Savage Words: Hot or cold, it doesn’t matter when it comes to sports

Are you ready for the home football opener, Brandon Valley?

No doubt the grandstands will be packed this Saturday when the Lynx play host to Bishop O’Gorman for the 6 p.m. Pigskin Classic.

But unlike some nights later in the season when fans are squeezed into the stands, I’m expecting – perhaps – a little distance between bodies Saturday night. It’s forecast to be 90 degrees at kickoff. That temp is actually hotter down on the field, and my guess is it’s not the most comfortable in the grandstands surrounded by hundreds of your closest Brandon Valley friends.

Football in South Dakota is such a strange experience when it comes to weather. I think about it every single year at the season-opener. It’s normally hot, muggy, uncomfortable really.

But by season’s end, it can get damn nippy as Jack Frost is squarely focused on our part of the country in November.

I can recall – as I’m sure many of you can – several state semifinal games where there’s been piles of snow surrounding the playing surface, and it takes everything to try and stay warm on the sidelines…or grandstands.

A few years ago, it was so cold on a semifinal night that my pen stopped working, which was actually OK. By halftime of that game, I kind of stopped working, too. When my pen called it quits, so did I, and I shuffled to the little building on the north end of the stadium in Brandon. 

My very first high school sports assignment was on Halloween of 1991. I was an incredibly excited 22-year-old, heading out to cover a playoff football game for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls.

Feel free to Google: 1991 Halloween Blizzard in Sioux Falls.

More than 15 inches of snow fell on the area, cancelling several of the first-round games around the state, including the one I was supposed to be at. Instead of getting to cover my first game, I was sent back to the office in downtown Sioux Falls where I typed in bowling results, and answered the phone for the sports department – a very underwhelming welcome to my sports reporting career.

And it’s not just football. Obviously, sports seasons can last several months. The four seasons often overlap the time when balls and sticks are flying through the air. 

As the Director of Public Relations for IndyCar in 2005, I recall weather extremes as well. At the Indianapolis 500 on May 29 of that year, Dan Wheldon won the race. But the biggest thing that struck me was fifth-place finisher Buddy Lazier. It was so hot, so humid, that particular day. When the 500 miles were up, league and race team officials had a tough time getting Lazier out the car. They were forced to administer an IV to get fluids in his body to help extricate him.

It was hot that day. Buddy was hotter.

119 days later, we raced at Watkins Glen in upstate New York. Scott Dixon was the winner, and as he pulled his car into Victory Lane, it began snowing.

Seriously, snowing. I worked the media events in Victory Lane, and recall vividly wiping away snow that had gathered on the front of Dixon’s car when we were taking photos.

That was intense. But it seems football can go to extremes, especially up here in South Dakota. From 90 this Saturday, to perhaps in the 10s and 20s by season’s end.

So, when I glance up there this Saturday, I won’t be shocked to see some holes in the silver grandstands. Maybe not, afterall, you’ve got a defending state champion to cheer for.

And if the Lynx do make another run this season, let’s hope for a mild Nov. 6 when the semifinals roll around. 

For that game when I glance up, I’m expecting to see huddled masses, hot chocolate steaming, ear muffs and layers of black and red.

You know, typical South Dakota football playoff scenery.