View from the Sidelines

I have a bone to pick, a beef with North Dakota State, and how they pronounce their team nickname.

If you ask them – even if you don’t ask them – they will tell you that the correct way to say their team name is Bizon. That’s right, Bizon, not Bison like it is spelled, but Bizon like you know that’s how it really should be said, they will say.

It is almost as if they have created and christened a novel new way to say their team name, and if you don’t say it that way, why, you should just never say it at all. And being as successful as they have been, it almost seems like they are looking down their noses at us for not saying their name right.

Bizon not Bison. Say it correctly or don’t say it at all.

Being from Montana and being taught about bison and buffalo as part of my primary education, we were always taught to call the broad-shouldered, grass-burning beasts of the prairie bison, pronounced with the s as it is spelled, and we never really gave a second thought to it.

Until, that is, North Dakota State started winning so much in football.

At that point we were told that we had been wrong all along in what we were calling these critters – those aren’t the bison like we call the Great Falls Bison, those are bizon like the North Dakota State Bison are.

Technically, they are the same animal, kind of like bison and buffalo are the same thing, it’s just a matter of syntax then.

After a little research on the internet, it was learned that there is an American English and a British English way to pronounce bison. After listening to both, the pronunciation of the s was clear to me in both versions. I could not discern a hint of the z pronunciation.

I have therefore decided to buck this Bizon movement, and will continue to call my buffalo bison, thank you very much.

Sorry about that North Dakota State, but here in the Big Sky Country people will likely continue to call you bison like it is spelled and not Bizon like you say it should be said, after all we are not beholden to you and the way you decide to say your words. Especially after the way your guys manhandled our Montana State Bobcats in the national championship playoffs a few weeks ago.

NDSU will play James Madison for the national championship in Frisco, Texas, Jan. 11.

I don’t know about you, but I am rooting against the mispronounced buffalo in this one. Go James Madison, beat the Bizon! And make them Bison again!

Throwback…

Ten years ago this week, the Silver Bullets defeated the Budweisers 32-12 in the 29th edition of the Keg Bowl.

Receiving unprecedented newspaper coverage that season, the Keg Bowl was featured as a front page story in the Missoulian the day after the game. Doug Willhite, then as now a bartender in Thompson Falls, had befriended long-time Missoulian reporter Vince Devlin at that time, and Devlin obviously thought the Keg Bowl would make a good story.

Coloring the story with action, Jessy Shaw and Jared Koskela were named the Most Valuable Linemen in the game, Matt Heisler and Luke Chambers were picked as Skills MVPs, and Jake Helvey also received a lot of votes for post-game honors.

Roger Willhite captained the Silver Bullets and Rod Beitz the Budweisers.