Jordan's dad shares their family's Bison NCAA Championship weekend.

1. Thoughts and Reflections of our Bison 2013 NCAA Championship Weekend in
Frisco, TX
When we received a call from Chad Stark that he had
gotten us 4 tickets to the game, we were so excited. We
had no clue then what was awaiting us as we joined the
Bison Nation in Frisco on January 4th through 6th.
As a backdrop, our 10 year old son Jordan has been
fighting Cystic Fibrosis his entire life. He developed a
series of lung infections that he had great difficulty
fighting off that left his lungs severely obstructed and
damaged. So much so, that without a double lung
transplant, he is not expected to live much beyond 12
months. After searching for a Transplant Center that
would consider Jordan (there are limited Center’s that
will do lung transplants on children) , we were accepted
in September by Dr. Mallory and the team at Texas
Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX.
We are so thankful for the offer but it required us to have
Jordan on site in Houston within 1 hour of the hospital to Thrilled to be in Frisco!
be listed, and for him to remain in Houston until a donor
was found and for three month following what we prayed would be successful surgery. We made the
decision to temporarily relocate our family to Houston and in order to reduce costs, to tow our 5th wheel
RV down to an RV Park about 12 minutes away from Texas Children’s.
On October 24th, 2012, Jordan was officially listed for transplant. He has been actively listed ever since
and there are no other children waiting in Houston in his size or age class. We have been told that the
average wait time for a donor set of lungs to become available averages between 3‐4 months. January
24th will be the date where we have been on the list for 3 months.
Our family has been living in Houston since October 21st, 2012. My wife
Annette, along with Jordan and Jesse, and I have tried to treat our time
there as an adventure and part of the Journey that we know Jordan and our
family must go through together. We have met so many wonderful people
while in Houston, and have been blessed in so many ways from our friends
in Fargo.
As we prepared to leave for Frisco, we honestly thought we were just
getting to go to a Bison football game! We had no idea what laid in store
for us at the end of our four hour drive from Houston to Frisco. After the call
Jordan getting his
from Chad Stark on Christmas Eve and posting the story of what led Chad to find lungs ready for
tickets for us on Facebook and Caring Bridge, as Chad said, the story went game!
“viral”. Robin Huebner of the Forum picked up on the story and wrote a
wonderful article that was placed in the Thursday, January 3rd edition of the Forum.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/385181/ From that, people started emailing and posting

2. links to the story all over. On Friday morning we found out that some of the Bison players had read the
story and saw the video of Jordan and were tweeting links as examples of Bison Pride. Jordan was so
thrilled to hear of players mentioning his name.
Then we arrived in Frisco. Upon arrival, Norma Borgenson with the NDSU Alumni Association (whom we
had never met) wrote to us and told us that our room was taken care of at the La Quinta Hotel in Plano,
TX for 2 nights. It was more than that. As we entered our room it was decked out with ribbons and
balloons, all in Bison colors. There were a couple of baskets on the
beds with all sorts of Bison gear, from pom poms to a Bison poster
signed by Coach Craig Bohl. There was candy and snacks and a
wonderful assortment of Bison items. In addition Norma told us
that people had given her money and they had an envelope with
cash in it that should cover all of our meals and expenses while we
were there. We couldn’t believe
what was happening.
That night we went to the Pep Rally and along with 9,000 other Bison
fans had a wonderful time. Other than Jordan’s feet getting cold
because of his lack of circulation, we had a great time and were so
pumped for the next morning. Chad Stark had invited us to tailgate
with he and his group called the “Grillmasters” so arrangements were
made to meet Chad the next morning. Chad warned Annette that night Having a great time at Bison Pep
that he didn’t know what to expect as “this thing is going viral and I have Rally
so many people coming up to me who want to do something”.
The next morning we got Jordan up as early as possible and completed his 45 minutes of lung treatment
and therapy. He was too excited to eat anything so at about 8:30 we started out for Pizza Hut Park in
Frisco. We arrived just before 9:00
and found Chad and the entire
Grillmasters group.
We had never met Chad before so
had a very nice time meeting him
while he presented Jordan and Jesse
with their “must have” official Bison
head gear for the day! The boys
loved their new Bison fur hats and
horns and wore them with pride.
Jordan enjoyed talking with Chad one
Talking football with Chad
on one for a little bit while chowing down
on some delicious barbeque that was grilled up by true
Jordan and Jess meet Chad Stark
“Grillmasters”.

