Boosters and donors

[amateurdwarftosser]

A week or so ago when Reusee and Souhan were stirring the pot to get Brewster fired, i asked a question in the middle of the long string of posts.

Who are our boosters? How much money do you have to donate to be considered a 'big' donor?

Below is cut and pasted from my post to the thread. Someone made the point that college sports are driven by boosters. Boosters can write a check to fire a coach. While I dont disagree with them at other schools, I think that here at Minnesota, its a crock.

I have heard this "big donor" thing with college sports for awhile. I guess i could see it for hockey here, but not for football or even basketball for that matter. Lets call this what it is: this program has been everything from wretched to mediocre for 40 years. At no point have they been good or outstanding. Who, in their right mind donates that sort of money to the Gopher football program? We had problems getting the money together to fire Mason. Those funds came from the U itself. It didnt come from some "deep throat" donor. This is not Notre Dame, Michigan, tOSU or any SEC school.

Our tradition was from 40 years ago. We have no big time donors. If we had this gleaming football program, we'd have a full house every week at home. We'd play in good bowl games. We would actually bring people to bowl games. We wouldnt have to bus to Iowa. We would have ponied up the cash for a big time coach, even as we paid off the last guy.

What we have is a mediocre program. Whether we are on the way up, down or sideways is debateable, but until we succeed to the point where we are going to good bowls on a semi consistent basis we wont be considered anything other than a mid level B10 program. Will we ever be Michigan or tOSU? I dont know, and i dont know if that's possible. But what i do know is that we fired Mason because we were stuck here. If we wanted to go to the toilet bowl yearly and breathe a collective sigh of relief every time we avoided Detriot for our bowl game every year we would have kept Mason.

My point is who in the hell do we think we are? This is not a big time program. I hope that it will be someday, but it sure isn't now. If we really do have these people, then who the hell are they?

 

[Iceland12]

Can't speak to the rest of your post, though it all certainly makes sense. For years the "U" was always near the bottom of the Big Ten in that aspect. As for this:

We had problems getting the money together to fire Mason. Those funds came from the U itself

Before the last two home games in 2006 a gentleman who has given the U money more then once told me that a "number of boosters" had told Bruininks and Maturi that if they needed the money to buy out Mason it would be available. Those same boosters had been big supporters of Mason. I didn't ask but I assumed that they had had enough of his self-destructive act that year. I've always noted that when asked about the money both of them said that the money "came from the general fund".

It would be pretty easy for somebody to donate directly to "the general fund" without any questions being asked. I don't doubt that happened but hell, I was never sure of the exact amount of Mason's buyout anyway!

My only thought revolved around the result of the Texas Tech game. If they had won, would they have had the resolve to let Mason go?

 

[MNCH]

Why is there a building called the McNamara Center at the U of M? Why at one time, were we going to have a stadium named T. Denny? We might not have as many big-time boosters as other programs, but they are definitely present and definitely influential.

 

[denguegopher]

I know, (not all that well, but we briefly chat when we see one another) a guy (Joe Felix) who coached with Bobby Bowden for years and he told me that the reason Bowden was forced out was one or two large donors. Money speaks loudly everywhere.

 

[GVBadger]

Why is there a building called the McNamara Center at the U of M? Why at one time, were we going to have a stadium named T. Denny? We might not have as many big-time boosters as other programs, but they are definitely present and definitely influential.

I would say if the McNamara family or a few others (they are pretty obvious) wanted to write a check, they would have serious influence on who would be coaching the Gophers. It is the reality of college sports today.

 

[SDGopherFan]

I wouldn't exactly call T Denny Sanford

a booster of the U of MN, a donor, OK, but not a booster.

 

[gopherguy05]

There are several, but they all seem to be in that 70-80 year old range..you don't hear about younger ones. It always Sid's close personal friends like the McNameras, The Giel family, the Bye family, etc.....

 

[the accomplice]

Maturi made the decision to fire Brewster

during the second half of the Texas Tech game. If you ask him about it, he'll tell you. He wasn't pushed by anyone.

As for big donors - look at the names over the entrances into the stadium. Those folks go to most games. And there is a certain gentleman associated with Cargill that has a little bit of pull too. You need to be donating a million dollars or so to be considered a 'big donor.'

(While T. Denny gets to donate money, nobody takes him too seriously after his BS original stadium donation.)

