ESPN compiles "50 most painful outcomes in history"

[GopherOhana]

Purdue game

the one that was a nightmare for me was the purdue game

I think they were on the 6 yard line with 19 seconds left and down by three - and were able to kick the field goal.

Then the refs missed on the Gopher TD catch in overtime

Sooooo many bad things is sooooo little time

 

[Ron Johnson Super Fan]

Mr. Hipster,

Good question. In my opinion, that ill-fated loss to Wisconsin was probably not the start of the Gopher Football "fall from grace..." I think the di was cast in the 1960-1961 time frame. Ironiclly, that period did mark the last Great Era of Gopher Football. Two trips to the Rosebowl. Things were excellent from the Gophers perspective. In 1960, another event occurred that on the surface should have helped to strengthen the Gophers situation as being the "King of sports" in the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota. The Lakers left Minneapolis and went to LA. All was looking really good for Gopher Football.

But, later all that gold turned to rust. It was announced that Minnesota would get the Washington baseball franchise. That was a real blow. And finally, it was announced that the Twin Cities would be awarded an NFL Franchise football team. The Twins and the Vikings. The Twin Cities lost an NBA franchise, but they gained two monster marketing machines as chief competetors for the hearts of the fans and the ticket dollars of the fans. It wasn't the stolen game in Madison that broke the backs of Golden Gopher Footall. It was Calvin Griffith...and Max Winter. It was the NFL and MLB. It was the Twins and the Vikings. Things would never again be the same for Golden Gopher Football. For over half a century that has been the way it has been in the Twin Cities and in the State of Minnesota, at least in my humble opinion. Of course, it didn't help that we didn't treat Bernie Bierman decently at the end of his career...or Murray Warmath. They had won all of our National Championships and we ran both of them off. Pretty tacky on our part. Pretty tacky on the part of our administrators. Sometimes you just kind of deserve what you get, I guess.

Perhaps the fact that the Gophers last conference championship (1967) occurred about the same time that the SEC started allowing black players to play football was a factor as well. Getting Bobby Bell, Carl Eller, Charlie Sanders etc. to come north to play football may have been problematic had they been able to stay home and play college ball in the south. I always wonder how people can completely ignore this factor and unequivocally state that the Vikings coming to town was the end of the glory days of Gopher football.

 

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

Perhaps the fact that the Gophers last conference championship (1967) occurred about the same time that the SEC started allowing black players to play football was a factor as well. Getting Bobby Bell, Carl Eller, Charlie Sanders etc. to come north to play football may have been problematic had they been able to stay home and play college ball in the south. I always wonder how people can completely ignore this factor and unequivocally state that the Vikings coming to town was the end of the glory days of Gopher football.

Ding, ding, ding,

The integration factor along with President Moos' de-emphasis of athletics was the major turning point in the football program.

 

[MrGopher]

I don't know if it was Michigan 03 or wisky 05...

wisky definitely hurt most at the time because i was in the dome that day. And a properly coached single play would have won the game for us. Plus we had already beaten Michigan that year. And it's wisky.

We all know 03 was "the year". And we all know that as soon as we lost the MSU game the week after, we all knew right then that it was a direct result of losing the previous week in such a painful fashion.

The real kicker for me is this: look at the direction of the Minnesota program since that punt block. Now look at the direction of the wisky program since that punt block. Sigh. I just have faith that someday we can cause wisky that much pain.

 

[wels0081]

The Wisconsin fumble was like a bullet to the head, it was painful--- but very quick.
The Michigan loss took an entire half to materialize. At halftime we were all riding high, I think I invested in roses.
But then, over the next 30 minutes, it all fell apart.
To rub salt in my wounds, after the game there were police all over campus expecting a riot to break out with the Gophers' expected victory. I went home and went to bed.

 

[strokemonster]

Ugh, this is a depressing thread. Long time Gopher football fans have these games seared into our brains. It is interesting though to see which games hurt the most.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Interesting tidbit...

I don't know if it was Michigan 03 or wisky 05...

wisky definitely hurt most at the time because i was in the dome that day. And a properly coached single play would have won the game for us. Plus we had already beaten Michigan that year. And it's wisky.

We all know 03 was "the year". And we all know that as soon as we lost the MSU game the week after, we all knew right then that it was a direct result of losing the previous week in such a painful fashion.

