BleedGopher
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per Tramel:
But my money, the worst brawl in sports history came in 1972. Again, on a college campus. Ohio State at Minnesota basketball.
On January 25, 1972 – 47 years ago Saturday – the Gophers ignited one of the worst displays of sportsmanship ever.
Footage of the events is available but quite rustic. The game made immediate national news, but people consumed that news through newspapers. There was no ESPN or social media to spread the images. Most sports fans were left to their imaginations on exactly how the morbid scene appeared.
The game was big. Minnesota was 9-3 and ranked 16th nationally. Ohio State was 10-2 and ranked sixth. In those days, only the conference champion made the NCAA Tournament, and indeed, the Gophers and Buckeyes would finish 1-2 in the Big Ten.
With 36 seconds left in the game at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Ohio State led 50-44. Buckeye star Luke Witte, a 7-foot center, drove in for a shot and was fouled. He tumbled to the ground. The play was physical – both referees rushed in to stand between Witte and Minnesota’s Corky Taylor, who had committed the foul.
Then Taylor walked around the ref, extended his hands to help Witte to his feet, and when Witte stood up, Taylor kneed him in the family jewels.
I swear it happened.
And the next 95 seconds were chaos. Minnesota’s Ron Behagen, who had fouled out, came off the bench and stomped on Witte’s head.
Fans came out of their seats and joined the melee.
Minnesota backup Dave Winfield – yes, that Dave Winfield – joined the fray. Winfield became a Hall of Fame baseball player. He was a college baseball star who would play against OU in the College World Series.
Winfield also was a good basketball player. But his hardwood claim to fame is that brawl. A variety of outlets – including the Minneapolis Star and Sports Illustrated – reported that Winfield pummeled an Ohio State player who was down on the ground. Among the primary sources was Oklahoma’s own Max Nichols, a Star columnist at the time who later returned to Oklahoma as editor of the Journal Record.
We’ll let the Star Tribune take over:
“The game was promptly called off. Witte was removed on a stretcher, suffering from a concussion and a gashed chin that required stitches at the university hospital. Two of his Buckeyes teammates were also hospitalized.
“Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke, who was in the stands, slapped Taylor and Behagen with season-ending suspensions for what Ohio’s governor called ‘a public mugging.’
“He wasn’t the only one outraged. The Chicago Tribune called the debacle ‘revolting beatings carried out by Gopher players and fans’ exhibiting ‘crazed animal behavior.’ Sports Illustrated labeled the outburst ‘an ugly, cowardly display of violence … when it was over, when the police and officials had finally restored order, the fans had the audacity to boo Witte as he was helped, bleeding and semiconscious, from the floor.”
The story gets even richer. Winfield escaped punishment and in fact moved into the Minnesota starting lineup.
Nichols, writing for the Minneapolis Star, said Winfield apparently was not caught on tape assaulting Ohio State players, but Nichols blasted the Big Ten and the university’s Assembly Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, which also issued suspensions of Taylor and Behagen.
That committee included three students. Winfield was one of the students, though he apparently did not take part in the vote.
And Minnesota coach Bill Musselman came under great scrutiny. Musselman, who died in 2000 at age 59, eventually coached in the ABA for the San Diego Sails and the Virginia Squires, and in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. His son, Eric Musselman, is the head coach at Arkansas.
Bill Musselman already had a reputation as an intense coach, and at his previous stop, Ashland College in Ohio, Musselman’eltactics had been frequently questioned by a philosophy professor at the school. That professor? Wayne Witte, father of Luke.
But the story has a happy ending. In 2003, Corky Taylor invited to his home Luke Witten, who had gone into the ministry. “They watched the video,” the Star Tribune reported, “talked it out and called themselves friends from that day forward.”
Go Gophers!!
But my money, the worst brawl in sports history came in 1972. Again, on a college campus. Ohio State at Minnesota basketball.
On January 25, 1972 – 47 years ago Saturday – the Gophers ignited one of the worst displays of sportsmanship ever.
Footage of the events is available but quite rustic. The game made immediate national news, but people consumed that news through newspapers. There was no ESPN or social media to spread the images. Most sports fans were left to their imaginations on exactly how the morbid scene appeared.
The game was big. Minnesota was 9-3 and ranked 16th nationally. Ohio State was 10-2 and ranked sixth. In those days, only the conference champion made the NCAA Tournament, and indeed, the Gophers and Buckeyes would finish 1-2 in the Big Ten.
With 36 seconds left in the game at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Ohio State led 50-44. Buckeye star Luke Witte, a 7-foot center, drove in for a shot and was fouled. He tumbled to the ground. The play was physical – both referees rushed in to stand between Witte and Minnesota’s Corky Taylor, who had committed the foul.
Then Taylor walked around the ref, extended his hands to help Witte to his feet, and when Witte stood up, Taylor kneed him in the family jewels.
I swear it happened.
And the next 95 seconds were chaos. Minnesota’s Ron Behagen, who had fouled out, came off the bench and stomped on Witte’s head.
Fans came out of their seats and joined the melee.
Minnesota backup Dave Winfield – yes, that Dave Winfield – joined the fray. Winfield became a Hall of Fame baseball player. He was a college baseball star who would play against OU in the College World Series.
Winfield also was a good basketball player. But his hardwood claim to fame is that brawl. A variety of outlets – including the Minneapolis Star and Sports Illustrated – reported that Winfield pummeled an Ohio State player who was down on the ground. Among the primary sources was Oklahoma’s own Max Nichols, a Star columnist at the time who later returned to Oklahoma as editor of the Journal Record.
We’ll let the Star Tribune take over:
“The game was promptly called off. Witte was removed on a stretcher, suffering from a concussion and a gashed chin that required stitches at the university hospital. Two of his Buckeyes teammates were also hospitalized.
“Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke, who was in the stands, slapped Taylor and Behagen with season-ending suspensions for what Ohio’s governor called ‘a public mugging.’
“He wasn’t the only one outraged. The Chicago Tribune called the debacle ‘revolting beatings carried out by Gopher players and fans’ exhibiting ‘crazed animal behavior.’ Sports Illustrated labeled the outburst ‘an ugly, cowardly display of violence … when it was over, when the police and officials had finally restored order, the fans had the audacity to boo Witte as he was helped, bleeding and semiconscious, from the floor.”
The story gets even richer. Winfield escaped punishment and in fact moved into the Minnesota starting lineup.
Nichols, writing for the Minneapolis Star, said Winfield apparently was not caught on tape assaulting Ohio State players, but Nichols blasted the Big Ten and the university’s Assembly Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, which also issued suspensions of Taylor and Behagen.
That committee included three students. Winfield was one of the students, though he apparently did not take part in the vote.
And Minnesota coach Bill Musselman came under great scrutiny. Musselman, who died in 2000 at age 59, eventually coached in the ABA for the San Diego Sails and the Virginia Squires, and in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. His son, Eric Musselman, is the head coach at Arkansas.
Bill Musselman already had a reputation as an intense coach, and at his previous stop, Ashland College in Ohio, Musselman’eltactics had been frequently questioned by a philosophy professor at the school. That professor? Wayne Witte, father of Luke.
But the story has a happy ending. In 2003, Corky Taylor invited to his home Luke Witten, who had gone into the ministry. “They watched the video,” the Star Tribune reported, “talked it out and called themselves friends from that day forward.”
Worst sports brawl: 1972 Minnesota-Ohio State basketball
The Kansas-Kansas State brawl was bad, but can anything be worse than Minnesota-Ohio State in 1972?
oklahoman.com
Go Gophers!!
