Turns out, beating Montana for a football National Championship wasn’t the only challenge for South Dakota State and their fans.
Getting home from Texas in the teeth of a nasty blizzard turned out to be a tough task for many.
Many fans headed home Monday after the Jackrabbits’ victory over the Grizzlies 23-3 and found bad weather along their path, stretching from Oklahoma all the way back home to Brookings.
Snowfall began early morning on Jan. 8 and didn’t stop until early Jan. 9. At its peak, snow fell at a rate of 1-2’’ per hour.
Sioux Falls saw 10.5’’ while Sioux City, Iowa had around 8.3,” both breaking records in their area.
The Jackrabbit football team was supposed to fly out on Monday, but plans changed due to weather and the decision to stay another day was made.
“It was a little bit disappointing,” defensive lineman Max Baloun said about the decision.
But the Jacks made the best of it.
“We got to experience a lot of things we didn’t get to experience last year,” Baloun said. “It was awesome to be with the seniors who aren’t going to be around anymore and to get a whole day, worry free, no football to do whatever you want, relax and have fun.”
The football team may have waited out the storm, but they were going back to a traditional January in South Dakota.
“It was nice to be home, but I saw all the cars piled with snow and there were a couple of buses that got there before my bus and I saw people out there scraping, shoveling and people trying to frantically find their suitcases,” Baloun said.
Jonathan Shaeffer, the director of football operations quickly scrambled to get rooms for an extra night in Texas.
“Once we determined that there was a possibility that we were going to stay, we started to get squared away with hotels for that night,” Shaeffer said. “It went pretty smooth in all honesty.”
The team had a total of 133 rooms throughout the weekend, but the number dropped to 90 after coaches and some student workers went back another way, but the team was met with a problem when their hotel could only spare 55 rooms.
“We took all of those [55 rooms] and we were able to use their sister properties, which was a Sheridan across the street,” said Shaeffer.
The team was rerouted to Minneapolis, Minnesota and had to wait for the buses to drive up and get them.
A six-bus convoy took the Pride of the Dakotas, the dance team and the cheerleader back to South Dakota, but the 13-hour drive ended up spanning over a day.
“I would say the first day, we left right after the football game. We had a little box lunch, and then once when we had time to eat that, we just got on the bus right away,” said Lauren Harstad, a member of the Dakota Blue Color Guard.
All three teams made it to Goddard, Kansas, where they were staying for the night.
“We got all the way there [Goddard, Kansas], and we got there pretty late Sunday night,” said Harstad. “I think somewhere maybe in the 11 o’clock hour, maybe midnight, and then we stayed, and the bus drivers–it’s like a rule that they have to get a certain amount of hours before they can drive again, they have to sleep for a certain amount of hours, so we didn’t leave until, I would say around 9:30 [a.m.] the next morning. It took us until, I think it was a little before 10 [p.m.] that night, until we got back to Brookings, finally. It was pretty bad. I give a lot of props to our bus drivers, they handled it like heroes.”
Though the weather caused issues as far back as Oklahoma, Kevin Kessler, director of athletic bands and assistant professor of music, thought the toughest part of the trip was back in South Dakota.
“The stretch from Sioux City to Sioux Falls was the slowest,” said Kessler. “Those were the worst conditions, I think we were probably, you know, [going] 40 miles per hour for most of that stretch. After we got past Sioux Falls, it really wasn’t that bad at all. Sioux Falls to Brookings went pretty quickly.”

Here’s a look at some social media posts from Jackrabbit fans making the icy trek back from Frisco:
• “Last night driving back home from the game was something to experience. The convoy of Jacks fans was amazing to see. It was like we were all in a race to see who could make it to the snow line first.” -Derick Wenck
• “Every gas station we stopped at on the way home was filled with blue, incredibly long convoy from Frisco to Sioux Falls.” -Brenda Braun
• “I thought it was nice that all of our fans were looking out for one another! Every stop we made there was always some encouragement for those who were pressing on, and always a comment between people to let each other know when they arrived safely.” -Andrea Law
• “It reminded me of the end scene from Field of Dreams with all the car headlights coming from the field. ‘People will come, Ray.’ An experience I won’t soon forget.” -Eli Nelson
“50 to 55 since the Kansas turnpike yesterday. Stayed in Nebraska City last night. 50 miles south of Sioux City crawling home. Slow & steady.” -Ericka Marker Schapekahm