Marion Barber Jr Among Former U Athletes Finish Degrees Through Gopher Grad Program

[BleedGopher]

per WCCO:

It’s 10:40 on a Thursday morning, and Marion Barber, Jr.’s Youth Studies class is just getting started.

When there’s a bit of an interruption. His cell phone goes off.

“I’m totally embarrassed,” Barber said, as the class erupted in laughter.

To be fair, cell phones didn’t exist during Barber’s first go-round in college.

“I’ve shared with students that I’ve been on a long, extended spring break,” Barber said. “Mmmhmm.”

Barber is back in school 36 years after he left – a year shy of graduating – for the NFL, where the former Gophers star running back enjoyed a seven-year career with the New York Jets before retiring in 1988.

“It’s been a thorn in my side,” Barber said. “And it’s something that I started and I never just buckled down and said let me finish this.”

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/05/15/minnesota-athletes-gopher-grad-program/

Go Gophers!!

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Good for MBII.

 

[denguegopher]

Yes good for these athletes. I was at UNLV's graduation Saturday and this former football player was back to graduate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Summers

 

[Iceland12]

All three are enrolled in what’s appropriately called the Gopher Grad program, which the U of M started in 2007 to help former players come back and get their degree.

“Minnesota was one of the first schools in the country to offer a program like this,” said interim athletic director Beth Goetz. Most have now followed Minnesota’s lead...

“We’re going to be with them when we recruit them as 15, 16, 17-year-old prospects, and we’re going to be with them to the very end,” Goetz said. “And if their life path takes them away for some reason, we’re going to help them get that degree, and it’ll be something they can be proud of.”



Barber, Keith Ballard, Vincent Grier, Thomas Vanek, Mike Reilly and Amanda Zahui B. are all among those taking online classes.

Congrats to them and to the program itself.

 

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

An article from Ski U Mah Magazine in the September, 2015 issue

The Greatest Prize