The Marriage of NDSU Football and a Movie Script – InForum

FARGO — Bob Angelo has a storied resume, including multiple Emmy Award-winning credits as a producer, director, writer, editor and cinematographer during his career at NFL Films. He hopes to add another title: writer.

And if his latest project comes to fruition, the 1980s North Dakota State football team will play a significant role in it.

The film’s script, titled “Scheme Dreamer: The Last Line of Defense,” follows a fictional character, Jake Baron, as he navigates a life based on true events. A high school star in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, Jake always wanted to play football at Penn State, but the Nittany Lions wouldn’t offer him one.

So he packed his bags and headed to NDSU for college and the Bison. When it came to researching NDSU football, Angelo didn’t leave any detail out.

He had long conversations with former Bison coaches Don Morton and Rocky Hager. He talked to former defensive coordinator Mike Daly. He talked to former NDSU linebacker Tom Shockman.

He called the NDSU sports information department and called local media. He read books about Bison football.

“What was most impressive to me was the research he did before we spoke,” Hager said. “The details were almost exact. I told him as much as I could remember.”

Memories like dealing with Gus Bradley as a free agent for the Bison. Jake Baron is a fullback in the film’s script. Angelo even weaved the correct pronunciation of the Bison nickname into the script, with the following conversation between Jake Baron and an early encounter with his girlfriend at NDSU:

Jake: “That’s the second time I’ve heard someone say Bye-Zin.”

Sarah: “That’s how it’s pronounced here. You’ll get used to it.”

This is Angelo’s ninth attempt at writing a screenplay, although the other eight were not based on his extensive football experience. But after 43 years at NFL Films and retirement, he decided to try again.

“I said I’d try again, but this time I’m getting into my own wheelhouse,” Angelo said. “I know a lot about football.”

What likely sparked the project was a collaboration with Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott. The two met in 1999 when Angelo was working on a project with then-Philadelphia Eagles rookie coach Andy Reid.

Angelo looked at McDermott and asked one question: How did he get here? McDermott was a defensive quarterback at William & Mary in 1997 who quickly rose through the coaching ranks, being hired by the Eagles in 2001 as an assistant head coach.

Angelo tucked away that memory, which in some ways comes up in the script as a Jake Baron trait. The McDermott connection came last year when Angelo was looking over the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff and reading a biography of Nick Sorensen, a former NFL defensive quarterback who was a defensive specialist and nickels coach.

“I thought, man, it’s really getting to the point where there are people who just can’t quit football,” Angelo said. “They just want to stay a part of it. And that was my motivation.”

An idea came to him: What would you say to a movie about a phenomenal college student from western Pennsylvania who attends Penn State with his girlfriend?

Only she went to Penn State. She went one way, and Jake Baron went the other—all the way to NDSU to study football.

“I sent him to a college that was far enough away from Pittsburgh that he couldn’t go home on the weekends, and that school was North Dakota State,” Angelo said.

The film’s ’80s-set timeline and NDSU’s success were a triumph of serendipity. The more Angelo delved into Bison football, the more natural it became for his character to go there.

In the scenario, Baron plays for NDSU’s first national championship on the gridiron (1983). The Bison won titles in 1965, ’68 and ’69, voted for by polls. Baron befriends Mike Stratton, one of NDSU’s standout defensive linemen in the 1980s.

“He’s going to stay there because he loves football,” Angelo said. “He can’t give it up. Suddenly he’s 17 and has a new life in Fargo, North Dakota. Then he marries a local girl and wants to turn the game into a career. He knows how much he knows about football.”

Jake Baron eventually becomes part of the Bison’s five national championships as a player, graduate assistant and junior defensive coordinator. Other details include the team leaving the locker room under the stands at Dacotah Field and gathering in the northeast corner of the end zone, with the head coach leading them.

“All I wanted to do was fit it into the proud history of North Dakota State,” Angelo said. “I like the whole idea. I liked it in ‘Forrest Gump,’ and I said I’d try it here.”

It was important to him that every detail was correct because the players and coaches who were a part of those Bison teams would know if it wasn’t. Angelo got so involved that he asked about the coverages NDSU used back then.

“I thought Gus Bradley liked it so much he was taking it to the Seahawks,” Angelo said. “I checked with Rocky Hager and said, ‘Would you be okay with (Jake Baron) being a part of this discovery?’ He said absolutely. It’s based on true events.”

There’s a lot more going on with Baron in football and life after leaving NDSU, with one scene of Jake and Rocky wiping away tears (Hager was known as a coach who didn’t hold back on his emotions). After Fargo and later in the NFL, with a stint with the Eagles, he meets former Bison quarterback Carson Wentz and the team’s preparations for Super Bowl LII.

The next step in the project is getting the NFL’s approval, which Angelo is confident will happen. The league must approve the eight team names Angelo uses throughout history, as well as the use of select players and coaches.

“These deals happen all the time in feature film production,” Angelo said. “If they’re willing to support it, then I have some leverage.”

He hopes his ties to the NFL will bring him to the attention of a producer.

“The chances are slim,” he said.

Meanwhile, Angelo has a potential director currently reading and evaluating the script. If successful, it would be the first major feature film about NDSU football. There have been a few documentaries over the years, including “Fire and Ice,” a look at the old Division II days against North Dakota, in which Hager played a starring role.

In light of this, Rocky was asked if the movie were to become a reality, which actor would best play the role? He laughed.

“He was trying hard to put it all together,” Hager said of Angelo.

Jeff would like to dispel the myth that he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is in his third decade of reporting at Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, the Bismarck Tribune and, since 1990, The Forum, where he has covered North Dakota State sports since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine NDSU Division I FCS football titles and is the author of three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He hosts “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” radio show from April through August.