Mulligan
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Still smiling. It's hard to believe that a 3-9 team could cause that much joy with a victory, but the end of that game was awesome. There had been so many big plays like the onside kick, McKnight's catch, Gray's effort for a first down, Collado's tackles, and, of course, Stoudermire's hit causing the fumble that it had been just a fun game. But watching the ending (twice sort of) and seeing those players go after Floyd and the fans coming out of the stands has to rank right up there with the best of my Gopher memories. You could feel the joy of those players all the way up to the 28th row of the second deck where we were. Was happy for them for being rewarded for hanging in there, and it was a lot of fun to celebrate in front of those glum folks from Iowa still sitting there.
Was thinking today of other emotionally satisfying Gopher moments and here's my list of top five. Can't rank them, but each one was really, really sweet.
--This win over Iowa for all of the above. IMO this one will be remembered a long time, and it will give the players coming back a belief in themselves after being beaten up so badly by many this year. It's not just a meaningless win.
--The double overtime game over Clemson in San Antonio where it seemed like Bobby Jackson just willed us to victory. Every time we needed a basket, he either got it or got to the foul line. That game just drained me, but it made the next game to get to the Final Four almost casual viewing by comparison.
--The 1979 NCAA Championship hockey game. I can still see Neal Broten making that dash along the boards, going down but getting a shot off, and the puck floating over the goalie into the net. Then we had to hang on for the one goal win. The fact it was against North Dakota made it all the sweeter.
--The "Iron Five" win over Ohio State after the scandal in Madison. We had lost half of our team, had forfeited a game, and had our coach quit. It seemed like that was the only story in the news. I remember the noise in the Barn and how the crowd was so totally with those players. I don't think there were many, if any, victories after that, but for that one night it was like those players wanted to show people the program was still worth supporting. And we certainly did.
--The Little Brown Jug game where Chip Lohmiller kicked the winning field goal on the last play of the game. I just knew we'd lose when Michigan tied it up late in the game. We had been beaten badly several times before this game, and Michigan was either number one or two in the country. Then we got a couple of first downs on some really hard running by Darrell Thompson and I started to think that a tie was pretty good if we could only stop them when they got the ball back. Then Ricky Foggie took off on that scramble and I was thinking, "Holy crap, he's getting us into field goal range!" Lohmiller comes out, bangs it through, and their crowd just sits there like they can't believe it. Much younger back then and I don't think I've ever jumped so high.
My five. Be fun to see some other ones.
Was thinking today of other emotionally satisfying Gopher moments and here's my list of top five. Can't rank them, but each one was really, really sweet.
--This win over Iowa for all of the above. IMO this one will be remembered a long time, and it will give the players coming back a belief in themselves after being beaten up so badly by many this year. It's not just a meaningless win.
--The double overtime game over Clemson in San Antonio where it seemed like Bobby Jackson just willed us to victory. Every time we needed a basket, he either got it or got to the foul line. That game just drained me, but it made the next game to get to the Final Four almost casual viewing by comparison.
--The 1979 NCAA Championship hockey game. I can still see Neal Broten making that dash along the boards, going down but getting a shot off, and the puck floating over the goalie into the net. Then we had to hang on for the one goal win. The fact it was against North Dakota made it all the sweeter.
--The "Iron Five" win over Ohio State after the scandal in Madison. We had lost half of our team, had forfeited a game, and had our coach quit. It seemed like that was the only story in the news. I remember the noise in the Barn and how the crowd was so totally with those players. I don't think there were many, if any, victories after that, but for that one night it was like those players wanted to show people the program was still worth supporting. And we certainly did.
--The Little Brown Jug game where Chip Lohmiller kicked the winning field goal on the last play of the game. I just knew we'd lose when Michigan tied it up late in the game. We had been beaten badly several times before this game, and Michigan was either number one or two in the country. Then we got a couple of first downs on some really hard running by Darrell Thompson and I started to think that a tie was pretty good if we could only stop them when they got the ball back. Then Ricky Foggie took off on that scramble and I was thinking, "Holy crap, he's getting us into field goal range!" Lohmiller comes out, bangs it through, and their crowd just sits there like they can't believe it. Much younger back then and I don't think I've ever jumped so high.
My five. Be fun to see some other ones.