphy and what he did for us at Cal Fullerton,” said the elder Emery, who went on to become a linebacker for the BC Lions, Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League from 1985-87.
“He brought us together and he actually told us that we were going to be champions because he saw the capability in us. I just had to have him (EJ) go look at North Dakota because Gene came from there and a lot of his coaches that he brought with him came from there and they were such good guys. So I figured North Dakota must have something going on.”
There’s also a North Dakota connection between the younger Emery and NTDP coach Nick Fohr, who was born and raised in Grand Forks and regularly attended UND games with his father Roger, who was an off-ice official right up until when he died of cancer in January 2023.
“Oh yeah, we talked about it, for sure,” Fohr said. “Pretty cool place for me and it’s pretty cool to have somebody like EJ interested in that place.
“When people think of an EJ Emery, a Black kid that that’s looking to play hockey, rarely are they going to place him in North Dakota, right? We had some really good conversations about the city, the town and what it’s like. From talking to EJ and his family, they (UND) did a really, really, really good job in the recruiting process in making him feel comfortable, letting him see what it’s like and meeting some football players and other people. It just felt like home to him is how I took it.”
North Dakota hockey coach Brad Berry said Emery had been on the team’s radar since he played for Yale Hockey Academy in Abbotsford, British Columbia, in 2021-22.
“When we got to the recruiting process, he got to know us, we got to know him and it felt comfortable,” Berry said. “When we recruit players, we have a criteria of what we want in a player: It doesn’t matter where you come from or who you are. It matters what you are as a person, and he checked every box that we had.”
Emery (6-foot-3, 183 pounds) is UND’s first Black player since Akil Adams, a defenseman who appeared in 18 games from 1992-94.
North Dakota has had diverse rosters since. Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie, a United States-born player who is Indigenous, played there from 2005-08. Center Jordan Kawaguchi, a Canada-born player of Japanese ancestry, played for UND from 2017-21 and was team captain in his final season.
Emery’s selection by the Rangers and commitment to North Dakota delighted Adams, who played in the minor leagues and Germany after he left the university.
“I’m still a North Dakota guy through and through,” said Adams, who lives in Detroit. “He’s definitely in the right place and I’m happy to see that there’s actually somebody else there. I just think it probably speaks volumes about the kind of player he is.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Matt Rhule and the Nebraska football staff got commitment No. 17 in the 2025 class on Sunday, adding four-star defensive lineman Kade Pietrzak.
The highly sought-after recruit from West Fargo, North Dakota, is the No. 1 recruit in his state and chose Nebraska over Oklahoma, Kansas State and Wisconsin.
Pietrzak checks in at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds and has been on Rhule’s radar since he was hired at Nebraska.
He will join two other defensive linemen in the class of 2025: Omaha North’s Tyson Terry and Malcolm Simpson from Texas.
Pietrzak is the second-highest rated recruit for Nebraska in this year’s class so far behind Simpson.
COMMITED‼️@HuskerFootball @CoachMattRhule @Coach_Knighton @HuskerCoachTW
#GBR pic.twitter.com/SAXF1FOQ2J— Kade Pietrzak (@KadePietrzak) July 21, 2024
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