Happy Hour with John Gaskins

National championships and buzzer beaters. Ecstacy and agony. Everything in between.   As two universities two blocks apart in the center of Sioux Falls went through a litany of change the last quarter century — presidents, athletic directors, coaches, players, conferences, logos — one thing remained the same for both.   Jeff Fylling was the radio play-by-play voice for Augustana football and basketball. Tom Frederick's dulcet tones painted the picture for the University of Sioux Falls.    While providing styles that are undeniably their own, they both earned respect from fans and casual listeners alike for their well-prepared, authoritative, even-keeled, descriptive-if-not-meticulous nature. And when the moment elevated to excitement, theirs was genuine.    Sure, you knew who was that broadcast's home team, but they strayed from the ever-emerging bombastic trend of "homers" you hear throughout the industry in recent years.    As the years went by, their voice became those shoes or gloves you want to keep slipping on because they are such a comfortbale fit.   When you have described over 1,000 games spanning a couple generations, you've seen and described just about everything. And in both Fylling and Frederick's cases, they've experienced a whole lot of life — ecstacy and agony and everything in between.   In separate late summer interviews from the Gateway Lounge sports bar — a venue in Sioux Falls almost as venerable as their voices — Fylling and Frederick looked back on their broadcasting careers, how they landed the gigs they'd hold for decades, colorful personalities they worked with, and the most iconic moments they brought to life on the airwaves.   The two modest and mild-mannered men also opened up events that have changed their lives within the last half-decade — Fylling's battle with cancer and the death of Frederick's wife Mary. In each case, they fought through emotions and heartache and are living their best lives at an age when most people retire.   Both have retired from their day jobs in the last decade — in each case, they gave up daily radio early in their careers — but still enjoy the thrill and fulfillment from calling games.   But both have also decided to step away from calling basketball, enthused by the freedom that comes with being able to travel to warmer locales in the winter whenever they'd like, which also means not having to navigate the arduous arctic road trips throughout Upper Midwest that comes with being the home-and-away voice of both Northern Sun men's and women's hoops.   As for football, neither are ready to step away from painting the pictures of autumn Saturdays.    But they were both ready to paint the pictures of their lives and careers in conversations we think you'll find as compelling as them describing the Vikings or Cougars possessing the ball with a few seconds on the clock and a chance to finish with a flurry.

The patriarch of SDSU football — two years removed from retiring after the 2022 national championship and giving way to his heir apparent Jimmy Rogers — joined Happy Hour on Jan. 2 to give his insight and reaction into Rogers' decision to take the Washington State head coaching job, followed by SDSU hiring another former Stig assistant Dan Jackson to take over.

They started building the FCS powerhouses their programs would become almost 20 years apart and finished two years apart.   They both retired and turned their thrones over to their young, upstart defensive coordinators.   In each case, they said there was a part of them that wanted to keep coaching, but another part that was ready to finally smell some roses while younger men navigated the sausage grinder of recruiting and developing rosters in the wild west transfer portal frontier.   John Stiegelmeier and Bob Nielson: Elder statesmen and living legends from South Dakota's two Division I football programs, both with plenty to reflect and regale.   This brand new sports talk show called Happy Hour, launched in late 2024, was made for engaging, deep-diving conversations full of stories and opinions from difference makers like "Stig" and Bob.   Introducing the Happy Hour "Sweet 16 of 2025" — Sixteen of the best, most compelling conversations from this past year. Eight shows — two chats per day — to keep us company heading into 2026.   Every event needs a strong lead-off hitter. Since this series of "best of" interviews is debuting on Christmas Eve, we figured what better way to step into the box than with "Stig" and Bob?   Merry Christmas!   Stiegelmeier took over the reigns at South Dakota State in 1997 when the Jackrabbits were a middling Division II operation overshadowed by the two North Central Conference powerhouses in North Dakota. Within a decade, he had ushered SDSU into Div. I, fueled by a renewed commitment to resources from school administrators and the highest-rolling in-state boosters imaginable. In 2016, at the end of his second decade at the helm, "Stig" led the Jacks to their first Missouri Valley Football Conference title and first Top 10 finish in the final FCS poll.    That same season, Nielson took over a USD program still going through the same FCS growing pains Stig and SDSU had endured a decade prior. The gap in talent between the Jacks and Yotes was a gaping chasm and USD needed a new architect to narrow it.   Nielson — seasoned in the program-building craft — came over from conference opponent Western Illinois, lured by a pledge from USD president Jim Abbott to spike resources and become nationally competitive. By Nielson's second season, the Yotes had reached their first FCS playoffs and scored their first Div. I postseason victory.   The gap slowly narrowed. Stigelmeier and Nielson had several nail-biting battles — including a pair of thrilling USD wins in the DakotaDome in 2019 and '21 — until the former hung it up after capturing SDSU's first national championship in 2022.    Nielson's squad was 3-8 that year, but he swiftly led a comeback charge that led to back-to-back double digit win totals and FCS quarterfinal appearances. After bowing out in the 2024 semifinals in Montana, Nielson shocked some by announcing his retirement a few weeks later in January.   Both patriarchs had plenty to talk about when they joined Happy Hour in 2025. Stiegelmeier was a guest several times, but the discussion we chose for this "Sweet 16" episode comes from January, when he reacted to the turbulence SDSU experienced following the departure of Jimmy Rogers, his heir apparent, to Washington State.   Rogers had taken all of his SDSU assistants, 15 Jacks players and several recruits with him to the FBS program on The Palouse. Most fans were up in arms. A former "Stig" player and assistant named Dan Jackson — best of friends with Rogers while on staff together from 2012-19 — was hired to calm the waters and reboot what "Stig" had built, partly with fellow former Jacks assistants.   Stig had mixed emotions about all of it and provided a soothing voice of reason fans needed to hear. It remains Happy Hour's most-downloaded segment.   Nielson joined the show nine months later during the week of the "State vs U" game. Now living just down the road near Sioux City, Nielson looked back on his nine seasons in Vermillion and articulated his observations of the first season under Johansen. He also couldn't help but beam and chuckle about the wildest game of his USD tenure — the last-second hail mary to stun Stig and the Jacks in 2021.   Enjoy all the stories and words and wisdom from South Dakota's two living D1 legends.

