Players you’d like to see recognized with a banner at The Barn

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UpAndUnder43

UpAndUnder43

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We have gone my entire lifetime (40 years) I think, without “retiring” a number. The number can still be used but I’d like to see some banners. We don’t need to wait until they are dead to recognize them.

I don’t know who is worthy. What do you all think?
 




GopherBlood777 said:
Bobby Jackson : (
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The Final Four team was where I fell in love. Pepsi ran a promo where you peeled the final four participants off a 24 pk to win prizes if they were right. I won a hat that I one day forgot at a basketball tournament at Sibley East High school. All those guys deserve official recognition.
 


Amir Coffey...

Minnesota kid. All freshman team. All B1G his last season (3rd team I think). Really solid pro career.
 







SelectionSunday said:
3 guys from the Final 4 team.

Bobby Jackson, the stone cold clutch assassin.

Q.

Slammin’ Sam, I am.
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All three (3) are deserving IMO but let's not forget John Thomas' contributions to the Gopher program from that same team. He owned the middle without ever getting 6" above the court.

I can't recall during my lifetime a Gopher player that improved more during his career as a Gopher than Thomas. When he was a freshman, I thought it was entirely possible he might never make a FT during his entire Gopher career.

Throw in Eric Harris, Courtney James, Lefty Thomas and Miles "Porn Stache" Tarver and that whole team deserves a spot in the rafters. Nothing will ever remove those terrific memories from my melon.

The Sam Jacobson dunk against Clemson still gives me chills...or I have the flu.
 







UpAndUnder43 said:
We have gone my entire lifetime (40 years) I think, without “retiring” a number. The number can still be used but I’d like to see some banners. We don’t need to wait until they are dead to recognize them.

I don’t know who is worthy. What do you all think?
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The Gophers have retired numbers of players in your lifetime, just no players that played in your lifetime.

They hung banners for Trent Tucker and Whitey Skoog in 2009. They hung banners for Charley Mencel and Dick Garmaker in 2011. Randy Bruer in 2015 and Willie Burton in 2020.

As for more recent players, Jordan Murphy has to be the next in line.

If they get past the academic fraud scandal, then Vashon Leonard and Bobby Jackson after that.
 


I loved Sam Jacobson when I was a little kid. I was in grade school when my dad packed me and my buddies into our Astrovan to drive to Cottage Grove to watch him. That said, I don't think he is quite the caliber of having your jersey retired.

Bobby Jackson was the best player on our best team. He was an All American and Big 10 Player of the Year.

Retire the number. Hang the banners.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
I loved Sam Jacobson when I was a little kid. I was in grade school when my dad packed me and my buddies into our Astrovan to drive to Cottage Grove to watch him. That said, I don't think he is quite the caliber of having your jersey retired.

Bobby Jackson was the best player on our best team. He was an All American and Big 10 Player of the Year.

Retire the number. Hang the banners.
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Sam's on the boarder but in the elite eight and especially in the sweet 16 that year he played like a guy who deserves the honor. To me it's one of those cases where the team success puts him over. Bobby was the best player but there were also plenty of games like at IU vs Iowa that we don't win without Sam that year. Even the next year they were a completely different team when he was healthy.
 

I can see only 2 whose body of work are legitimately deserving of banners: Bobby Jackson and Jordan Murphy.

But if we're retiring numbers, it has to be 72, as a tribute to the number of days Gophers legend Kris Humphries endured in his marriage to Kim Kardashian.
 

Sadly, in the first quarter of the 21st century, there is no men's basketball player that deserves his jersey be put in the rafters as an elite player. The women have at least three, but none for the men.
 

Mel Northway. Three year starter (and Patrick Henry grad) who played with Gopher greats Lou Hudson, Archie Clark, and Bill Davis. Northway averaged a double/double in each of his three seasons.

But what really makes Mel special is he is the only college coach (Inver Hills CC in its first season) that recruited me out of high school. Of course, I think every senior basketball player in Goodhue and Dakota counties (Mel must have gotten tired of reading high school basketball game programs) received the same mimeographed letter with the only things written by a person were the player's first name and Mel's signature.

I was tempted to accept the offer and take my 1.6 ppg and <1.0 rpg to the next level and exhibit my stellar bench-sitting skills. Not every player knows how to sit on the bench correctly and I mastered that art.
 
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howeda7 said:
Bobby Jackson and Voshon Leonard.
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These two and Sam Jacobson.

I am 42 and in my lifetime they stand out from all other Gophers.

People like Pryzbilla and Kris Humphrey were good but didn't have the careers they had.

Also, always liked Dusty Rychart. He's not a 'banner quality' player but one of my all-time favorites.
 



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