3. Chad went on to introduce us to many of his
fellow players and friends. I have never seen
so many championship rings in one place!
Former Bison
players began to
introduce
themselves to
Jordan, sign the
back of his
jersey, and wish
him well. We all
enjoyed meeting
Some of the Bison Legends and Grillmasters so many of the
legends, including getting to see one of our all‐time
Bison favorites and Buffalo Bills Wall of Famer, Phil
Hansen. (Annette and I grew up in Buffalo, NY and
still love the professional version of the “Bison”)
Then Norma Borgenson found
us and we met her and her
husband for the first time. It
was so wonderful to finally
meet her and to thank her for
all that she had done.
Then we received a call from a reporter with WDAY who wanted to bring a video
camera by for a picture of Jordan. We spent about 10 minutes being interviewed
Jordan and Norma Meet for the WDAY newscast that was aired back in Fargo later that day.
At 10:23 am Jordan received his scheduled call from Christopher Gabriel Radio Show and was
interviewed on the Radio. He was asked who a couple of his favorite players were. His answer,” well I
have a couple of favorites on offense and on defense. On offense, I like Tyler Gimmestad and Brock
Jensen, and on defense, I like Marcus Williams and Grant Olson”. Jordan, what do you think the keys to
the game are? “Well, I think the offensive line is going to have to open some good holes for Crockett
and Ojuri to run through, and Brock is going to need to be careful I with the ball and not throw any
interceptions. And we need Marcus to have a good runback and possibly a couple of picks”. And
Jordan, what do you think the final score will be? His answer, “24‐10 Bison!”
As we prepared to wrap up and head into the game, Chad had another surprise for us courtesy of the
Grillmasters and others. He stated that everyone had been putting money into a hat to cover the costs
of the food and beverages for the tailgating. They had made a decision that after all the expenses were
covered, they wanted our family to have the cash that was leftover to help us offset some of the costs
we were incurring for Jordan’s lung transplant. He went on to say that when people started realizing
that the extra would go to Jordan, they gave extra. 10s and 20s became 50s and 100 dollar bills. We
were absolutely overwhelmed. He handed me a box of bills that later we counted that had close to
$2,000 in it. After the game, another Grillmaster member, Scott Differding, whom we had also never

4. met found us and told us that he had been looking for us. He opened my hand and put a substantial gift
in it for Jordan and told us how he would be praying for us and how much Jordan’s story had touched
him. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of this group!
We went into the game with thankful hearts and nervous
energy and we thought about whether the Bison would
perform at the peak of their abilities and be able to beat a
very good Sam Houston State Bearkat team. We knew the
Kats would be out for revenge after beating them last year.
We arrived at our seats. They were in the very first row, right
behind the Bison bench at about the 35 yard line. What a
sight to behold as we watched the stadium fill in and about
75% of the crowd wearing Bison Green and Gold. The sights
of the Gold Star Marching Band, seeing the players run onto
the field, the national anthem, and an incredible B‐52
flyover… Wow, and not a down of football had even been
played yet! Jordan took it all in and was in total awe. He has
loved going to the Bison Games in the “Dome” the past three
years and this year we became Team Makers with season
tickets only to miss the last three home games and all of the Great Seats to Cheer on the Bison!
playoffs. This was so special for him to watch the team he
knew and loved so much play for the ultimate prize, the National Championship!
The game was incredible! A hard fought defensive battle the first half ended with the score at 10‐10
and the outcome still in doubt. 2 great teams that battled for every inch on the field with neither giving
in. Half time came and we talked about the Bison just owning the second half all year. They have
outscored their opponents by lopsided margins in the 3rd and 4th
quarters this year. Thankfully, our Bison held true
to form. They came out the second half and
dodged a bullet when the Kats All‐American back
Tim Flanders ran about 42 yards for an apparent
touchdown and a 17‐10 lead. But there was yellow
laundry on the field, and the play was brought back
due to offensive holding. The next play Carleton
Littlejohn intercepted the pass and the Bison went
on to outscore the Kats 29‐3 in the second half!
The offensive line opened holes for a great rushing Jordan and Jesse see Thundar!
day, Brock was careful with the ball and ran for
three TD’s and Marcus had two INT Picks just like Jordan said! What an experience!
At the end of the game, we received some additional blessings and special moments. As the game was
winding down, team Captain and leading tackler, Grant Olson came over to Jordan and reached up and
pulled Jordan down onto the field. Jordan has loved Grant since meeting him in October.

