Mussleman pre game warm up

[whogoofed]

Does anyone remember the pre game warm up that Mussleman used to have the team do? I remember being at one of the games -mid 70's I think-but only vaguely remember what they did. Can anyone help?
Also, I often thought that the best Gophers team was the one that was banned under Mussleman, I think M Thompson and Flip were on that team? I remember they won at Marquette who won the NC that year.

 

[panndder]

I'm too young to help you, but they really should do that sort of thing again. Maybe Tubby at midcourt on a unicycle directing traffic?

 

[Doc1001]

get youtube ready

If you want to hear one of the songs during the warmup put on KEEP THE BALL ROLLING by Jay and the techniques

 

[EverTheSkeptic]

I sure do remember. It was a tremendous display. The songs were Keep the Ball Rolling (as noted above), Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson and Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam. I have them all on my Ipod. The dribbling expert was George Schauer, who, IIRC, followed Musselman from Ashland to Minnesota. The drill whipped the crowd into a total frenzy. I don't know if it could be revived, but showing a bit of it on the screen before the game would be terriffic.

If anyone knows where a video of the warm-up can be found, I would love to know.

I also remember beating an Al McGuire coached Marquette team, but I don't recall the year or the score. I just remember cheering myself hoarse.

Almost forgot - Sweet Georgia Brown was also played during the drill.

 

[Mulligan]

Does anyone remember the pre game warm up that Mussleman used to have the team do? I remember being at one of the games -mid 70's I think-but only vaguely remember what they did. Can anyone help?
Also, I often thought that the best Gophers team was the one that was banned under Mussleman, I think M Thompson and Flip were on that team? I remember they won at Marquette who won the NC that year.

Ah, nostalgia time. The players would run out onto the dark floor and form a circle. The spotlight would go on, "Sweet Georgia Brown" would start up, the crowd would roar, and they would take turns doing Globetrotter-type ball tricks. The crowd would react to each player's trick. There also was a kid by the name of George (Schauer maybe?) who would put on a great dribbling display. The noise would keep building. Hate to be old, but it put the Barnyard to shame. You've got to remember Williams Arena held several thousand more people back then.

All of this really got the fans pumped, and the whole routine was criticized by the other Big Ten schools. The criticism really got intense after the Ohio State brawl. People claimed Mussleman created such intensity that it led to the brawl. I think there might be a little validity to that, but there was also a racial undercurrent to all of the criticism.

The really good Mussleman teams never were banned from anything I don't think. As a matter of fact, the team involved with Ohio State won the Big Ten title that year even with Ron Behagen and Corky Taylor being suspended for the rest of the year. That was something Lou Hudson and Archie Clark couldn't do (mainly because of Cazzie Russell). Musselman had another good team the next year and then had to rebuild, or, more accurately reload.

He got Mark Olberding and Mark Lansberger and I think that was when Flip and Mychal Thompson were recruited. But they were young, Lansberger transferred because of Mussleman, and Musselman split for the pros just ahead of the NCAA posse. He took Olberding with him and Jim Dutcher took over.

The sanctions came after he left. One, maybe two years? There was another good team when Thompson was a junior or senior. McHale was a freshman, but Ray Williams, a really great guard was on it. That was the season when Thompson got caught selling tournament tickets and we forfeited, I think, the entire Big Ten season.

So in that 10-12 year period starting with Lou Hudson in 1965, it's hard to say which one was the best Gopher team. It sure was a lot of fun though.

 

[steffyboy]

Does anyone remember the pre game warm up that Mussleman used to have the team do? I remember being at one of the games -mid 70's I think-but only vaguely remember what they did. Can anyone help?
Also, I often thought that the best Gophers team was the one that was banned under Mussleman, I think M Thompson and Flip were on that team? I remember they won at Marquette who won the NC that year.

That was supposidly one of the best Gopher teams ever. McHale was a Freshman. Thompson was a beast. Sugar Ray Williams was also on the team.

The Gophers were 24-3 this year and 15-3 in the Big Ten, but the NCAA retroactively ruled Mychal Thompson ineligible for selling his complimentary tickets. Therefore, the Gophers were forced to forfeit all 27 games after the fact. The game scores are listed here as they were actually played.

Because of probation dating back to the Musselman regime, the Gophers were denied the opportunity to play in the post-season

They beat a solid Dicky V coached Detroit team and took out Marquette who won the NCAA.

