BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 62,263
- Reaction score
- 18,939
- Points
- 113
From Reusse's blog:
My first clear recollection of Gophers football comes from Nov. 13, 1954, when my father Richard managed to get us among the overflow of fans kneeling in an end zone at Memorial Stadium to watch our heroes take on Iowa.
I was a freshly-minted 9-year-old, but there are two vivid recollections:
Minnesota's Bob McNamara entering a tangle of Hawkeyes near midfield, coming out the other side and bursting free for a touchdown. And the sight of a Hawkeyes kick returner coming to a stop at the back of the end zone, almost right above me, and mouthing an exclamation when he realized his TD dash was being called back by penalty.
I never went back and checked the actual details of that game. I knew the Gophers had won, 22-20, and my old man was as happy as an undertaker could get. My recollections were McNamara had made his magnificent run on a punt return, and that the Iowa returner was Eddie Vincent.
The memory was flawed on both counts. McNamara scored on an 89-yard kickoff return. The
Iowa returner was Earl Smith, the other explosive halfback for the Hawkeyes.
What weren't faulty as memories were the pile of would-be tacklers from which McNamara burst, and the unhappy grimace and quiet epithet issued by the Hawkeye when he discovered his kickoff return was for naught.
Football fans aren't surprised when we see a flag on a kickoff return these days. It's about 50-50 that any successful return will be called back, particularly in the NFL.
That wasn't the case way back then. So when the officials signaled Smith to retreat with the football, and the referee made a clipping gesture, it was a happy surprise for the home-state fans in a jam-packed brickhouse.
I looked up the details this morning. The clipping penalty gave the Hawkeyes possession back at their 3. Vincent bobbled the ball on a pitch play, fell on it in the end zone and was covered by end Jim Soltau for a game-winning safety.
That was an eventful first-hand introduction to Gophers football. People realize I've been around a long time (as opposed to my colleague Sid being around forever). They know I'm conversant in Gophers football history. And thus it wasn't a surprise to receive several electronic communiqués asking:
"Was Saturday's loss to South Dakota the worst in Gophers' history?''
It's up there, but amid the hysteria, we should mention that big-time football has undergone large changes in the last decade. The idea of a respectable Division 1-AA being able to compete with a low-rung team from a BCS conference is no longer far-fetched.
If James Madison, a playoff contender in 1-AA, can win at Virginia Tech, a regular in meaningful bowl games, then a 1-AA team such as South Dakota has permission to come to Minneapolis and defeat a group of Gophers forecast to finish 10th or 11th in the Big Ten.
Worst loss ever? Nope. I don't even rate it as Tim Brewster's worst loss in his four seasons of much style and no substance at Minnesota.
To me, Brewster's worst loss stands as his ability to take a team that was 7-1 in 2008 and coach ‘em up for the next month until the Gophers were able to lose 55-0 to Iowa in Minnesota's last-ever game at the Metrodome.
There's never been enough attention paid to this fact: That was the most-lopsided conference loss ever - EVER - suffered by a Gophers' football team.
So was it also worst Gophers' loss ever? Nope.
I have to go back to 1982-83, those two lost seasons when Joe Salem's program came unglued and the Gophers reached an unimaginable level of ineptitude. And no, I'm not talking about the 84-13 loss to Nebraska in September 1983. That was perhaps the greatest Cornhuskers' team ever - despite the loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl.
In my opinion, Smokey Joe's worst loss, and the Gophers', remains the visit to Northwestern on Oct. 9, 1982.
It was the era when Northwestern was beyond-belief bad. The Wildcats were winless in 39 Big Ten games in a row. And the only non-loss in the streak was a 0-0 tie with Illinois.
Northwestern defeated Minnesota 31-21 on that afternoon in Evanston, Ill. And the few hundred NU students in attendance were so enthused that they tore down a set of goal posts and carried the remnants down the street to throw into Lake Michigan.
Ending the conference losing streak for the wretched Wildcats of that era - allowing them to be celebrated with torn-down goal post - remains No. 1 on my list of worst-ever Gophers' losses.
That said, South Dakota 41, Coach Brew's lads 38 does get a spot in the Top Five.
http://1500espn.com/blogs/As_losses_go_theres_competition
Go Gophers!!
