[6] During college, he played on the football team as a blocking back for Bronko Nagurski, and was president of the Sigma Nu fraternity.

[6] Burdick joined his father's law firm in Fargo, where he advised farmers who were threatened with foreclosure during the years of the Great Depression.

[1] He later recalled, "I guess I acquired a social conscience during those bad days, and ever since I've had the desire to work toward bettering the living conditions of the people.

[2] Like his father, Burdick became active in politics and joined the Nonpartisan League (NPL), a populist-progressive group which was allied with the Republican Party.

That same year, Burdick suffered his sixth and final electoral defeat when he ran against Republican incumbent Milton Young for the U.S.

[1] In the spring of 1958, Usher Burdick, who worried about being defeated for re-election in the Republican primary, offered to withdraw his candidacy if the NPL agreed to support his son as the Democratic-NPL candidate for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

[4] Quentin subsequently received the NPL endorsement in April, and was elected to North Dakota's at-large congressional district the following November.

[1] An opponent of the Eisenhower administration's farm policies, in his maiden speech on the House floor, Burdick called for the resignation of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson.

Together the couple had one son, Gage, who died on May 23, 1978, at the age of 16 after receiving a shock from an electric belt sander at the family home.

[citation needed] Burdick earned the nickname the "King of Pork" for focusing nearly all of his legislative efforts on bringing federal funds to North Dakota, which was rural, poor, and less developed than many other states.