 The Harvest Bowl is really critical as far as the athletic program's expansion. The scholarship actually allowed me to concentrate on my studies. Obviously one of the proudest traditions of North Dakota State University. I don't think I've missed one Harvest Bowl that I can think of. Agriculture and athletics both have proud histories at North Dakota State University. Until 1960, NDSU was North Dakota Agricultural College. And now, teachers share the latest in ag knowledge, researchers use science to improve crops and livestock, and extension staff share the results with the public. The school's athletic teams were even nicknamed the Farmers, then Aggies, and then in 1919, the Bison thundered in. Bob Johansson was a potato geneticist called him the Potato Breaker. The University of North Dakota had the system where they would get the farmers to donate a carload of potatoes to their athletic department. And it really bothered him that his potatoes were going to UND. So I said, well, Bob, we can correct that. They can just give them back to us. And he said, yeah, but we don't want to just get just potatoes. We want wheat, we want corn and beans and livestock and the whole works. And I said, that sounds like a great idea. How do you propose that we structure this? He says, instead of a potato bowl like they've got at UND, we should have a harvest bowl where we can get it all. So it was just such a natural fit. We had an awful lot of kids that had spent their days on the farm playing in our sports programs. And so there was just a natural tie. Grew up doing the chores and they grew up having responsibility. And when it came to athletics, the carryover was certainly apparent. 40 years ago, as today, harvest bowl has three major features. Harvest bowl recognizes success, dedication and hard work of outstanding agriculturalists from North Dakota's 53 counties and several counties in western Minnesota. I guess I was chosen because of my activity. I was a 4-H, had been a 4-H leader for a number of years. Worked with Farm Bureau organizing and along with my farming operation. You're always proud of your chosen from a group for any honors. If you're a farmer and accepted by all the other farmers, it's great. My wife and I both love sports and we took part in sport, both of us. Our family have been active in sports so it was a fit. Harvest Bowl also honors an agribusiness person with a distinguished career in agriculture and business in North Dakota and beyond. Starting with Art Link in 1992, these people have excelled in farming, ranching, agribusiness, government, education, research, communications and other agricultural fields. In the area of athletics, each year Harvest Bowl sponsors provide scholarship support. Over the years more than $120,000 in scholarships have been provided to NDSU athletes with agricultural backgrounds. I was the recipient of the Harvest Bowl scholarship on more than one occasion. I grew up on a farm in Oaks North Dakota and growing up on a farm you learn a lot of good values as any good farmer will tell you. You learn about long days, learn about hard work. Transitioning from high school to college was a huge transition for an 18-year-old kid. One of the things that I learned real fast is that you had to learn how to budget your time. The coaches were demanding on the field, they wanted a lot of your time and I also had to make the grade in the classroom. So with that, the Harvest Bowl scholarship really allowed me to balance those two in a way that could make me successful. In the classroom with an egg econ degree, 3.2 GPA and also on the athletic field playing football for the bison and going on to play for the Buffalo Bills. So thank you for that opportunity. What started 40 years ago as an idea at a potato meeting continues to honor county agriculturalists, outstanding agribusiness people and student athletes. It also provides an opportunity to visit with old friends and to meet new ones. This is obviously one of the proudest traditions of North Dakota State University and it's exciting for me because it really combines two aspects of our university and our university community and in fact ties us to the state in ways that are very unique. As a matter of fact, I'm not aware of any university in the country that has a tradition like Harvest Bowl where we celebrate the economic strength and vitality, the culture, the history, the tradition of our state and combine it with a proud tradition in athletics. It has become one of the top programs in the nation. Blending those two aspects of our state together and the common traits I have of hard work, of dedication and achievement is an honor as is the opportunity to honor the people across our state and in our communities that make that possible on the farm by farm basis that makes North Dakota one of the greatest states in the nation.