Scott Thompson and his son, Bryce, pose with the Starkweather juniors and seniors, all wearing their new Starkweather/Munich Magic Storm T-shirts.
STARKWEATHER — Scott Thompson came out to a full basketball intro from Starkweather teacher Landon Pavlish.
“Without further ado,” Pavlish announced over the microphone, with music blaring in the background, “please give a warm Starkweather welcome to the Throwback Shirt Guy himself, Scott Thompson!”
The entire Starkweather student population — from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade — gathered on one side of the gym to welcome Thompson to their school.
Since 2020, Thompson has been selling T-shirts with revamped versions of small-town North Dakota sports logos. His latest features the Starkweather/Munich Magic Storm, in honor of the girls’ basketball team that won a state title 25 years ago.
Thompson personally handed out shirts to all of the Starkweather juniors and seniors. He drove in from his home near the Twin Cities on Sunday and stayed the night in Langdon. He visited Munich on Monday morning, then Starkweather just a few hours later.
“I just felt like I owe it to the state of North Dakota to pay something back, when they helped me when I needed it,” Thompson said.
How it started
Thompson began his business in 2020 while facing the toughest time in his life. In February 2019, his house flooded and he had to live in a hotel for three months. In June, after moving back in, he and his wife separated. A month later, his dad came out of rotator cuff surgery with 70% of his lung capacity diminished. He was given a three-year remaining life expectancy.
Then in April 2020, Thompson lost his job because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had to wake up one morning with all that on my head, and all that on my shoulders, and figure out, ‘What am I gonna do to make a few bucks?’” Thompson told the crowd of students.
This train of thought brought him back to his youth. Thompson grew up in the unincorporated community of Fairfield, N.D., where he took a 45-minute bus ride every day to school in Belfield. He’s a proud Belfield Bantam graduate.
Thompson recalled watching the local Class B basketball teams as a young kid. He remembers the classic rivalry between Belfield and South Heart. He joked, “If my car ran out of gas at South Heart, I would push it to Belfield or Dickinson, depending on which way I was facing on the interstate.”
Per Thompson’s recollection, small towns would essentially shut down when it came time for the state basketball tournaments.
“You kids, I wish you could experience what it was like back in the day,” Thompson told the crowd. “This place would be absolutely packed and just rockin’.”
Starkweather teacher Mr. Pavlish, a former South Heart Eagle, was in second grade when South Heart and Belfield combined to form the Heart River Cougars.
Years later, in the wake of several events in his life, Thompson revitalized the Belfield Bantam logo on a T-shirt. He got some traction on Facebook, and it took off from there.
“When I first started it, I thought it was a big deal when I had 25 people like my Facebook page,” Thompson told the Journal. “It’s over 7,000 now. And it’s really kind of fun to walk into some towns.”
Thompson recalled being recognized by a random guy in Scheels. KFYR has also done news hits on him.
“I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was,” he said. “And initially, with my stuff going on in my personal life in 2020, to have it be like, ‘I need some cash,’ and how it evolved very quickly into, ‘How do I keep going and really help people bring back some memories?’”
The drive behind his passion
Thompson works with an art designer to make fresh versions of old-school logos around the state. He keeps his sales expectations in check for some of the tinier or lesser-known towns. But the numbers add up, and it’s become a solid business for Thompson.
“I need help from people. I need somebody to reach out to me who has heard about me and stumbled upon me and said, ‘Hey, can you do this school?’” he said. “I typically find somebody, who’s got some connections, get me a picture of something — a yearbook, a letterman jacket, something so I know the colors and the logo to work with.”
His motivation for doing this — and keeping it going for more than five years now — stems from his love for the state of North Dakota. At 55 years old, he’s been out of the state for 33 years. He spent about 20 years in the Twin Cities and now lives just across the border in Hammond, Wis.
But he’s never thought of himself as a Minnesotan or Wisconsinite. He’ll always be from North Dakota. He emphasized this message to the kids in Starkweather on Monday.
“The unique thing about North Dakota is you will always find North Dakota connections someplace else outside the state,” he told the group. He mentioned meeting someone in Hammond who’s originally from the now-ghost town of Churchs Ferry, N.D.
This was Thompson’s sixth speech around the state. He visited Belfield in 2021, South Heart in 2022 (where he got booed, of course), Grant County and Mott-Regent in 2023 and Strasburg in 2024.
Initially, he was disappointed he didn’t have anyone on the schedule for 2025. He usually does them around graduation time. But Pavlish, given his Belfield-South Heart connection, thought to invite Thompson to the little town of Starkweather.
“When North Dakota comes calling me, I gotta come running home,” Thompson said in his latest speech. “I owe a lot to the state and to the people of the state for what they did for me.”
The importance of remembering small N.D. towns
Starkweather’s population was 97 in the 2024 census. There are six graduating seniors this year. On his other stops, Thompson usually only talks to the high school students and gives shirts to the seniors. Starkweather had enough space for the entire school to sit in one section of the bleachers, with enough shirts to go around for both the juniors and seniors.
“This is a small school, and you should be proud of that,” Thompson told the kids. “Not many communities have that sense of community, where you know all the kids.”
