Torchlight Spring 2025: Alumnus Jeffrey 'Bo' Bondy 1968 attributes memories from U of M Crookston Technical Institute as part of his life's adventure
Written by Jess Bengtson -
His life has been one big adventure with 11 trips to the Olympics, five or six Super Bowls, being a season ticket holder of Minnesota Gophers and Minnesota Vikings football, and traveling internationally. Yet when asked, alumnus Jeff ‘Bo’ Bondy 1968 said some of his favorite memories were made while attending classes at the University of Minnesota (Crookston) Technical Institute.
Bondy came to the Crookston campus after growing up in Henning, Minn., where his parents owned a resort and ballroom on Leaf Lakes, and first took college classes in Moorhead. A friend of his talked him into going to look at “The Tech” in Crookston and that’s where Bondy stayed to graduate with an associate’s degree in sales and marketing management. He and his peers became members of the first graduating class of the technical institute following the campus’ tenure as the Northwest School of Agriculture high school.
“I remember living in Crookston in an elderly couple’s home upstairs and my room was the friends ‘hang out’ and poker room,” Bondy recalled. “We had a lot of fun, even when I got called into Lysaker’s office. We’d go out to Maple Lake for boat rides and to water ski. It was some of the best times of my life.”
After graduation, Bondy went back to Moorhead State then moved to Minneapolis with his mom which led to several other life happenings like working for an insurance office that allowed him to take trips with co-workers to Spain and Hawaii, work at a liquor store, then drive bus for close to 40 years to Gophers, Timberwolves, and Vikings games, two Olympics games (Salt Lake City and Vancouver), concerts, and more. Bondy’s dad, who played basketball for the Minnesota Gophers as a three-year starter and went on to play semi-pro basketball, had season tickets to the Gophers while Bondy was growing up which led to Bo having his own seat across the stadium. So, when Bondy would drop people off at games from the bus, he’d park and go find his own seat in the stadium. In the early 1980s, Bondy was able to partner with friends from high school to share season tickets to the Vikings, Timberwolves, and Gopher games, and they still attend.
“I consider myself to be a sports nut and have been to many Super Bowl games and 11 trips to the Olympics,” Bondy explained. “I haven’t had a favorite Super Bowl game yet because the Vikings haven’t won one yet, but my Olympics favorite was when the USA hockey team beat the Soviet Union team in the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’ game in Lake Placid, New York.”
Bondy also had the opportunity to drive bus for the Salt Lake City and Vancouver Olympics, and drove to almost all the Minnesota Twins baseball games before retiring.
When he wasn’t driving bus, Bondy and his sweetheart of 23 years, Lori, would travel overseas and toured with the ski club and bike club on trips to places like Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, and to Arizona for three months out of the year. In fact, he first met Lori and later proposed to her at Handlebar J’s in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the U of M Crookston Alumni & Donor Relations team has held their recent alumni socials. Bo and Lori currently live in Bloomington, Minn.
So, where did ‘Bo’ Bondy get his nickname? That’s a story for another time and place, but know it has something to do with Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon.
