All-time MN high school Gopher dream team

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OG--Troy Wolkow (All-B1G Gopher; 5th round) '84 Lakeville
OT--Mike Doughty (N. Dame; 2 yr NFL) '93 Lakeville (State Title as Sr.)
DB--Rod Smith (N. Dame; 7 year NFL career; 2nd Round) '88 Roseville
S--Kevin Kaesviharn (8 year NFL career) '94 Lakeville (State Title as Jr.)

Better than any DT listed so far:
DT--Trevor Laws (N. Dame; 5 yr NFL and still going; Round 2) '03? Apple Valley
 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Adam Haayer.
 

GopherGod said:
Nate Triplett is not in the same ballpark as Jay Foreman was at linebacker.
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Jay Foreman was a RB in HS. The EP backfield of '93 had 3 D1 guys: Kapsner QB (Michigan), Foreman TB (Nebraska), and McFadden FB (Michigan St.)
 

OddStack said:
OG--Troy Wolkow (All-B1G Gopher; 5th round) '84 Lakeville
OT--Mike Doughty (N. Dame; 2 yr NFL) '93 Lakeville (State Title as Sr.)
DB--Rod Smith (N. Dame; 7 year NFL career; 2nd Round) '88 Roseville
S--Kevin Kaesviharn (8 year NFL career) '94 Lakeville (State Title as Jr.)

Better than any DT listed so far:
DT--Trevor Laws (N. Dame; 5 yr NFL and still going; Round 2) '03? Apple Valley
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Oh I think Bronko was better.

" In 1999 Nagurski was selected by Sports Illustrated as a starting defensive tackle for their "NCAA Football All-Century Team...... In 2007, Nagurski was ranked #17 on ESPN's Top 25 Players In College Football History list."

Not to mention, his high school's(International Falls) nickname is the Broncos after him. There is also an award named for him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronko_Nagurski

That's it. I win.
 

Fun to read through these names.

On highschool careers alone, here are some great names:

Marvin Spencer RB Blaine
Carl McCullough RB CDH
Ryan Iverson S/WR EP
The Runk boys (Aaron and Adam) Stillwater
Matt Anderle DE/TE Mounds View (Gopher)
Jack Hannahan FS CDH
Cory Podany RB Anoka
Brent Miller RB Mahnomen
The Rosga boys (Steve and Tim?) CDH
James Bakken OL Mahtomedi
Brian Hopkins RB TG

Many more but just a few off the top of my head. What other HS only superstars can you guys remember?
 


nokomismod said:
Mauer is a freak athlete (like Winfield and Molitor), but if you are going to include him, you might have to include those two guys as well.
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I agree with you. It depends upon what the criteria are for this list. If it is who was the best in HS and you think would have been the best with the Gophers, you could make an argument for Mauer. However, you could also make an argument for Winfield too. In HS, Dave Winfield was Jim Brown, George Gervin, and Bob Gibson rolled into one (from the stories that I hear).

I could be wrong, but I didn't think Paul Molitor played HS football.
 

JoeDirt said:
Fun to read through these names.

On highschool careers alone, here are some great names:

Marvin Spencer RB Blaine
Carl McCullough RB CDH
Ryan Iverson S/WR EP
The Runk boys (Aaron and Adam) Stillwater
Matt Anderle DE/TE Mounds View (Gopher)
Jack Hannahan FS CDH
Cory Podany RB Anoka
Brent Miller RB Mahnomen
The Rosga boys (Steve and Tim?) CDH
James Bakken OL Mahtomedi
Brian Hopkins RB TG

Many more but just a few off the top of my head. What other HS only superstars can you guys remember?
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The Rosgas are legends in the CDH community. Growing up within that school and athletics program, I would reference to Steve Rosga (and Tim) more than all of the other star that went through Cretin. That might have changed now that Joe Mauer has gone through CDH (he was a year younger), but the Rosgas were incredibl football players.

Iverson was a great HS athlete as well, I thought about adding him, but he did go to the Gophers and didn't do a whole lot.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
The Rosgas are legends in the CDH community. Growing up within that school and athletics program, I would reference to Steve Rosga (and Tim) more than all of the other star that went through Cretin. That might have changed now that Joe Mauer has gone through CDH (he was a year younger), but the Rosgas were incredibl football players.

Iverson was a great HS athlete as well, I thought about adding him, but he did go to the Gophers and didn't do a whole lot.
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They were awesome to watch, I played against a TON of great CDH athletes (MV) during the mid 90's and watched almost all of them for a 10 year stretch and the Rosga's were easily some of the best.
 

station19 said:
Oh I think Bronko was better.

" In 1999 Nagurski was selected by Sports Illustrated as a starting defensive tackle for their "NCAA Football All-Century Team...... In 2007, Nagurski was ranked #17 on ESPN's Top 25 Players In College Football History list."

Not to mention, his high school's(International Falls) nickname is the Broncos after him. There is also an award named for him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronko_Nagurski

That's it. I win.
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Didn't know he played DT (defensive tackle) in HS; earlier in the thread it says FB and OT. If that's true, than Laws is better than any other DT listed. If Nagurski played DT, in HS, which I'm unaware of then I agree.
 



I know he played center in college but college hall fame player Mike Favor has to be somewhere on the o-line.
 

OddStack said:
Didn't know he played DT (defensive tackle) in HS; earlier in the thread it says FB and OT. If that's true, than Laws is better than any other DT listed. If Nagurski played DT, in HS, which I'm unaware of then I agree.
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Nagurski is from the era of two way players so he would have played DT in HS
 

Re: Klug

gopherMD said:
LB Dave Klug, Litchfield, 1976.6'4" 230lbs. Drafted in 4th round of NFL Draft by Kansas City in 1980 from Concordia, Moorhead. Drafted earlier than Triplett(or than Rallis ever will be and played) .
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What a frickin *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#.
 