An instant, earth-shattering, mind-blowing, full-throttle sea change in a national powerhouse football program involving the controversial departure — and in some fans' minds, a betrayal — of a popular head coach and dozens of the disciples who had made the program so powerful.     The swift, triumphant, widely-approved arrival of a new head coach (but familiar face) and emergence of players who not only became instant leaders, but folk heroes, for turning down the money and opportunity to join the old coach in the new place. They instead stayed put to persoonally help salvage the roster and begin a new era with the new coach.   Two weeks later, two hours south, the sudden and shocking — to some — retirement announcement of the in-state rival's head coach and instant introduction of his heir apparent successor two hours later. It was a promotion proclaiming a youth movement into the turbulent NIL transfer portal era for a program that was elevating toward the rarified air of the enemy empire up north.   The Jimmy Rogers exodus, Bob Nielson's ride into the sunset, and the dawn of the Dan Jackson and Travis Johansen eras: Talk ushering in 2025 with two resounding bangs — cannon shots  — at South Dakota's two largest universities and only Division I athletic departments. It was a thunderous tone setter and tough act to follow the rest of the year.   But what a year it was in the Sioux Falls and South Dakota sports scene. Plenty of scintillating events, storylines, and athletic virtuosos followed, whether they involved Jackrabbits, Coyotes, Augusta Vikings, University of Sioux Falls Cougars, Northern State Wolves, or the high school and minor league sports outfits of the Sioux Empire.    In March, another SDSU women's basketball Summit League sweep and NCAA Touranment win, capped by a showdown in the mecca of the sport pitting two living legends — Aaron Johnston and UConn's Geno Auriemma. That same month was marked by epic rematches both Class AA girls and boys state championship games and a controversial ending that decided the Class A girls title.   In August, another Little League World Series trip to Williamsport for a new crew of 12-year-olds from Sioux Falls who captivated millions on a global stage, followed by a summer-long Sioux Falls Canaries league championship chase that cresecendoed in September with electricity The Birdcage had never before felt, only to fall agonizingly short and deny the Birds' all-time legend Jabari Henry the ultimate crowning moment. The heartbreak did nothing to take the shine from "The King's" historic "Bari Bombs" in May and August — one that made Henry the American Association of Professional Baseball's all-time king and the other that provided the Canaries' only hit in an unbelievable, walk-off, slump-busting, 11-inning win.    And then came football season. Nobody could predict the roller coasters both the Jacks and Yotes rode. And nobody would believe the fourth quarter comeback Augustana pulled off at the University of Sioux Falls — and the freshman quarterback from Arizona who led the charge — in the latest thrilling chapter of the Key to the City rivalry. In November, two high school state football championship rematches, with each the winner of each gaining sweet revenge.   It was all so wild and wonderful and at even at times wince-inducing — spring FCS transfer portal pillaging and the House Settlement "opt in or opt out" saga come to mind — and definitely worth re-living.   In colorful conversation spanning over two hours, Sioux Falls LIve sportswriter Trent Singer joined Happy Hour's host for a month-by-month stroll down memory lane with vivid reminiscing that includes fresh perspectives made possible by the passage of time.   Example — just imagine how different both SDSU and Washington State's seasons would have been had Chase Mason and Quinten Christensen taken up Jimmy Rogers' offer to come with him to the Palouse.    Who would have thought Rogers' voyage there would last less than 12 months before he packed up and headed back to the Midwest for another greener pasture next door at Iowa State? The year came full circle with another Jimmy jolt.   These aren't just extracted memories you'll hear. The discussion always turns to the humanity, personality, and emotion of the people who made the waves us local sports fans rode.   So, grab a surfboard and enjoy the ride. It's such a long, strange, two-hour trip, we even divided it up into two parts in case you need to catch your breath.      

Jacks & Yotes roller coaster football seasons, epic Augie-USF comeback, Sioux Falls LLWS run, Canaries electric championship chase, spring portal, House Settlement for NIL, state football rematches