Dinkytown greetings

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I am a class of '85 alum from the University of Southern California. I'm also the son of a former Golden Gopher football alumnus (halfback) from the 57-59 seasons.

This weekend I am bringing the old man back for his first visit to his alma mater since you abandoned the old Memorial Stadium for indoor football. He long said that Gopher football should be an outdoor game (that and living in California made him a weather wimp!)

I am looking for advice on a good place to dine near campus on Friday night, one that might have some roots going back to his era. At age 74, this might be his last great road trip, and I'm looking to make it a fun trip down memory lane. He's impressed that his old coach Murry Warmath is still alive and kicking, and is lookling forward to a fun day back on campus.

For the record, he has long been a season ticket holder, with me, to USC games and says as a former running back, he'll be rooting for whoever has the ball!

Thanks and Fight On!
 

Stub and Herbs would be my pick. I know one of my buddy's grandparents met there, so it's been around awhile. Since 1939 if I remember correctly. Right next to campus. Easy walk to the stadium if you don't mind eating bar-type food.


http://www.stubandherbsbar.com/
 

You should contact the administrative staff of the football program

As a former "M" man your dad likely will be entitled to a special tour of the locker room, facilities and the club level meeting other players and even meeting coach Brewster or staff. They are also having a special luncheon on Friday for coach Warmath Friday afternoon with the goal-line club luncheon at TCF. They like to connect with the alumni and the past. If your in town already, have your dad or yourself contact Joel Maturi. I think they enjoy to connect with past members of the team and making the connection again. If your in town already for the game you should contact the athletic department.
 

If he goes back that far, he might remember and enjoy a nice dinner at Jax Cafe. One of the great long time and classic steakhouses of mpls. Not quite on campus, but 3-4 miles north on University Ave. I'll bet you a couple of gopher bucks he will remember the place. Bill Kozlak(the owner and grandson of the original owner) will take good care of you.

Edit: Jax Cafe link-
http://www.jaxcafe.com/

Hit the close to campus spots on game day.
 

Can't say enough good things about Bill and the Kozlak family. I have known them for a long time, and a group of friends have had an annual Christmas dinner at Jax for years. Hope you and your father have a great time in the Twin Cities. I hope you remember to post you thoughts on your visit.

Go Gophers
 



Trying to think of campus places that have been around for 50+ years:

Stub and Herb's
Campus Pizza (though they recently moved across the street)
Al's Breakfast
Annie's Parlor?
Vescio's
 

What an awesome thing for your dad. It gets forgotten sometimes but that is what college football is all about right there. Just awesome.
 

Thanks ya'll

I really appreciate all the advice an it definitely helped us plan out an excellent weekend. This Texan is also most appreciative of the cooler 'fall' temps for the game as we're back home now where it's a sunny 92!

We rolled into town around 2 and got settled into our hotel, but I had driver duty to pick up a few stragglers from LAX and EWR at the airport. Half of our crowd of 8 went to the Twins game Friday night while the rest of us joined Pops for a visit to campus.

He was overwhelmed by the changes that have occured on campus and really didn't recognize much. We made a driving tour around the Bank and stopped in at Stub & Herbs for pitcher and a toast or two. He couldn't recall going there before, but remembered it as the 'good drinking spot on the south side of Memorial Stadium'. He mentioned that he spent most of his spare change drinking beer and playing poker at his Theta Chi frat house on the north side. While drinking at S&H, we got a kick out of our waitresses tee shirt saying "Your Grandfather Drank Here". My 14 yr old was with us and ended up with a free tee-shirt since his grandfather really did drink there!After that we headed out to Uptown and ended up eating a late dinner at Il Gato, mostly out of Pops desire for a martini.

Game day we went to join the rest of our guys at their hotel downtown, and ventured over to Key's at Foshay Tower for a late morning breakfast. We hit a liquor store for a 12 pack and headed to the west bank for the Gopher Shuttle to the game. We're used to 90,000 and lots of room for tailgating, so we ended up on campus 2 hours before gametime with not a lot to do. We spent some cash at Goldie's Locker Room and walked around a bit, mostly looking for some old building he might recognize. We ended up at the old Cooks Hall athletic building and there he had a flood of memories come back, remembering the locker room tunnel walk to Memorial and how they used to put up bleachers 'almost stright up' along the north end of the stadium. We knocked out our 12 pack while he told us those stories and got a group shot next to the wooden Goldie statue.

TCF Bank Field is awesome and we really enjoyed all the hospitality of those around us. I'll save game observations for other threads if you want my opinion on anything there.

On the post-game wait for the bus back to the west bank lots, Pops ran across one of the 1960 team guys you honored during the game, and they immediatley recognized each other with that guy saying "Your name must have come up 50 times yesterday!". Too bad I didn't know about any reunion and Coach Warmath being around sooner, or I would have made it in to town Thursday night so he could have met up with those guys. For the record, about 2 months ago he contacted one of his '58 team buddies who still resides in MSP and that guys told him there was nothing special going on that weekend. I also emailed your AD inquiring the same - with no response - but what do you expect from a Domer (They can't even run their own program and you guys hired one of them!?).

Saturday night we hit Bryant Lanes for dinner (just OK) and Sebastian Joes for dessert (great!) before a nightcap and some late game viewing at Rock Bottom. Before catching our flights out of town, we breakfasted at the Uptown Diner on Sunday.

All in all a great trip and a lot of fun. If any of you plan to make the LA trip next season, please don't be afraid to post for info on either Trojanfootballonline or WeAreSC. I find both those site full of pretty informed SC fans. I'll also make a fly-by here in the pre-season to see if theres any inquiries.

Thanks again and Fight On!
 



Nice re-cap Golden Trojan, glad you and your father had a good trip.
 

If you were looking for Campus Vistas that your father would remember, I would have taken him to Northrup Auditorum and Northrup Mall. In the 60's this was in the top 5 of best known campus sites. I believe that the ranking has suffered when we moved to the dome. However, I would think that the site would have been etched in his memory forever.
 





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