Bemidji State Beavers celebrate 30 years of splashing victories

BEMIDJI — The Bemidji State football team has celebrated homecoming victories with a refreshing dip into Lake Bemidji for decades.

The Beavers celebrated 30 years of the lake jump after winning against Northern State University 24-21 for the homecoming game on Oct. 4.

The Bemidji State Alumni and Foundation recently obtained footage of the first-ever Beaver homecoming lake jump. It was 41 degrees on Oct. 14, 1995, when the Beavers left the Chet Anderson Stadium and ran into the lake, winning the homecoming game after several losing seasons.

BSU Alumni and Foundation Communications Manager Micah Friez said alumni sent in the footage earlier this summer. He dove into the story, as a former sports reporter for the Bemidji Pioneer, tracing the lake jump’s origin.

“A graduate assistant coach, his name was Frank Haege. He wanted to inspire the team. It was on a bad losing streak,” he said. “So he wrote this faux post-game article that said that the Beavers won the game and in a fit of jubilation that they raced into the lake and went celebrating with the swim in Lake Bemidji."

The mock article, according to Haege, was posted on each team member’s door.

“It outlined how we had controlled the ball against Winona State before a packed house. How we had stopped their key players on defense, how great our special teams had played, how everyone had stuck together, and how all the players and all the coaches had celebrated the victory by jumping into the icy waters of Lake Bemidji, only 10 feet from the fence surrounding the field,” Haege wrote in a 1996 article of Coach and Athletic Director.

Larissa Donovan

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KAXE

"It made waves around campus and kind of circulated around the student body,” Friez said in an Oct. 9 interview.

After not winning a homecoming game since 1989, the Beavers turned it around that year.

"They actually upset Winona State, the defending conference champions, which was a really great win for the program, let alone one that was on a losing streak and really needed a win,” Friez said. “And true to form of the faux article, they went in, pads and all, into the lake, and tradition was born from there.”

Larissa Donovan

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KAXE

The last few years of Beaver homecoming wins have seen much warmer temperatures, with this year’s homecoming temp reaching 85 degrees.

“It didn't look very warm, especially, with last week's memory of how nice and warm that was,” Friez said. “I don't think they cared what the temperature was, right? They were so excited to get in that lake.”

Bemidji State’s homecoming traditions find more than football to honor their present and past student bodies.

“We have a lot of really cool alums, probably more than we can give awards to, but we get to give out some awards and kind of recognize the good work that some of our alums are doing every year," Friez said, describing the annual alumni honors gala.

Planning is already underway for homecoming in 2027, which marks a major milestone, according to Friez.

"1927 was the first ever homecoming at Bemidji State when the school was 8 years old,” Friez said. “We're coming up on 100 years in two years now, which we're already planning for and kind of getting the ball rolling on that stuff.”

Alumni and families come back to campus every year, joining current students for homecoming events.

“This is the weekend that they circle on their calendars and want to come back and it's a reunion with their college buddies,” Friez said. "Every year it's in the thousands.”

Bemidji State’s Alumni & Foundation recently launched the “Replant our Roots” campaign, a fundraiser to replant some of the hundreds of mature trees that fell in the June 2025 severe storm.