Medary.com

South Dakota State gears up for the 2005 football kickoff:

South Dakota State will open its 108th football season by hosting Wisconsin-La Crosse in the 40th Annual Shrine Game Saturday (Sept. 3).

Game time is 7 p.m. at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

SDSU faces a team it hasn't played since 1955, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. SDSU and La Crosse met three times in the early 1950s: SDSU winning 35-7 in 1951 (SDSU was 8-1-1) and 20-0 in 1955 (SDSU was 6-2-1), and La Crosse winning 13-6 in 1952.

While SDSU in its second year of transition to NCAA Division I-AA, Wisconsin-La Crosse is one of the top teams in NCAA Division III, favored to win its fourth straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship this fall. UWL returns 39 lettermen from last year’s 7-4 team which finished 5-2 in the WIAC.