JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — There wasn’t much going on Friday around East Tennessee State, a beautiful campus of rolling hills and trees showing off a hint of fall color. It’s not a place anyone would want to be walking around in freezing rain.

There would be more elevation change in a single day at ETSU than there would be in five years at North Dakota State. But on the south side of campus, at the base of Buffalo Mountain, there is a single flat piece of land. It is 100 yards long and 160 feet wide, or the size of a football field.

There will be no silence on Saturday afternoon when the Buccaneers host the Bisons. A banner welcoming tailgating NDSU fans was set to be hung atop a parking garage not far from the stadium late Friday afternoon.

As the story goes, it’s a throwback to how well some East Tennessee State fans were treated during tailgating in the Fargodome parking lot during the 2021 FCS quarterfinal playoff game between NDSU and East Tennessee State. The Bison won that game 27-3.

“The people on the west side were so welcoming, they made them feel at home,” said Keith Brake, the radio voice and director of broadcasting at East Tennessee State.

Brake, a graduate of East Tennessee State, would know. He worked for Bison 1660-AM from 2016 to 2021, where he broadcast NDSU women’s basketball games, hosted a Bison football postgame show and had his own two-hour weekday talk show.

“I think what Bison fans have done to make other people feel welcome in the Fargodome and in the city is something that people here are happy to repay,” said Brake, who also noted that fans from Brookings, SD or Grand Forks don’t apply to that statement. “Outside the lines, we’re all here to watch a football game and have a great time, but inside the lines I think we’re all excited for what should be a very interesting and hopefully competitive game.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. CT from William Greene Jr. Stadium and will be televised by WDAY on the North Dakota statewide ABC network. It is the first game of a home-and-away contract that will see East Tennessee play in Fargo in the 2026 season opener.

“There’s curiosity and excitement,” Brake said. “When you see a little number next to a team’s name when they come in, you want to know more, right?”

That’s right. NDSU is the second-best team in the FCS Stats Perform top 25 poll, the highest-seeded team to have played in Greene Stadium, and defeated No. 4 Kennesaw State in the 2021 playoffs. Georgia Southern still holds the standard for the highest-seeded team, traveling to Johnson City and the old Mini-Dome, still prominently displayed on campus, as the No. 1 team in 2001.

It turned out to be a majestic day for the Buccaneers, who defeated the Eagles 19-16.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a big game like this,” Brake said. “Especially in non-conference play, this might be the biggest home game we’ve ever had. They’re ready for it. We’re going to have a record crowd of about 11,000. That atmosphere is going to be really, really fun, I think.”

That would mean a full stadium, with a seating capacity of just over 7,600, but a standing-room-only hill. In a sense, East Tennessee and NDSU have one thing in common: Both have the attention of their respective communities.

The closest NFL franchise to Johnson City is the Tennessee Titans, located three hours away in Nashville. On the other hand, the University of Tennessee is an hour and a half away, while Virginia Tech and Appalachian State are not far from Johnson City, so there is that competition.

“But I think we’ve been able to tap into that same spirit of enthusiasm for college sports,” Brake said. “I think people have that understanding and have that same buy-in for an FCS program that wants to be at a really high level.”

After playing against Georgia Southern and Marshall, East Tennessee dropped the program in 2003 due to financial problems, but it was revived in 2015. Students approved a $125 per semester tuition increase to help fund it. There was no football team when Brake was a student.

“There was no guarantee it would come back,” he said. “Just to see the immediate response. In less than a decade, this has grown into a big thing in the community, and it’s amazing.”

Jeff would like to dispel the idea that he was there when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he has been reporting for Forum Communications for three decades. Jeff is the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter. He has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and, since 1990, The Forum, where he has covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He is the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” from April through August.