 

[littlebigboy]

Sanfords BS? The U didn't want his money, said he didn't have it, so he gives it to a hospital in Sioux falls, SD, 400 some million. I guess he did have 30 mil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MNCH]

a booster of the U of MN, a donor, OK, but not a booster.

Label it what you want, but at one time, U of M officials were enjoying the perks of flying on T. Denny Airlines.

 

[the accomplice]

um, no

He said he would donate $35 million and wanted the stadium named after him.

Then he said he would only donate the money in chunks AFTER the stadium had been built. The U never said he didn't have the money - they said the way the donation was structured was not helpful or efficient.

The tribe from Shakopee wrote a check on the spot and didn't ask for any naming rights. That's how a donation is made.

There's your history lesson for today. Thanks for playing.

 

[MNCH]

(While T. Denny gets to donate money, nobody takes him too seriously after his BS original stadium donation.)

That's the U of M's fault. T. Denny said he'd like to make a donation to a new stadium and maybe they could name it after him. U of M higher-ups fall all over themselves with the proposal and agree, make the news public, then media points out that it costs quite a bit more nationally to get something named after a donor. U of M then has to retract from naming rights. Then T. Denny's ex-wife takes all his money.

 

[MNCH]

(While T. Denny gets to donate money, nobody takes him too seriously after his BS original stadium donation.)

That's the U of M's fault. T. Denny said he'd like to make a donation to a new stadium and maybe they could name it after him. U of M higher-ups fall all over themselves with the proposal and agree, make the news public, then media points out that it costs quite a bit more nationally to get something named after a donor. U of M then has to retract from naming rights. Then T. Denny's ex-wife takes all his money.

 

[Iceland12]

during the second half of the Texas Tech game. If you ask him about it, he'll tell you. He wasn't pushed by anyone.

As for big donors - look at the names over the entrances into the stadium. Those folks go to most games. And there is a certain gentleman associated with Cargill that has a little bit of pull too. You need to be donating a million dollars or so to be considered a 'big donor.'

(While T. Denny gets to donate money, nobody takes him too seriously after his BS original stadium donation.)

Very carefully chosen words. If by that he means he wasn't forced oh that's probably true. Only Bruininks (or the Regents?) could do that. If it means that nobody even suggested he do it and absolutely no money went into the general fund relating to the dismissal well, that's probably false.

 

[alpinegopher]

Maturi made the decision to fire Brewster

during the second half of the Texas Tech game. If you ask him about it, he'll tell you. He wasn't pushed by anyone.

As for big donors - look at the names over the entrances into the stadium. Those folks go to most games. And there is a certain gentleman associated with Cargill that has a little bit of pull too. You need to be donating a million dollars or so to be considered a 'big donor.'

(While T. Denny gets to donate money, nobody takes him too seriously after his BS original stadium donation.)

Can you tell the future? Does this mean Alamo Bowl? Is this deja vu all over again?

 

[Iceland12]

Can you tell the future? Does this mean Alamo Bowl? Is this deja vu all over again?

Whoa, I missed that title, Brewster huh?

Forget my reply, I was referring to Mason!

 

[UpnorthGo4]

Very carefully chosen words. If by that he means he wasn't forced oh that's probably true. Only Bruininks (or the Regents?) could do that. If it means that nobody even suggested he do it and absolutely no money went into the general fund relating to the dismissal well, that's probably false.

This story should be well known by everyone in GopherHole by now. Bruininks and Maturi went down to the locker room after the Texas Tech game expecting to see Mason very upset about the Gophers blowing the big lead in the second half. Instead they found just the opposite. Apparently, Mason had a "just another loss - no big deal" attitude that really pissed off Bruininks. As soon as they left the locker room, Bruininks told Maturi to get rid of Mason as soon as possible. Needless to say that is exactly what happened.

 

[the accomplice]

my bad - I meant to say Mason instead of Brewster in the subject line.

And yes, I can see the future. I will be drinking tonight.

 

[Iceland12]

This story should be well known by everyone in GopherHole by now. Bruininks and Maturi went down to the locker room after the Texas Tech game expecting to see Mason very upset about the Gophers blowing the big lead in the second half. Instead they found just the opposite. Apparently, Mason had a "just another loss - no big deal" attitude that really pissed off Bruininks. As soon as they left the locker room, Bruininks told Maturi to get rid of Mason as soon as possible. Needless to say that is exactly what happened.

I don't doubt the event. I just believe it was more of a "final straw" for Bruininks then an out of nowhere event and there was "non University" money to cover a chunk of it.