Nearly a half century later, it remains one of the greatest singular performances in Dragon lore, and for Bruce Bausman, surely the signature moment of a remarkable but often overlooked athletic career.
It was opening day, 1963, when Bausman, a slender 6-2, 197-pound senior wide receiver, teamed with quarterback Kevin Wimmer for a record 203 receiving yards and three touchdowns in a shocking 31-14 smackdown of North Dakota State University at Dacotah Field in Fargo, ND.
While Dragon fans of today can only gasp at the thought of a romp over the heralded Bison, to Bausman and his football pals at Moorhead State College, it was simply a non-conference win. Well, Bausman admits, there was a little more to it.
“What’s often overlooked is that we beat them the year before as well,” Bausman recalled. “They had brought in Darrell Mudra as head coach, and the press were all oriented to NDSU. I don’t know if we believed because I’m not sure if we knew what we had.
“Those 203 yards came on only four catches, and that’s not what we had anticipated. They didn’t expect it, and we didn’t expect it. I was not known as a speedster. In fact, when I later played in the Continental League, one of our coaches said I had 9.8 hands but 12.8 feet.
“I don’t even think our coaches expected that, but Wimmer could lay it right in there; that was the secret. We really hadn’t practiced it much. It was just accidental. Coach (Dwaine) Hoberg came out of the old Bernie Bierman school at the University of Minnesota---run the single wing, three yards and a cloud of dust. If you tried something else, it was just for variety.”
It was heady stuff for Bausman and the Dragons, but the good times soon evaporated.
“It only lasted for a short time, however, after I broke my arm in the homecoming game. It was a little deflating because I was second in the nation in receiving after the NDSU game and was starting to get letters from the NFL, including the Packers and Cowboys. After the injury, the rankings and letters ceased.”
A 1960 graduate of St. Louis Park High School, Bausman lettered in football and track but had few expectations of a rewarding collegiate career. “I was just a very average player,” Bausman confessed. “In high school, I was a blocking end, and there’s not much notoriety in that, and we ran the single-wing, which meant we hardly ever passed the ball. Later, when I came to college, we started throwing the ball, and I found out I could catch it.
“Jim Camp, an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, lived in the neighborhood and was willing to take me on as a walk-on, but I got a half tuition and fees scholarship at MS.”
It didn’t take Bausman long to make an imprint.
“I started my first game as a freshman, the first game ever played at (Alex) Nemzek Stadium,” said Bausman. “I caught 32 passes as a sophomore; that was the most I caught in a season.”
Bausman readily admits he gained much of his football acumen from an unlikely source.
“My sophomore year I wrote to Raymond Berry of the Baltimore Colts, and he sent me a whole slug of materials he used. We corresponded for several years, and I remember I would go to sleep the night before a game reading his stuff. He was a self-made man, my hero and my instructor.”
A three-time All-NIC choice, Bausman was the recipient of the Glenn Galligan Award, given annually to the league’s outstanding senior. “That kind of surprised me since I missed half the season,” Bausman said.
Football may have been his greatest passion, but Bausman relished the entire collegiate experience. “I played on the hockey team and participated in the weights in track. I was class president my freshman year and elected to the student council for two years. I was also the student representative on the Faculty Athletic Committee and a member of the Owl fraternity.”
Bausman’s diligent work habits weren’t limited to football.
“I had a variety of jobs in college, and I think I worked about 40 hours a week. I was an assistant manager at King Leo’s Drive Inn; refereed hockey games; taught driver’s training and was head hockey coach at Dilworth High School as a freshman and sophomore. I also was a park director for one summer; whatever it took.”
It was a much smaller setting, a stage that provided a comfortable fit for Bausman.
“When I started, there were about 1,250 students and a real intimacy about Moorhead State. It seemed everybody belonged to one of the organizations. As the school got bigger and bigger, the value of fraternal and sorority life got deluded.”
Bausman graduated with a major in Spanish and a French and business minor, a rare combination that quickly paid dividends. “My first job interview, that took two days, was conducted in three languages, and you had to answer the questions in the language that was posed.”
He landed his first real job, but he still wasn’t ready to put away his spikes.
“I took a job with International Multi-Foods in their overseas division, and my first assignment was in Madison, WI. The weekend I got there, I saw an ad in the newspaper that they were starting a semi-pro team, the Madison Mustangs. I tried out and played successfully for them. The next year I was invited to try out for the Charleston Rockets in the newly formed Continental League.
“I started out as the 13th wide receiver on the depth chart, but I made the team and ended up starting. During the season, I had a shin splint and tailbone problem and spent the last half of the year on injured reserve.
“I went back to Minneapolis and started with Red Owl stores in the human resources department. Later, I was the senior vice president of real estate and for Musicland. We were the largest movie and music retailer in the world. My territory included the UK, Hawaii, Virgin Islands, Manhattan and Los Angeles, so it kept me moving, but once digital downloading came in, I was spending my last two years closing stores and negotiating reductions. It just got tiring.”
After leaving the music industry Bausman relocated to a sprawling ranch in Colorado, but he wasn’t completely ready to ride off into the sunset. He still does consulting work and sees special value in an intern experience. “I tell my grandchildren become an intern and get an idea of what the real world is like in that profession.”
Bausman still relies on those trusty values that shaped his football career, and firmly believes patience, preparation and persistence will ultimately open the right door. “I found out that I could compete; if you have the right kind of tools they will work in any environment.”
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