Fantastic and LONG column from Chip: Basketball met the circus during Musselman years

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BleedGopher

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Awesome work by Chip!!!

Gophers fans have long held Williams Arena in reverence because of the Barn’s antiquated charm and home-court advantage that it provides when bursting with noise.

That romanticism can be traced to Musselman and his pregame warmup, which gave the Barn its soul and made Gophers basketball the hottest ticket in town in the early 1970s.

As a new Big Ten season approaches, the current Gophers can only hope to make the old arena shake the way it did when the theme song from “2001: A Space Odyssey” would strike and Musselman’s players came bounding up the stairs.

“When you went up on the floor,” former point guard Flip Saunders said, “you were more worried about the pregame than you were about playing Indiana, Michigan and those other teams.”

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/286476671.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Go Gophers!!
 



I like Rich and all, but uh ...

Saunders loved that warmup routine so much that he said he would have reinstituted it had he taken the Gophers job a few years ago
 



I was young but did attend those frenzied Musselman games. It surely did create a you can't beat us at home type atmosphere in the Barn. The place was rocking as much as ANY arena in the country. Great times! We can only hope that the qualitative improvement in the team can restore the passion of 1970's Gopher fans to the point where 9-0 at home during conference play is an annual expectation.

But, if Eric does want to scan and email a copy of Musselman's sweet Georgia plans to Richard, by all means, start the music.
 


Love the description of the crowd noise the players heard before they hit the floor. The Barn would literally be shaking.
 




Can someone post the full article? I've reached my 10 article limit for the month.
 


Omg! Why did that ever stop?

Bring an updated version of that back ASAP.

Anyone else notice what Goldy looked like back then? Loves everything about that video. Would also be cool to put back the Gold Country lettering on the baseline.
 





Replacement Gopher said:
Omg! Why did that ever stop?

Bring an updated version of that back ASAP.

Anyone else notice what Goldy looked like back then? Loves everything about that video. Would also be cool to put back the Gold Country lettering on the baseline.
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Yep, would be great to bring back Gold Country! Or Clem's "Play Hard" on the back of the practice shorts.
 


The best of times. wanted an Eric Musselman hire so bad. I remember when Al McGuire brought his top rated Marquette team in. When Al took the floor before pre-game some of the students threw rubber hot dogs on the floor. Never missed one game during that era. Williams Arena will never be the same unless they bring the "show " back. That's when Williams Arena became " The Barn" Compared to the Musselman years, it is a shadow of its former self. I think Pitino is a great coach, but I would be surprised if we have even a couple of sellouts this year. Oh for those thrilling days of yesteryear.
 

The show contributed to the atmosphere -- hell, it even smelled like popcorn when you entered the building. It really was like going to a big show. But also, there were about 5,000 more people jammed in back then, and everybody was in bleachers instead of comfy theater style seats.

Back when it was all bleachers, it was easier to get off your *ss and cheer... you didn't have all the fat cats in the lower level sitting the whole game because it's comfy like today. Adding the chair backs probably was a necessary "modern" improvement, but it did not help game atmosphere.
 

maliksealy said:
Can someone post the full article? I've reached my 10 article limit for the month.
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Reposting entire articles is not permitted. However, the article limit only applies to a particular browser on a particular device, so just user a different browser or computer/mobile device.
 

The Gophers in the 70's were ferocious and the fans were truly a 6th man. Remember those come backs or when the Gophers stretched the lead and the finish 'Em off team mentality existed? That was the barn then and could be restored. Reinstate it Richard and they will come.
 

I like how at the 15:30 mark or so the Cheerleaders are on the floor way down into the Indiana players who are warming up. Hard to believe Bobby Knight is not going berserk. I remember getting last minute tickets to this game and sitting as high as could be. We were almost late due to bb practice so probably missed the pregame. At that time we were amazed that at 6'7" Bobby Wilkerson could play guard like a 5'10" guy. Also, in that era Mark Olberding at 6'8" had unbelievable skills for a freshman. I believe that Musselman took him to the ABA the following year?
 



WanderingGopher said:
The show contributed to the atmosphere -- hell, it even smelled like popcorn when you entered the building. It really was like going to a big show. But also, there were about 5,000 more people jammed in back then, and everybody was in bleachers instead of comfy theater style seats.

Back when it was all bleachers, it was easier to get off your *ss and cheer... you didn't have all the fat cats in the lower level sitting the whole game because it's comfy like today. Adding the chair backs probably was a necessary "modern" improvement, but it did not help game atmosphere.
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It wasn't the chair backs. It was the re-seating due to priority seating/donations.

BOUNDOUTPASSDUNK said:
The Gophers in the 70's were ferocious and the fans were truly a 6th man. Remember those come backs or when the Gophers stretched the lead and the finish 'Em off team mentality existed? That was the barn then and could be restored. Reinstate it Richard and they will come.
Click to expand...

The atmosphere change comes from all the in-game promos, presentations and piped-in music. In 'the old days' it was live action and the band playing. That was it.
 

station19 said:
In 'the old days' it was live action and the band playing. That was it.
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umm, that is true, assuming you omit the piped in music used in "the old days" in the very video clip that this entire column and thread are referencing :cool:
 

For example Sweet Georgia Brown, Rock Around the Clock, Higher and Higher, and my favorite, Na Na na na, na na na na, hey hey , Goodbye, as if to dismiss our foe. Purely awesome.
 

After watching the video which I have viewed many times in the past, it just reminds me what awesome players we had during this era. What a solid line up there with several new studs that came in right behind them over the next few years. Time to load up with that kind of talent again.
 

Ps. Maybe pipe in a sweet Georgia brown or something once in a while but I would favor the live pep band 90% of the time. Hard to get that in a large athletic venue anywhere outside of college sports.
 

I would love to hear some comments from current or recent players after watching the old warm-ups. Would they be fired up to reinstate something like this, or would they shake there heads and think that is so "old-fashioned."

After reading about how LeBron James studies and loves old-school basketball, I bet he'd eat it up.
 

Donovan said:
I would love to hear some comments from current or recent players after watching the old warm-ups. Would they be fired up to reinstate something like this, or would they shake there heads and think that is so "old-fashioned." After reading about how LeBron James studies and loves old-school basketball, I bet he'd eat it up.
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I'd guess the juggling and unicycles would be a little much, but overall the more entertainment you can provide and the more fired up the crowd can be the better.
 

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