5. You see, last October there was a benefit for Jordan and a sendoff
for us as we left for Houston. Grant Olson, Tyler Gimmestad, Brock
Jensen, and Carson Wentz all took time out of their busy weekend
to come over to Oak Grove Elementary Gym and spend a few
hours with kids and families. Grant went so far as to stay well
beyond the time requested, to go into the bounce house and play
with kids, to allow his fingernails to be painted audacious colors to
raise money for Jordan’s Journey. When I asked him that day what
his teammates would say about his nails, he looked up and smiled
and said “I usually wear gloves so they won’t know!” I heard Coach
The Four Bison Players who came to
Bohl told the story at a Team Makers lunch of seeing Grant’s Jordan’s Journey Benefit at Oak Grove in
fingernails one day after practice and October
was wondering about his star
linebacker who told him he was
leaving the paint on as he
remembered the journey that
Jordan was going through
waiting for his lung transplant.
Now here in front of Jordan was
Grant Olson again. Grant, a
college junior was taking time
for others during one of the
biggest achievements of his life,
his second NCAA National Championship. Grant had just
overcome a lot of adversity to even play in the game, having
almost gone through an emergency appendectomy and had
played in a tremendous amount of pain (early the following
week he would be
hospitalized). An yet,
here he was taking a
moment to think about
a 10 year old boy in the
stands. Grant presented
Chad Olson and Jordan with the game ball
to Jordan a game ball. As
he kneeled and talked with Jordan, Grant told Jordan that he was
his personal hero! Jordan and all of us were so touched and
moved by this incredibly special moment.
Tyler Gimmestad then came over and handed Jordan his
Championship T‐Shirt and he got to have his picture taken with
one of his other favorite player. Marcus Williams signed his
jersey. Many other players signed his jersey and #5 Derrick Lang,
even gave him his game gloves. This is Bison Pride.
Tyler Gimmestad with Jordan and Jesse

6.
In closing, we have so many people to thank. But I would like to share with you one more story and one
additional thank you to our new friend Chad Stark. Chad, the person who listened to one 10 year old 4th
grader’s (Grayson Wetch) Christmas wish, and took it upon himself to do something about making that
wish come true. When I told Chad that we were worried they had done too much, Chad reminded me
that this is what they live for, to be able to show the strength of the Bison and the Herd, and that
when they have a little Bison that is sick or injured, just like the real Bison, they like to surround it
with the herd.
Our family has experienced the strength of the Bison and the strength of the Herd. We have
tremendous Bison Pride! We can never thank you each and all enough! We will always remember the
generosity of so many and apologize for those that we missed. We will be looking to help others pay it
forward as you have helped us! Thank you all!!
The Herd
Now this is the law of the prairie
As old and as true as the sky
And the Bison that keep it will prosper
And the bison that break it will die
As the creeper that girdles the tree truck
This law is the final word:
For the strength of the Herd is the Bison
And the strength of the Bison is the Herd