NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Next door is Category 10, Luke Combs’ bar. One man in cowboy boots walking by DraftKings Sports & Social bar was carrying a large guitar case like a backpack. This is Nashville, partner, and country music, cowboy hats and country music are in vogue.
This weekend, the iconic downtown district is getting invaded from the Midwest. It’s North Dakota State and its army of fans and they’re not here just to watch 60 minutes of football against Tennessee State on Saturday afternoon. It’s a good ol’ fashion hoedown.
Even the director of events for NDSU’s “Nashville Fan Fest” at DraftKings and the upstairs PBR Cowboy Bar goes by one name. Jarve. Like Cher or Adele.
She also happens to be a 2006 graduate of NDSU in apparels and textiles so when she heard the Bison were coming to Nashville, she put the wheels in motion.
“I never made it to Frisco so this is exciting,” Jarve said. “I’ve been warning my team in a good way for weeks to be prepared.”
The two bars in the same building collectively are called Nashville Live and Jarve, from Esko, Minnesota, says college football fan bases frequent her facility every weekend.
“We’re the party place,” she said. “We’re the spot to be for football.”
And for riding a mechanical bull. The beast was on the second floor, surrounded by a large inflatable bed to cushion any falls.
David Samson / The Forum
Each of the two bars at Nashville Live can hold about 400 people. There wasn’t a program like a pep fest like there was at most of the FCS national title games in Frisco, Texas.
“It’s more of a casual fan get-together,” said Sara Wald, senior director of trustee relations for the NDSU Foundation. “There’s more camaraderie than programming.”
It’s been a week of camaraderie for NDSU fans making a trip of back-to-back games to open the season at The Citadel and Tennessee State. Many rented vehicles after flying east and made their way over the course of the week to Nashville.
David Samson / The Forum
Kevin and Brenda Wolf from Fargo were part of four couples, who flew into Knoxville, Tennessee, and drove to Charlotte, enduring a flat tire on the rental car at 10 at night. They checked out Fort Sumter in Charleston the day after the Bison beat The Citadel 38-0.
From there it was to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in the middle of the Great Smoky Mountains.
“We took Dollywood off somebody’s bucket list,” Kevin Wolf said with a laugh, referring to the amusement park owned by Dolly Parton.
They hiked in the Smokies and went to a “Redneck Comedy Tour” in Pigeon Forge. The Wolf group saw some Bison fans in Dollywood, giving each other the “horns up” sign.
“Just a lot of other college football fans recognizing our logo,” Kevin said. “People coming up to us are very complimentary.”
That’s been the experience of Jeff Maynard and his NDSU tailgating group of six, who did something similar traveling to Colorado last year for the season opener in Boulder, and also Frisco. They flew to Nashville last Thursday, spent a night in Ashville, North Carolina, and drove to Charleston. It was no small motel; they stayed at a house on Q Island. A cool sidestrip after the game: the Ghost Carriage Tour of Charleston, a look at the haunted spots of the old town.
David Samson / The Forum
“Charleston is like a 350-year old city,” Maynard said. “It was cool to hear some of the stories of the history of the town.”
Like the Wolf group, they checked out Fort Sumter. The group, after a zip-lining excursion, headed to Louisville for a few days. There were a few stops at bourbon distilleries including, appropriately, Buffalo Trace.
“We’re running into Bison fans,” Maynard said. “We ran into a bunch of JMU [James Madison] fans at Buffalo Trace so that was fun. A lot of people know who we are. I have to tell you, the southern hospitality is alive and well. We just met such incredible people wherever we went.”
The final destination for all started in downtown Nashville on Friday night. It’s no secret venues have had trouble stocking enough alcohol for Bison fan events over the years. The Dallas/Plano Marriott at Legacy Town Center ran out of beer on a Friday fan event before the 2011 national title game against Sam Houston State.
A year later, a pep fast at Dr. Pepper Ballpark minor league baseball stadium in Plano had trouble keeping up with the beer demand prompting the Frisco Roughriders team president to issue the following declaration before the 2013 pep fest: “We heard there was a shortage of adult beverages last year. I have given my guarantee there will not be a shortage here at Dr. Pepper Ballpark.”
Jarve heard about all of those instances.
“We’ve got extra beer on hand,” she said.
David Samson / The Forum
David Samson / The Forum
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.