The real kicker for me is this: look at the direction of the Minnesota program since that punt block. Now look at the direction of the wisky program since that punt block. Sigh. I just have faith that someday we can cause wisky that much pain.

What most people forget about the Wisky game (particularly Wisky fans) is that was the ONLY game all season that Cupito didn't play at QB. The Rodents were thumping Wisky with a QB (Mortensen) who had attempted 12 passes up to that point in his career and never started a game before or after that one.

 

[MrGopher]

What most people forget about the Wisky game (particularly Wisky fans) is that was the ONLY game all season that Cupito didn't play at QB. The Rodents were thumping Wisky with a QB (Mortensen) who had attempted 12 passes up to that point in his career and never started a game before or after that one.

and we had a garbage call nullify either a punt or a kickoff return for a touchdown, in the third quarter I believe.

 

[denguegopher]

and we had a garbage call nullify either a punt or a kickoff return for a touchdown, in the third quarter I believe.

On a trap block one of our linemen went down to block the Wisconsin guy. Maroney went for a TD, called back of course.

 

[imthewalrus]

I agree about the Integration Laws that slowed the recruiting down for Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota in that early to mid 1960's era. Check out the Big Ten standigs from those years. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa were right there at the top of the Big Ten with OSU. Michigan had a horrible decade and didn't recover until Bo came to Michigan. However, with the Supreme Court rulings, it insured that Minnesota would never have been able to keep the pipeline of fantastic athletes flowing. So, I don't feel that the segregation of SEC schools would have ever been a lasting force in the rise and fall ofthe University of Minnesota football program.

Perhaps free substitution which pretty much eleminated players playing on both offense and defense also hit Minnesota hard. More excellent players had to be recruited and brougt to Minnesota. Gone were the days when Bernie Bierman would line up his best 11 on defense and offense.

The attitude of the administration also played a huge role. Ohio State had a schizm where the president of OSU and Woody Hayes were over-ruled by the voting regents and alumni members who voted not to accept an invitation to the Rose Bowl Game when they had won the Big Ten Chammpionship in 1961. As a result, the Gophers got to go to the 1962 Rose Bowl Game and defeated UCLA there. Woody and the president of OSU regained the upper hand and the movement to de-emphasize football at OSU had been crushed. At Minnesota, the administration did put football in it's place and kept it there. Eventually, they even abandoned Memorial Stadium and moved football into the dome.

However, the dome never would have been an option if it would not have been for the Twins and Vikings. Not only did the Twins and Vikings compete with Gopher Football for ticket sales in the Twin Cities and the State, but, the Gophers now also shared a stadium with the Vikings and Twins. And, the Gophers were 3rd in line.

That is why I believe that the biggest blow to Gopher Football came at the hands of the professional sports, MLB and the NFL and the multi-millionaire and billionaire owners who could out advertise and outmuscle college football and the University of Minnesota. General Mills used to buy up all the unsold tickets for Vikings Games so the games would be televised locally. Did General Mills ever buy up unsold tickets for Gopher Football?

When Gopher Football was the only show in town, all the corporate cigars wanted to be at the Gopher Football Games...Now that was a great climate for Golden Gopher Football!

 

[Minnesota Hail to Thee]

Northwestern homecoming 2 years ago. Kafka pounds us then the pick 6 we lose the rest of the season... There always seems to be one of those games. The same heart breaking games happened in bball this past year we just can't seem to finish good teams off. I think just one big game win could help the program. A la The OSU game for the Illini, sure they haven't done anything since but it helped propel their season.
I'm thinking Holloween against the Bucks at TCF could be a great great contest.

 

[MrGopher]

Northwestern homecoming 2 years ago. Kafka pounds us then the pick 6 we lose the rest of the season... There always seems to be one of those games. The same heart breaking games happened in bball this past year we just can't seem to finish good teams off. I think just one big game win could help the program. A la The OSU game for the Illini, sure they haven't done anything since but it helped propel their season.
I'm thinking Holloween against the Bucks at TCF could be a great great contest.

Yeah, one or two really and truly special wins will do wonders for this program. We won at #2 PSU in 99... it is no coincidence that one full recruiting cycle later, in 2003, we had one of our best seasons with the most potential.

Having so many marquee home games and actually a much easier road schedule lends itself for either a huge year, or quite a dismal one.