Nort73 said:
You could probably add Craig Dahl from Mankato East as a Safety. Was a hell of a QB for the state runner up in 2002 I believe, but now is a staring S in the NFL.
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Dahl? Did u see him puss out on trying to tackle AP Sun? Immediate disqualification.
 



station19 said:
Tom Brown... Albert Lea

G 1960 All-American....Outland Trophy winner.....2nd in Heisman voting.
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Born in Albert Lea. Tom Brown was one of the all-time greatest offensive and defensive linemen ever to wear the Maroon and Gold. The Minneapolis Central High School graduate made his mark by winning the coveted Outland Trophy in 1960, recognizing him as the best lineman in the country.
 

I would add Gale Gillingham, G, lst round pick by Lombardi for the Packers.
Also, Leo Nomellini, Bud Grant, CLayton Tonnemaker should be on the list. I also like Jeff Wright in the d backfield along with Mike Lehan.
 


I went through the whole list, and I might have missed him. But when it comes to Minnesota since 1960 one of the best all round athletes, played linebacker, he was from Owatonna. And his wikipedia page says it all.

"He attended the University of Minnesota, where he lettered in three sports, three times in football, three in hockey, and one in baseball. Honors included captaincy of the football team, AP All Big Ten 1st Team and All Bit Ten Academic 1st team in football, among others. He was the first athlete in university history to letter in three sports. He also was the first to be drafted by professional teams in all three sports.

Tell me why Noel Jenke is not on this defense.
 

While I'm a big fan of Ben Hamilton, I think Jim Langer from Royalton HS and the 1970's Miami Dolphins beats him out at the Center position based on his entire resume, i.e professional success.

According to his Wiki bio, Langer was named All-Pro 4 times 1974-1977, and 2nd Team All-Pro twice, in 1973 and 1978. He played in three Super Bowls with the Dolphins and was named to the Pro Football HOF in 1987. The Jim Langer Award is presented to the nation's top Division II lineman each year in his honor.
 

Halsey Hall said:
I would add Gale Gillingham, G, lst round pick by Lombardi for the Packers.
Also, Leo Nomellini, Bud Grant, CLayton Tonnemaker should be on the list. I also like Jeff Wright in the d backfield along with Mike Lehan.
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Some good names but Bud was from Superior, Wisconsin.

Funny how that works out.:)
 

spermophilus said:
Darrell Thompson, anyone?
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HA! Good catch. I just assumed he was on there. Didn't even look/ think of RB's.Silly me. I also forgot about Elmer Bailey. Can't believe I forgot about him. He grew up in Saint Paul.
 

GeniusGopher said:
I forgot about Weinke, but he didn't impress me *that* much at FSU considering all the talent he was around. I guess we'll never know with Mauer, but wasn't he like the best QB we've had in high school? I was wondering if someone could compare him to Steve Walsh.
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Winning the heisman doesn't impress you?
 

Sportsfan24 said:
I know he played center in college but college hall fame player Mike Favor has to be somewhere on the o-line.
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I vote that we put sportsfan and all the other 70s and 80s snubs in this team to heal the old wounds.
 


Jim Carter played fullback for the Gophers but was a linebacker for Green Bay for 8 years.

Bob Stein College All American Linebacker 5 seasons in the pro's.
 

CP Gopher said:
How can you have Mauer on the list? There's no way of knowing he would have been a successful college QB.
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My intent was to go off of recruiting. There's always posts about heading down south to find talent and so I was aiming at seeing what kind of teams the Gophers could have if we kept all of our MN kids. In other words, we've produced a top tier QB (Mauer), WRs (Fitzgerald, Floyd), lineman (Henderson), etc. And even if Henderson doesn't do much in Miami, it at least shows we can have high recruits in MN.
 

Section2 said:
Winning the heisman doesn't impress you?
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No, not really. Not to go too far off topic, but generally speaking you have to play on a successful team and be a QB or RB. If you watch that NC game, Vick was far superior to Weinke. Weinke seems kind of like the Trent Dilfer who won the Super Bowl with Baltimore. When Tebow won it, he obviously deserved it. But when guys like Weinke and Palmer, etc. win it, it's crap. There are far more outstanding players out there that just don't happen to QB a zero or one loss team.
 

Halsey Hall said:
I would add Gale Gillingham, G, lst round pick by Lombardi for the Packers.
Also, Leo Nomellini, Bud Grant, CLayton Tonnemaker should be on the list. I also like Jeff Wright in the d backfield along with Mike Lehan.
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Did Leo Nomellini even play football in high school? I thought I remember my Grandpa saying one time that he never played high school football and ended up being an all-american in college.
 

Kent Kitzmann was a fullback with the Minnesota Golden Gophers from 1975-1978. Kitzmann starred as running back at Rochester John Marshall in High School, leading the Rockets to the Class AA state football championships in both 1973 and 1974.[1] He also excelled in the shot put, heaving one of the longest throws in state high school history while as a senior at John Marshall in 1975.[2] He was recruited to Minnesota to play for Cal Stoll and in 1976 and 1977 he led the Gophers in rushing both years. Kitzmann’s finest hour on the gridiron came in a game against Illinois in 1977 at Champaign’s Memorial Stadium. When he carried the ball a Big Ten record 57 times for an astounding 266 yards in a 21-0 victory over the Illini,[3] helping the Gophers to virtually secure their first bowl invitation in fifteen years.

Copied from Wikipeida
 



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