North Dakota State football began promisingly with two thumpings of their downriver rival, the University of North Dakota, way back in 1894. Back then the team was nicknamed the "Farmers", then later the "Aggies", and finally switched to "Bison" in 1919.

For its first seventy-odd years, North Dakota State University was known as North Dakota Agricultural College - but not for lack of trying.

The Gold Star Marching Band has had a long tradition of existence to its members, starting way back in 1904, when Dr. C. S. Putnam formed the first members from clay scooped from the banks of the Red River. Their duties are mostly ceremonial now that the Bison play indoors where canned music rules. However, band members get good seats and are allowed to exercise briefly on the field during halftime. Update: with the move to DI, the powers that be have struck a good balance between the band and the canned music.

For the first seventy years, Bison football had few highlights to speak of. The 1910's were good but for most of this span the team struggled. For a couple years, the Bison were coached by Gilmour Dobie who still holds the NCAA record for needing the fewest games to reach 100 victories (100-5-3). There were some great players too like Claudie Miller, Fritz Hanson, Cliff Rothrock, Glenn Hill, and Curt Quenette, but the Bison only claimed three conference crowns and managed an unimpressive overall record of 212-238-29 (.473) during this time. Then in 1963, Darrell Mudra became coach and by 1964 the march was on.

Since 1964, the Bison have claimed eight national championships, twenty-three conference championships, appeared in the playoffs sixteen times, and compiled an overall record of 374-105-4 (.778) including 30-12-0 (.714) in the playoffs.

During this span, the Bison have had only one (arg! now two) losing seasons while winning eight national titles under five different coaches. The modern era coaches are: Darrel Mudra (.800, 24-6-0, 1 national championship), Ron Erhardt (.897, 61-7-1, 2 national championships), Ev Kjelbertson (.567, 17-13-0), Jim Wacker (.721, 24-9-1), Don Morton (.792, 57-15-0, 1 national championship), Earle Solomonson (.907, 24-2-1, 2 national championships), Rocky Hager (.782, 91-25-1, 2 national championships), and Bob Babich (.676, 46-22, one semifinal appearance).

In 2002, NDSU ended a quarter century of thinking about going DI and finally pulled the trigger, a move deemed hasty by those who prefer to start a debate, have their kids hash things out, and leave it up to the grandkids to make the final decision. Anyway, NDSU's current coach, Craig Bohl, has a record of 33-11-0 (.750) and became NDSU's first coach of the Division I era when NDSU played its first DI game against Valparaiso on August 28, 2004.