My first clear recollection of Gophers football comes from Nov. 13, 1954, when my father Richard managed to get us among the overflow of fans kneeling in an end zone at Memorial Stadium to watch our heroes take on Iowa.
I was a freshly-minted 9-year-old, but there are two vivid recollections:
Minnesota's Bob McNamara entering a tangle of Hawkeyes near midfield, coming out the other side and bursting free for a touchdown. And the sight of a Hawkeyes kick returner coming to a stop at the back of the end zone, almost right above me, and mouthing an exclamation when he realized his TD dash was being called back by penalty.
I never went back and checked the actual details of that game. I knew the Gophers had won, 22-20, and my old man was as happy as an undertaker could get. My recollections were McNamara had made his magnificent run on a punt return, and that the Iowa returner was Eddie Vincent.
The memory was flawed on both counts. McNamara scored on an 89-yard kickoff return. The
Iowa returner was Earl Smith, the other explosive halfback for the Hawkeyes.
What weren't faulty as memories were the pile of would-be tacklers from which McNamara burst, and the unhappy grimace and quiet epithet issued by the Hawkeye when he discovered his kickoff return was for naught.
Football fans aren't surprised when we see a flag on a kickoff return these days. It's about 50-50 that any successful return will be called back, particularly in the NFL.
That wasn't the case way back then. So when the officials signaled Smith to retreat with the football, and the referee made a clipping gesture, it was a happy surprise for the home-state fans in a jam-packed brickhouse.
I looked up the details this morning. The clipping penalty gave the Hawkeyes possession back at their 3. Vincent bobbled the ball on a pitch play, fell on it in the end zone and was covered by end Jim Soltau for a game-winning safety.
That was an eventful first-hand introduction to Gophers football. People realize I've been around a long time (as opposed to my colleague Sid being around forever). They know I'm conversant in Gophers football history. And thus it wasn't a surprise to receive several electronic communiqués asking:
"Was Saturday's loss to South Dakota the worst in Gophers' history?''
It's up there, but amid the hysteria, we should mention that big-time football has undergone large changes in the last decade. The idea of a respectable Division 1-AA being able to compete with a low-rung team from a BCS conference is no longer far-fetched.
If James Madison, a playoff contender in 1-AA, can win at Virginia Tech, a regular in meaningful bowl games, then a 1-AA team such as South Dakota has permission to come to Minneapolis and defeat a group of Gophers forecast to finish 10th or 11th in the Big Ten.
Worst loss ever? Nope. I don't even rate it as Tim Brewster's worst loss in his four seasons of much style and no substance at Minnesota.
To me, Brewster's worst loss stands as his ability to take a team that was 7-1 in 2008 and coach ‘em up for the next month until the Gophers were able to lose 55-0 to Iowa in Minnesota's last-ever game at the Metrodome.
There's never been enough attention paid to this fact: That was the most-lopsided conference loss ever - EVER - suffered by a Gophers' football team.
So was it also worst Gophers' loss ever? Nope.
I have to go back to 1982-83, those two lost seasons when Joe Salem's program came unglued and the Gophers reached an unimaginable level of ineptitude. And no, I'm not talking about the 84-13 loss to Nebraska in September 1983. That was perhaps the greatest Cornhuskers' team ever - despite the loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl.
In my opinion, Smokey Joe's worst loss, and the Gophers', remains the visit to Northwestern on Oct. 9, 1982.
It was the era when Northwestern was beyond-belief bad. The Wildcats were winless in 39 Big Ten games in a row. And the only non-loss in the streak was a 0-0 tie with Illinois.
Northwestern defeated Minnesota 31-21 on that afternoon in Evanston, Ill. And the few hundred NU students in attendance were so enthused that they tore down a set of goal posts and carried the remnants down the street to throw into Lake Michigan.
Ending the conference losing streak for the wretched Wildcats of that era - allowing them to be celebrated with torn-down goal post - remains No. 1 on my list of worst-ever Gophers' losses.
That said, South Dakota 41, Coach Brew's lads 38 does get a spot in the Top Five.
http://1500espn.com/blogs/As_losses_go_theres_competition
Go Gophers!!