 

[Lincoln gopher]

Great recall, Mulligan

Ah, nostalgia time. The players would run out onto the dark floor and form a circle. The spotlight would go on, "Sweet Georgia Brown" would start up, the crowd would roar, and they would take turns doing Globetrotter-type ball tricks. The crowd would react to each player's trick. There also was a kid by the name of George (Schauer maybe?) who would put on a great dribbling display. The noise would keep building. Hate to be old, but it put the Barnyard to shame. You've got to remember Williams Arena held several thousand more people back then.

All of this really got the fans pumped, and the whole routine was criticized by the other Big Ten schools. The criticism really got intense after the Ohio State brawl. People claimed Mussleman created such intensity that it led to the brawl. I think there might be a little validity to that, but there was also a racial undercurrent to all of the criticism.

The really good Mussleman teams never were banned from anything I don't think. As a matter of fact, the team involved with Ohio State won the Big Ten title that year even with Ron Behagen and Corky Taylor being suspended for the rest of the year. That was something Lou Hudson and Archie Clark couldn't do (mainly because of Cazzie Russell). Musselman had another good team the next year and then had to rebuild, or, more accurately reload.

He got Mark Olberding and Mark Lansberger and I think that was when Flip and Mychal Thompson were recruited. But they were young, Lansberger transferred because of Mussleman, and Musselman split for the pros just ahead of the NCAA posse. He took Olberding with him and Jim Dutcher took over.

The sanctions came after he left. One, maybe two years? There was another good team when Thompson was a junior or senior. McHale was a freshman, but Ray Williams, a really great guard was on it. That was the season when Thompson got caught selling tournament tickets and we forfeited, I think, the entire Big Ten season.

So in that 10-12 year period starting with Lou Hudson in 1965, it's hard to say which one was the best Gopher team. It sure was a lot of fun though.

Great memory, Mulligan you did a great job of putting the history together. A couple of thoughts, the Barn was loud back then, several thousand more fans and great basketball. The second "good" team you mentioned was 76-77. The whole season was forfeited for the reason you mentioned, even though the Gophers were ranked 13th at the end of the year. The 24-3 year is 0-27 in the books. I had student tickets that year and sat up in the upper deck at the ends. Had to get to the game so early to get seats. Most of the starters played in the NBA.

 

[bga1]

Great memory, Mulligan you did a great job of putting the history together. A couple of thoughts, the Barn was loud back then, several thousand more fans and great basketball. The second "good" team you mentioned was 76-77. The whole season was forfeited for the reason you mentioned, even though the Gophers were ranked 13th at the end of the year. The 24-3 year is 0-27 in the books. I had student tickets that year and sat up in the upper deck at the ends. Had to get to the game so early to get seats. Most of the starters played in the NBA.

The warmup was incredible. As you say students would get to the game an hour early to get the choice spots and the rest of the crowd came early as well.

You are right Lincoln about the 24-3 year. They had Michael Thompson , Winey, Ray Williams, Flip Saunders and McHale among others. They had to forfeit all their games- it could have been a national champ squad. We beat Marquette and I'm thinking they went on to win the national title.

The other year that was a "coulda been" was Mussy's second year with the Gophs. They had the title seemingly wrapped up with a perhaps 10 point lead at the half against Iowa in a game to clinch. They blew the game at home in the second half. Then a few days later they inexplicably lost to Northwestern to lose the Big Ten title and in those days there was no other route to the tourney. That squad with Winfield, Behagen, Turner, Taylor and Brewer had the best front line in the country and could have done some damage in the tournament.

One more thing about that era. Today we complain if all games aren't on TV. Then... it was pretty unlikely that a home game would be telecast. The Gophs were so popular that the 17-18,000 plus that they were letting in the Barn wasn't enough. So for certain games- for sure the Indiana game the hockey arena on the other side of the Barn was opened for another 5000 or so to view on a pretty weak closed circuit TV feed. You could hear the roars from Barn reverberating into the hockey arena- it was nuts.

 

[sunnyday2]

Yeah, I had season tickets in '72-'73, the year AFTER the brawl, and then almost every year through the early '90s when I gave them up because I was traveling for work and missing most of the games.

I agree the '76-'77 team was the best, 24-3 including an EASY win (20 points or thereabouts) AT Marquette who went on to win the NCAA.

But the '73 team was almost as good. Jim Brewer, Ron Behagen, Dave Winfield, Corky Taylor, Clyde Turner, Keith Taylor, Bob Nix, among others. They were alone atop the Big Ten with 2 games to play when Musselman took a trip to Florida to interview for the head coaching job down there. Upon his return, the Gophers blew a comfortable lead in the 2nd half to 9th place Iowa (in those days that was 2nd to last place). The team really lost its composure for some reason. Then in the final game at last place Northwestern they got hammered. There's no other word for it than "choke." Something spooked the team and they were so tight that day they just didn't play ball at all. It was really heart-breaking. They probably weren't an NCAA contender like '77, what with UCLA and David Thompson at NC State. But I think they may have been rated as high as #3 in the nation before losing to Iowa. And in those days, losing the Big 10 title meant no NCAA but rather NIT, where they continued to play poorly and lost to Alabama in the 2nd round.

