I’ve mentioned this before, but this seems as good of a place as any to rehash the worst fan incident I have ever been part of: I brought my then-5-year-old to the 2003 victory over the Badgers at the dome. It was his first Gopher game and this was in the days prior to me going to all home games as a season ticket holder.
it was his first game so I bought him a Gopher souvenir football. It was a joyous exit from the dome after the close victory. I was holding my son’s hand as he clutched his football with his other hand. He was clutching it a little too tight as it squirted out of his arm. He instinctively pulled away from my hand to use both of his hands to pick up his football.
it was at that point where all hell broke loose as while he was bent over to pick up his football, a drunken Badger fan rushed up from behind and booted the ball with full effort, like it was the opening kickoff. To this day I am amazed he managed to miss my son’s hands and face. The ball sailed out into the street but this whole scene played out in front of about 20 Gopher fans… several of whom immediately had this drunken sconnie up against one of those 2D sports statues that used to be out the NW side of the dome. Another Gopher fan retrieved the football and I scooted my son out of there as I glanced back to see a growing crowd of Gopher fans surrounding, pushing, and yelling at the drunken sconnie.
I took the whole family to the 2010 Brewster loss and the two point conversion because it was on the card at Wisconsin. My wife still brings up what we heard as we were nearing the stadium: “F*** you and your kids!” However, that was balanced by a nice friendly tailgate preceding that walk, with some nice folks from Buckyville.
