FARGO — Jacksonville State for the first time in program history will travel from Alabama to the state of North Dakota on Friday, with the season opener set for Saturday at North Dakota State. The Gamecocks would be wise to not let anybody from the 1977 Bison team be part of food preparation.
It was almost 50 years ago, but those NDSU players will never forget the Division II semifinal game played in Anniston, Alabama, when the Bison had to deal with more than Jacksonville State’s speed. An unexpected opponent hit harder than any football player: food poisoning.
Former players don’t think it was by accident, either.
“Conspiracy theories abound,” said Jerry Rosburg, a star linebacker on that team and future NFL assistant coach. “There’s no question we were poisoned somehow. There’s no question in my mind. Everybody was sick.”
The problem is there is no Zapruder-like film to fan the conspiracy flames in the 31-7 loss. Unless somebody who was part of the NDSU meal plan comes forward, the case is closed.
“That was kind of the random rumor,” said quarterback Mark Speral of the conspiracy. “I don’t think anything was ever proven but it sounds good. There were guys throwing up on the sidelines and behind the bench and it was pretty miserable. Obviously we didn’t play well but I’m sure it was a pretty good contributor.”
Speral, a freshman from Fargo North at the time, was one of the few who was spared from the virus. The Forum reported that 37 players fell ill but that didn’t include coaches and support staff like equipment managers and trainers. NDSU played like it, a game where second-leading rusher Ross Baglien did not play and top receiver Mike McTague played about half the game.
Center Lew Curry gutted it out, snapping the ball despite being ill. After returning to Fargo, strong safety Mike Soukup was admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital while sophomore quarterback Mark Rudrud temporarily joined him.
Rosburg is part of a text message thread with ‘77 teammates, a bond that includes an annual fishing trip in the spring. He reached out to some of them asking about the food poisoning issue, although that experience was so miserable only a couple responded.
“Nobody wants to think about it,” Rosburg said.
For instance, nose tackle Mark Zelenski, the team’s fourth-leading tackler, relayed a story of pregame introductions when the players stood in a line and a camera would shoot each player when they were introduced. Just as Zelenski heard his name, the food virus forced a bowel movement.
“He stands next to me, he grits his teeth and goes, ‘Jerry, I just crapped my pants on national television,” Rosburg said.
The Bison ate all but one meal at the Ramada Inn’s Iron Gate restaurant in Oxford, Alabama, with the servings being buffet style. The other meal was at a playoff banquet on Thursday at a venue called Battle House and the Jacksonville players had the same meal, although former Bison offensive lineman Jon Walter has a theory that there were two separate lines and the salad on the Bison side could have been tainted.
“I don’t like salads, I’m a meat-and-potatoes guy, I don’t do the mayo-based stuff,” Walter said. “I remember the rest of the team being in way worse shape than I was.”
Walter didn’t get sick.
Jon Walter, a North Dakota State offensive lineman on the 1977 team, with his wife Stephanie before a Bison football game at the Fargodome.
Submitted photo
A story from the Anniston Star newspaper three days after the game said the Calhoun County Health Department was unable to determine the cause of the food poisoning. John Screws, an official with the Calhoun Health Department, told a local newspaper that some NDSU players were seen going to a fast-food restaurant near the Ramada Inn while a few other players were seen at a concession stand at a Globetrotters event at Jacksonville State on Thursday.
But that probably wouldn’t explain an entire team being inflicted. A North Dakota Health Department official, who interviewed Bison players like Walter when the team returned to Fargo, said it could have been enterovirus, which tends to hit people during a spring thaw.
“They said they had an investigation, well, good luck with that,” Rosburg said. “Talk about home cooking, that’s what I would say. I have great love for the South. I know so many people that have been coaching in the SEC and all through Alabama, I have no ill will toward the people. But what happened there was not right.”
Initial signs came in the middle of the night before the game and by the time the team boarded the bus for the stadium, it was obvious something wasn’t right.
“The bus leaving the hotel, it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, it was a nightmare,” Rosburg said. “I mean, just unbelievable. The smells. The sounds. It was the worst movie you ever watched.”
Players were getting IVs in the locker room to address dehydration. It turned into a national story with the Associated Press picking up the story and newspapers across the country running it.
NDSU’s only touchdown came in the fourth quarter on a two-yard run by Gordy Sprattler. Speral was 10 of 22 passing with two interceptions. He started the game, was replaced by Steve Campbell, but came back in the game after Campbell got hurt after getting blindsided on a tackle.
“I wasn’t sick, I just played like it,” Speral said.
“I was a little bit sick but not nearly enough to make me play as bad as I did,” Rosburg said.
The flight home was not pretty, either, with players still vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. Walter felt bad for the flight attendants who had to deal with it.
The Bison didn’t appear to dwell on the poisoning to the media, with no mention of the illnesses in the Sunday Forum. When contacted by a reporter two days later, head coach Jim Wacker downplayed it, blamed himself saying his team got whooped fair and square and if he wasn’t ready the coaches shouldn’t expect the players to be ready.
“He wasn’t the kind of guy to make up excuses and we did get our butts kicked,” Speral said.
With Soukup in the hospital, Wacker gathered the team on Sunday and at one point told everybody but the seniors to leave the room. It was a teachable moment Walter will never forget.
“He said if you think this is the worst thing that will ever happen to you in your life, you’ve got a lot of learning to do,” Walter said. “It was the transition from motivation to play to the real world.”
Adding to NDSU’s bad experience was the site. The game was played at a high school field because Jacksonville State was building a new stadium. The field was painted green because the grass had gone dormant for the winter.
“We were ranked higher but we have to go down and play a lesser-ranked team in a high school stadium,” Rosburg said. “Really? How does that happen? Somebody should explain that to begin with.”
Jacksonville was led by defensive end Jesse Baker, who was a second-round draft pick of the Houston Oilers and went on to have a nine-year NFL career. He was the MVP of the game against the Bison.
Forgive Walter if he still has nightmares from trying to block Baker. It didn’t help that Walter’s knees were so banged up he had trouble warming up before the game.
“The biggest thing I remember had zero to do with food poisoning,” Walter said. “It had everything to do with my buddy Jesse Baker. He was my opponent and that dude was the reason I didn’t have any NFL aspirations. We tried everything.”
And it helped that Baker did not have food poisoning.
“We had a championship team, that’s easy to say but we never got a chance to play,” Rosburg said. “We had a great team and a great bunch of guys and I wouldn’t have shared that misery with anybody other than those men. It’s a long time ago but for those of us who experienced it, it’s hard to forgive that moment because you want to be national champions.”