The pre-game warm-up was something to see. Very exciting.

Still the greatest Gopher game I ever saw was a 3OT win down in Iowa City in 1982. Iowa was in 1st place in the conference at the time, but after losing to us they choked up, too, and lost again, and the Gophers snuck away with their only un-tainted Big Ten since 1937. Tucker and Mitchell were the stars of that team, I suppose, but Randy Breuer probably remains the most underrated Gopher of my lifetime. Great great college center, and of course he once scored 40 points in the NBA--I mean, in one game!

But the Lou Hudson-Archie Clark junior year of '65 (?) was an even better team than the Big Ten champs of '82. As somebody said, Cazzie Russell and Michigan was just too good during that era.

Best Teams I've seen

1. '77
2. '73
3. '65
4. '97
5. '82

Greatest Gophers of my lifetime

Lou Hudson
Jim Brewer
Mychal Thompson
Kevin McHale
Bobby Jackson

Ron Johnson
Archie Clark
Ray Williams
Randy Breuer
Willie Burton

Eric Magdanz
Terry Kunze
Ron Behagen
Clyde Turner
Trent Tucker

Darryl Mitchell
Richard Coffey
Melvin Newburn and/or Kevin Lynch
Voshon Leonard
John Thomas
Mark Olberding was better than most of these guys but only played 1 year

 

[whogoofed]

Mussleman

thanks all. From what little I remember of the routine I didn't think it was something that would go over well today. It would be nice to at least see it on video before a game. Also, it was the 76-77 team I was thinking of. Not to get this too far back into the past but my dad told me he went to a gopher game, must of been late '40's, and saw Bud Grant play BB. He had good seats down low and who walks by in front of him? Sid Hartman Behind my dad sat one of the great football players at the time, Leo Nomellini.

 

[sunnyday2]

Now that I think of it, Bud Grant lost his academic eligibility, too, in January of 1950. He had played football in the fall but was lost to the Gopher basketball team. Instead, he turned pro with the Mpls. Lakers.

 

[washgopher]

Ah, nostalgia time. The players would run out onto the dark floor and form a circle. The spotlight would go on, "Sweet Georgia Brown" would start up, the crowd would roar, and they would take turns doing Globetrotter-type ball tricks. The crowd would react to each player's trick. There also was a kid by the name of George (Schauer maybe?) who would put on a great dribbling display. The noise would keep building. Hate to be old, but it put the Barnyard to shame. You've got to remember Williams Arena held several thousand more people back then.

All of this really got the fans pumped, and the whole routine was criticized by the other Big Ten schools. The criticism really got intense after the Ohio State brawl. People claimed Mussleman created such intensity that it led to the brawl. I think there might be a little validity to that, but there was also a racial undercurrent to all of the criticism.

The really good Mussleman teams never were banned from anything I don't think. As a matter of fact, the team involved with Ohio State won the Big Ten title that year even with Ron Behagen and Corky Taylor being suspended for the rest of the year. That was something Lou Hudson and Archie Clark couldn't do (mainly because of Cazzie Russell). Musselman had another good team the next year and then had to rebuild, or, more accurately reload.

He got Mark Olberding and Mark Lansberger and I think that was when Flip and Mychal Thompson were recruited. But they were young, Lansberger transferred because of Mussleman, and Musselman split for the pros just ahead of the NCAA posse. He took Olberding with him and Jim Dutcher took over.

The sanctions came after he left. One, maybe two years? There was another good team when Thompson was a junior or senior. McHale was a freshman, but Ray Williams, a really great guard was on it. That was the season when Thompson got caught selling tournament tickets and we forfeited, I think, the entire Big Ten season.

So in that 10-12 year period starting with Lou Hudson in 1965, it's hard to say which one was the best Gopher team. It sure was a lot of fun though.

we were there too and thats very accurate, really got the barn rockin, very load and intense, tix were a premium, also crowd for the OSU game was 20,400. the aisles were packed with students as there was no limit on how many students were let in

 

[cemba99]

Impressive as the '76-77 Minnesota team was, even if those games had counted their 15-3 record still would only have been good enough for second place in the Big Ten that year. Michigan, with Rickey Green and Phil Hubbard, went 16-2 in the conference that year, including 2 wins against the Gophers.

