Welcome!  

If you are here, you are probably passionate about Jackrabbit athletics.  I have followed the Jackrabbits closely since my freshmen year of college in 2006 and have been a member of the sdsufans.com forum and have written many of my own thoughts on my personal Facebook and twitter page.  This blog is a way to formalize those different avenues into one.

Many of us have a certain event we can point to that made us fall in love with the Jacks.  Mine was my freshmen year of college.  The SDSU women’s basketball team had just secured a spot in the WNIT for the first time (the program was still transitioning from D2 to D1).  My buddy and I made signs that said “WNIT Bound” because we were so excited.  At this point it is comical that we were that excited about the WNIT, but we certainly were.  And we weren’t the only ones.  That whole year the crowds for the women’s games were huge.  The team was lead by Megan Vogel and the excitement around campus was palpable.  For the WNIT match-up the Jacks would take on the Indiana Hoosiers; a BIG 10 program and a notable name because of the Indiana basketball tradition.

The day before the game my friends and I wandered over to Frost Arena to pick-up our tickets.  We were told that the doors opened at 5pm, there would probably be a line, and that the student section would fill up fast.  My friends and I decided that classes that next afternoon would just have to wait.  We made the walk from Hansen Hall over to Frost around 1pm.  We were shocked to see that there was already a line of about 30 people!  That afternoon we chanted, played yard games, ordered delivery, and gave high-fives to the players as they made their way into Frost Arena.  Eventually the crowd swelled to a few hundred students waiting to get in.  The coolest part about the wait is when Indiana’s head coach came outside and thanked us for our support of women’s basketball.  She said this was one of the coolest things she had seen in a long time and that she was happy her team got the chance to come to Frost (she may have regretted those words later).

When the doors opened everyone pushed forward, we handed our tickets to the ticket takers, turned the corner and sprinted down the back hallway that led to the student section bleachers; my friend even lost one of her flip flops in the rush.  It was like Black Friday!

The game is blur for me.  I remember a few of the big shots that Vogel hit.  But I mostly remember the crowd.  6,000+ fans cheering on the Jacks, chanting defense, and losing our minds every time a big shot was sunk or defensive stop was made.  The Jacks prevailed and my love for SDSU athletics was cemented.  There are other flash-points that stand out for me that I may write about in the future but this is where it all started.

This blog is dedicated to covering the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits.  I will look to provide news for recruitment and roster moves, analysis of games, and host discussions centered around the Jackrabbits.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to the conversations we will have!
Go Jacks!
-Matt Tollefson
Class of 2010