BleedGopher
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per Eckberg, who details falling in love with Gopher football after the opening game at TCF Bank Stadium:
Building anticipation
As we waited in front of the student-section entrance, the crowd behind us grew with each passing minute. Soon President Robert Bruininks appeared and gave a rousing speech to the masses, and the anticipation built further.
When the gates opened we poured into the concourse and were able to snag seats in the lower bowl. The upper deck seemed to be overflowing. It was a far cry from the half-empty arena I was used to, and the weather had hit that perfect crisp equilibrium between hot and cold.
The marching band took the field in short order and the crowd was nearing full fever pitch. And then the capper: Before the coin-toss a litany of former Golden Gopher stars emerged. Bud Grant was in tears, but it was all punctuated by 96-year-old former coach Murray Warmath. As he zipped onto the field in his motorized wheelchair, smiling and waving, the stands erupted in guttural approval, and a shiver ran down my spine. It was finally all coming into focus now – the immense history of this institution I was attending.
This man was a living link to the program’s glory days of a half-century before, when he’d led the team to the Rose Bowl by recruiting one of the first heavily integrated rosters. More than just a reminder that we had much to be proud of though, he represented the sheer humbling size and scope of the university’s reach. My experience there was just a tiny slice of the hundreds of thousands of students who had called this place home since the 1850s.
One of my more stoic pals turned to me and said he had chills.
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2016/09/ski-u-mah-how-i-found-my-school-spirit
Go Gophers!!
Building anticipation
As we waited in front of the student-section entrance, the crowd behind us grew with each passing minute. Soon President Robert Bruininks appeared and gave a rousing speech to the masses, and the anticipation built further.
When the gates opened we poured into the concourse and were able to snag seats in the lower bowl. The upper deck seemed to be overflowing. It was a far cry from the half-empty arena I was used to, and the weather had hit that perfect crisp equilibrium between hot and cold.
The marching band took the field in short order and the crowd was nearing full fever pitch. And then the capper: Before the coin-toss a litany of former Golden Gopher stars emerged. Bud Grant was in tears, but it was all punctuated by 96-year-old former coach Murray Warmath. As he zipped onto the field in his motorized wheelchair, smiling and waving, the stands erupted in guttural approval, and a shiver ran down my spine. It was finally all coming into focus now – the immense history of this institution I was attending.
This man was a living link to the program’s glory days of a half-century before, when he’d led the team to the Rose Bowl by recruiting one of the first heavily integrated rosters. More than just a reminder that we had much to be proud of though, he represented the sheer humbling size and scope of the university’s reach. My experience there was just a tiny slice of the hundreds of thousands of students who had called this place home since the 1850s.
One of my more stoic pals turned to me and said he had chills.
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2016/09/ski-u-mah-how-i-found-my-school-spirit
Go Gophers!!