 

[MN1nAZ]

sunnyday2,

I'm surprised that you don't include Sam Jacobson?

 

[Mulligan]

we were there too and thats very accurate, really got the barn rockin, very load and intense, tix were a premium, also crowd for the OSU game was 20,400. the aisles were packed with students as there was no limit on how many students were let in

Cliche, but the atmosphere for Big Ten games back then was electric, especially that night. The most vivid memory I have of the Ohio State game is Dave Winfield chasing an Ohio State player around the court and several students out on the court taking a swipe or a kick at the kid. Thank goodness, Winfield never caught him or it could have been a lot worse. Ohio State came off the court in our corner, and they were shook and scared. Don't remember seeing Witte but Allan Hornacek (sp), a really good guard for them, was the only one who looked pissed and not intimidated. We were just howling for more blood. Then on the way home I tuned in Ray. He sounded absolutely devastated. Unlike us idiots, he realized right away the ramifications of what had happened.

 

[East Coast Gopher]

You are right Lincoln about the 24-3 year. They had Michael Thompson , Winey, Ray Williams, Flip Saunders and McHale among others. They had to forfeit all their games- it could have been a national champ squad. We beat Marquette and I'm thinking they went on to win the national title.

Also remember that squad went 24-3 with only six players on scholarship: Thompson, Winey, Williams, Saunder, McHale and Osborne Lockhart. Their only loses were to Michigan (twice) and at Purdue in OT. I remember in the Purdue game a few Gophers fouled out in OT and Minnesota had to play some of the walk ons at the end.

 

[samloupete]

Pre-game show

I have had season tickets for 36 years. One of the reasons that I got season tickets when I first went to the U was that Williams arena was the place to be because the pre-game was unbelieveable. I really miss those days. College basketball is so staid now with all the rules and regulations, but one thing they can't take away is my memory of those times.

 

[sunnyday2]

I'm surprised that you don't include Sam Jacobson?

I knew somebody would say that. He might be the very next best but the list had to end somewhere. At least you didn't say Kris Humphries.

 

[Gopher Warrior]

Great thread.

I agree the '76-'77 team was the best, 24-3 including an EASY win (20 points or thereabouts) AT Marquette who went on to win the NCAA.

I believe it was 66-59... not quite 20 points. The year before the Warriors NCAA championship season, the Gophers had another big win over Marquette.. at Williams this time, and Minnesota pulled it off 77-73 in overtime... that was Marquette's only regular season loss in 1975-76.

 

[washgopher]

Cliche, but the atmosphere for Big Ten games back then was electric, especially that night. The most vivid memory I have of the Ohio State game is Dave Winfield chasing an Ohio State player around the court and several students out on the court taking a swipe or a kick at the kid. Thank goodness, Winfield never caught him or it could have been a lot worse. Ohio State came off the court in our corner, and they were shook and scared. Don't remember seeing Witte but Allan Hornacek (sp), a really good guard for them, was the only one who looked pissed and not intimidated. We were just howling for more blood. Then on the way home I tuned in Ray. He sounded absolutely devastated. Unlike us idiots, he realized right away the ramifications of what had happened.

Winfield was a beast, I recall him connecting on a couple swings. He probably caused the most damage and went back to the bench and wasn't suspended. What I remember vividly was a guy in front of me jumping off the second deck and not getting hurt. That was both remarkable and stupid. Too much adrenalin I guess.

 

[Holy Man]

Great thread.



I believe it was 66-59... not quite 20 points. The year before the Warriors NCAA championship season, the Gophers had another big win over Marquette.. at Williams this time, and Minnesota pulled it off 77-73 in overtime... that was Marquette's only regular season loss in 1975-76.

Among my earliest memories of Gopher basketball were the games against Marquette and Al McGuire. I remember the wins, but I also remember Al coming over to the Gophers bench and shaking Dutch's hand when the game was decided but not over yet. A class act. I miss him arund college hoops.

The year the Warriors won the NC and we beat them, they also lost a pile of other games that year and barely made the tournament. It's not like they were 33-1 and we were the one. They gelled at the right time and made one of the greatest moments in college hoops history allowing Al to leave coaching on the ultimate peak.

 

[Tully55]

Corky Taylor......nice guy but I would never shake hands with him

 

[walleyedude]

I love reading about the old days as I wasn't born to have seen them. I can't find any old video from the 70's besides the brawl.

You would think the U would have some of these videos.

 

[sec105]

an hour early to get the choice spots...

Try 3 to 4 hours early if you wanted to get in. If you got there only an hour early you watched from closed circuit in the Hockey arena.