He discussed what it means to be from North Dakota. First, he asked the kids what it means to them. One kid said, “When I tell people I’m from North Dakota, they don’t even know what it is.”
Thompson went on to explain how no other states have a community feel that compares to North Dakota’s. If people from Los Angeles and San Diego crossed paths, for example, they probably wouldn’t even talk to each other.
“Big whoop,” he said. “But North Dakota is different like that.”
He gave some history on Starkweather, which was founded in 1902. Although he’s from the opposite part of the state, he said that all of these small towns have one common link: They’re all dying.
Speaking with the Journal afterwards, Thompson shared a couple of reasons he thinks are behind this trend.
“It’s obviously the decline in population; kids just aren’t staying in their hometown,” Thompson said. “And I do attribute it to the car. How easy it is to leave your town, right? In seven hours, I’m gonna be in the Twin Cities. In seven short hours, I can do that. If I was riding a freight train in 1955, that would take me probably 24. And I think that’s part of it, just the ease of moving someplace else.”
Thompson also said there’s a growing sense of “bigger is better.” The closure of some schools can benefit other schools financially.
“We’re losing a ton,” Thompson said. “These kids have no idea what the golden days out here were. … I wish there was a solution. I don’t know what the answer is to get people to move to Starkweather, or move to Munich, or move to Hampden. Those days are gone. And so hopefully they can keep it going as long as they can. It’ll be a sad day when they close this place.”
Speaking to the kids, Thompson made a comparison to Radiator Springs from the movie “Cars.” In the movie, the interstate was supposed to benefit the town and make it bigger and better. But in reality, when you’re driving from Bismarck to Fargo at 80-plus miles per hour on a full tank of gas, there’s no need to stop in small towns.
Thompson wants the kids to treat Starkweather like Radiator Springs.
“And what we found out in ‘Cars,’ in the movie, is that we’re really missing a lot by not stopping in there, aren’t we?” he said.
The number of schools in North Dakota has gone from around 500 to fewer than 125. Starkweather used to have its own teams. The boys’ basketball team made it to state in 1948 and 1987. The girls’ team made state in 1974, 1988, 1991 and 1995.
The Starkweather/Munich co-op began in 1996. For the boys, the team was called Munich/Starkweather, while the girls’ team was Starkweather/Munich.
“For some reason, it was a big deal to have your town first in the name,” Thompson said in his speech. “Like that meant you were more important.”
Over in nearby Cando, the school team used to be known as the Cubs. In 2008, Bisbee-Egeland closed and merged with Cando to form the North Star Bearcats.
Starkweather joined the North Star co-op in 2014. Its former partner, Munich, merged with Langdon Area.
The latter co-op is still known today as Langdon Area/Munich. But Starkweather gets left out of the “North Star” name.
“You kids represent more than North Star,” Thompson told them. “You represent your town.”
The days of the Starkweather Stormkings and Stormqueens are over. As are the days of the Starkweather/Munich Magic Storm. That’s why Thompson feels it’s more important than ever to keep these names and logos alive.
In the year 2000, the Magic Storm brought pride to the communities with their state championship win.
“That was something that’s always been the dream of little kids,” Thompson said in the speech. “Seeing those big kids out here, they were like the rockstars out there. You look at those players, those are like NBA players out there — because those are your hometown heroes.”
Final reflections
Thompson left the kids in Starkweather with some parting thoughts about honoring their community. He explained how his business is a way of giving back to his home state, and he hopes they do the same, in some form or another, in the future.
Thompson’s biggest regret, he said, was quitting basketball his senior year at Belfield after he didn’t get much playing time as a sophomore or junior. He encouraged kids to join all the sports and clubs that they can.
“When they announce you in a starting lineup or something … you’re gonna get a slightly louder round of applause from those people in this town, because you represent Starkweather,” Thompson said in the speech. “That sweatshirt, that hoodie, or that jersey might say North Star on it, but underneath that, you’re Starkweather.”
By visiting Starkweather, after a stop at Munich in the morning, Thompson told the Journal that he hopes kids gained a little better sense of their towns’ history.
“It gives me a lot of hope for the future when I see kids who are engaged in the conversation and want to know more about their town,” Thompson said. “These kids, all they know is North Star. All the Munich kids know is Langdon-Edmore-Munich. And now Edmore, just cross them off there because they’re not involved. And it’s sad. It’s heartbreaking.”
It was a successful day of driving and giving speeches. It culminated in Mr. Pavlish presenting Thompson with a custom basketball, with “Thank you for visiting Starkweather” and the names of Starkweather’s old teams on it.
“Munich was a blast. They were a little more skeptical,” Thompson said with a smirk. “They wanted a little more background on me before I came. Landon knew who I was, and didn’t have to do much convincing.”
Thompson drove seven hours back east after the event was over.
But for now, his mission of keeping old North Dakota logos alive continues on. You can find him on Facebook as “Throwback Shirt Guy.”
“I never could have imagined this,” he said. “Being on KFYR, being on TV, having news people talk to me, it’s just incredibly humbling.”
