Maroon Madness! Fans Encouraged to Wear Maroon on Nov. 9

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tmvander said:
I go to games every year in November and have been to some very cold ones. I wear a maroon hoodie every time. No need for a coat just a few shirts underneath. Only thing that I've ever had cold is my feet.
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Feet warmers in the shoes or boots, large socks (no warmers inside the socks) something to stand on like a piece of cardboard always works well for keeping the feet warm. I learned this at the Iowa game in 2014.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Listen. I have a really nice maroon jacket from Duluth Trading Co that I bought last year. Its 1 size too big. Looks ridiculous if I'm not wearing a lot of clothes with it. I will wear it on 11/9 and you damn well know I'll be loud and maybe drunk. I'll have my maroon pants (yep, Bonobos.com and I love them) and my maroon winter Gophers hat on. Wife will be in all maroon and she's pregnant. If she can do it. You can freaking do it. We have a wedding at 4pm that day. Going to be a long one. But the adrenaline is real and this game matters. MEANINGFUL NOVEMBER FOOTBALL.

Lets all try to have fun with it. I'm excited to see all of you at this game. If you want to meet up beforehand, I'll buy you a beer.
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Maybe drunk?
 

Hoping my maroon Gophers windbreaker fits over my NAVY BLUE winter coat....
 

OldBob53 said:
Real Maroon or Chicago Maroon (look it up, its what they seem to be wearing these days.)

Real maroon =brownish red, like the markings on the field. Chicago Maroon = purplish "maroon" as worn by the U of the Chicago when in the Big 10.
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I looked it up and my search has me more confused than ever. I think at times I've seen Minnesota apparel in maroon, chicago maroon, burgundy, mahogany, merlot, garnet, sangria, wine, plum, carmine, oxblood, firebrick and possibly scarlet. I'm going to go back to only acknowledging ten or so colors.
 



I don't really like jackets.....so I bundle up and throw one of my light Gophers jackets on over the top. But those are black, grey with gold and maroon highlights (easily my favourite), and another one that is a combo of black with maroon sleeves that is a quarter zip pullover.

I'll be able to make due with the ridiculous amount of Gophers gear that I have.
 

Forecast is getting warmer and warmer by the day. Wear that maroon folks!!
 

Despite the skeptics (me included), I'd say the Maroon Out effort did pretty well. My guess is over 80% of the home crowd was wearing maroon. Looked sharp on TV when I watched the replay.
 



Ope3 said:
Despite the skeptics (me included), I'd say the Maroon Out effort did pretty well. My guess is over 80% of the home crowd was wearing maroon. Looked sharp on TV when I watched the replay.
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Like if I looked in my section I saw a lot of non maroon.

But looking around the stadium the maroon was pretty solid, the non maroon spots really didn't show up that much.

Except for the guy in the blaze orange on the visitors side upper deck. Saw him all game....
 

It was very maroon. I was impressed by the crowds participation.

Weather helped A LOT
 

In person, it seemed kind of spotty with a lot of non-maroon. But when I watched a replay of the game on YouTube it looked much more solid. Really, the whole stadium and atmosphere came across amazing on TV.
 

Ope3 said:
Despite the skeptics (me included), I'd say the Maroon Out effort did pretty well. My guess is over 80% of the home crowd was wearing maroon. Looked sharp on TV when I watched the replay.
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I was worried about how it was going to go over.....but it worked well. LOTS of maroon in the stands. Helps that maroon is a far more common color of Gophers clothing. If we would have attempted a gold out, I think the effort would have been far more spotty. Maybe with some momentum carrying forward to next year....the University could attempt a gold out for a warm game next year when coats are not required.
 



The Maroon Out was definitely helped by the U of M focusing it on the darker of our two colors which made it less noticeable when people wore other darker colors than would have been the case for a Gold Out such as the one that abjectly failed against Wisconsin in 2009. However, having seen color outs done with as close to 100% participation as possible by the likes of Penn State, Michigan, Tennessee, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Boise State, West Virginia, and other schools, we have a ways to go before we can say the U of M did it right. The key is doing it next year for a September or early October game, such as a Maroon Out for when Iowa visits in mid September next year, and giving out free t-shirts via a sponsor to make fan participation as easy as possible. Relying on fans to wear their own stuff or buy new gear will never result in the full participation necessary for a color out to truly succeed.
 

I think a gold-out was tried early on and it was abysmal. As for non-conformists, most appeared to just be trying to stay warm with whatever they had. Plus, a lot of "novice" fans too, which was great.
 

I have never much understood such events but it is sort of like a group hug where we all should go along. "Its sooo cute!"
 

Definitely looked good on TV. Only really noticed non-maroon gopher fans on crowd close-ups, the wide shots all looked solid.

I think having it be a big game helped, a lot of fans that were there for the game may not have been regulars and we're maybe more willing to purchase maroon attire for the special game.

If we ever try a gold out though, I think that would need to be a "You get a free gold T-shirt at the game" type deal. Could set it up where in the week prior to the game you could go to the ticket office (or something) show proof that you had a ticket and they would give you the shirt ahead of time. Then there may be less of a frenzy day of to get the free shirts.
 

The Maroon Out with the gold towels later in the year is probably the best approach, at least until we get a more engaged fan base. I think it worked because most Minnesotan's where darker colder weather gear and they blended well with our maroon. Then the gold towels really stand out against the darker colors. It looked awesome on tv.
 

I was very impressed with how it looked on TV. You could tell it wasn't anywhere close to 100%, but it was maroon enough to drown out the other dark colors of most people's coats
 

IMO for a goldout to work here's what needs to happen:

1. Needs to be a warm game, so early in the season
2. There needs to be an option for free or cheap gold shirts to be acquired easily leading us to the game
3. There needs to be plenty of time for fans to prepare for the goldout
4. It needs to be a sellout game

So that likely means it needs to be early in the Big Ten season (first or second game), and it needs to be against a good opponent. Closest game I can think of that ticks all the boxes? Home And Big Ten opener to start the 2021 season on September 4th. Especially if its a rematch of the previous year's Big Ten championship game.
 

I was impressed with how much maroon I saw.
 

Only bad part about the maroon out is that I can't find myself on the field in any of those aerial photos because everyone is dressed the same.
 

Next Fall...Sept 19, 2020...We Host Iowa earlier next year.
Seems like a perfect opportunity for ESPN Gameday AND a GOLD OUT!
 

PrairieGopher said:
Next Fall...Sept 19, 2020...We Host Iowa earlier next year.
Seems like a perfect opportunity for ESPN Gameday AND a GOLD OUT!
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Except Iowa wears gold...

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk
 

Word said:
Except Iowa wears gold...

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk
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Maybe the Gophers Gold out would be like the helmets last week. Fans could wear those teflon baggie things I see marathoners finish in cool conditions.
 
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I’ve been critical of these “everybody dress the same color” efforts in the past because until now they have always been dismal failures.

I predicted a failure for this one too but I was wrong. It looked great! A maroon madness game with gold towels could be a nice new tradition assuming they continue to work.
 

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