By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 26, 2024 — This “Iowa small-college football season” that I’ve declared for myself this fall of 2024 continued last weekend right here in the capital city.  My wife Mary Riche and I witnessed a kind of Vikings holy. war. The host Vikings of Grand View University here, founded by Danish Lutherans, were very impressive in a 24-0 shutout of the visiting Vikings of Missouri Valley College, a Marshall, Mo., school founded by Presbyterians.

I remember a past president — was it Kent Henning? — explaining the religious heritage of Grand View University to me: “Most experts would say that the Danish Lutherans had two different mindsets.  There were the ‘Holy Danes’ and there were ‘Happy Danes.’  At Grand View, we’re from the Happy Danes.”

And I was happy to hear that.

So much has changed at Grand View since I first started dropping in on it 45 years ago.  It was a small four-year college then — only recently having grown from a junior college — that seemed to be mostly a commuter school. My memory is that for sports back then, it offered only baseball, softball and basketball.  Now it’s a four-year university, even offering some master’s programs, with 1,800 students — nearly half of them live on campus and about that same number are involved in the 27 sports that the athletics program offers.

Old Main at Grand View University.  Note the flag of Denmark flying with the American flag.  “The Rock” is like a message center where students paint what’s on their mind — and then the school covers it in all-white to start over.

The Grand View campus is divided by busy E. Fourteenth Street in northeast Des Moines, so that skywalk really helps when traffic is heavy.

Most recently, the Grand View Vikings have become powerhouses in football and men’s wrestling.  The football team has had five consecutive undefeated regular seasons and is 3-0 going into this Saturday’s game at Culver-Stockton College in northeast Missouri. They won the NAIA (that’s the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) national championship in 2013 and were runners-up in 2021.  For home games, they share Duke Williams Stadium with nearby Des Moines East High School, where DeWitt Quincy “Duke” Williams was a longtime principal and coach.

The Grand View men’s wrestling team has an even more amazing record — national team championships 12 of the last 16 years!

Grand View fans cheer a touchdown against Missouri Valley in the Heart of America Athletic Conference game.

Viktor the Viking is happy, too.

The one sad thing I discovered at the Grand View game was that nobody seems to know the fight song.  In fact, two or three students I asked about it said they don’t think the university has one.  I told them they were wrong, and that they should find it and learn it. They looked at me oddly.

“Tell them why they need to know it,” Mary Riche suggested.

“You should learn it,” I answered to a couple of the students, “because you should not be allowed to graduate from a school until you can sing the fight song.  When I’ve taught, I make it a requirement in my classes that, before the end of the semester, each student has to stand along in front of the class and sing the fight song.”

They looked at me even more oddly.

Here is their homework — from the Grand View University Student Handbook:

School Fight Song – The Viking!

We are Vikings, the Grand View Vikings; shout your cheers proud, from hall to hall.
We are Vikings, the Grand View Vikings; we will fight ’til they sound the call.
We are Vikings, the Grand View Vikings, pressing onward, on to our goal.
Stand united, won’t be divided, we are the Vikings forever more!

You’re welcome.

Here’s your guide for walking around the Grand View U campus.

You’ll note that Grand View University is intersected by Grandview Avenue.  We can’t explain the difference in spelling between the name of the school and that of the street.

Halftime included entertainment by the Grand View dance team of nearly 40 members.  During the actual game they join the cheerleader squad, which has about the same number of participants, in keeping the home fans’ spirits high.  Despite the nearly-empty visitors’ stands, Grand View has a good turnout of home fans on the west side of the Duke Williams Stadium.

Mary Riche and I had a great time in the stands with our friends Joe and Rosie Cordaro, of Des Moines.

Post-game, we RicheBurgers got to meet the Cordaros’ grandson Jackson Filer, an outstanding defensive end for the Grand View Vikings.

A “must-see” when you’re walking the Grand View campus is this long mural in the Henning Student Center.  The mural celebrates the 125th anniversary of the university, which was founded in 1896.  The artwork is designed by artist Ben Schuh, a GVU graduate in 2004, and now-retired art professor Dennis Kaven.

When Mary Riche and I stepped up to the Grand View concession stand, we were met by a familiar face.  Nate Black, whose parents I know well in Jefferson, was happy to serve us.  He’s majoring in kinesiology and is a track athlete for the Vikings.

You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.