BleedGopher
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My slightly cynical view of the great moral victory gained in Jerry Kill's first game as the Gophers football coach drew a hostile response from many of the team's faithful followers.
This caused some self-introspection during Tuesday's commute home from Hubbard headquarters and led me to this conclusion:
The problem is I'm too damn old. I have refused to give up the standards for the Gophers that were embraced in my youth.
My first recollection of Gophers' football is kneeling along the backline of an end zone at Memorial Stadium, when Iowa came to Minneapolis in 1954. I'm not sure of the end zone, only that it was the one in which the Hawkeyes' Earl Smith arrived with what he thought was a game-winning touchdown.
A moment later, Smith heard a roar of approval from the home crowd (65,464) and found out there was flag that would bring the ball all the way back to near the opposite end zone. Smith uttered a word that would've gotten his mouth washed out with soap at St. Gabriel's grade school in Fulda, Minn.
The Gophers won that day, 22-20, and a 9-year-old was hooked.
The next year, the Gophers would play a pair of non-conference games - Southern Cal and Washington - and then seven in the Big Ten. And that was the norm in the years that followed:
Washington, Pitt, Nebraska, Missouri, Oregon, California ... Army and Navy when they were still relevant on the national scene.
There was a distressing moment in 1967, when the Gophers not only scheduled Utah - Utah! - but survived by a paltry 13-12.
The season turned out OK, as the Gophers tied Purdue and Indiana for the Big Ten title at 6-1.
Strange things started happening in 1969: Arizona State, from a conference called the WAC, and Ohio, from the MAC, both appeared on the schedule.
The Gophers went to ASU, ran into speed they could not have anticipated and lost 48-26. My friend Jon Roe was covering for the Minneapolis Tribune and has told the story of Murray Warmath, drenched in sweat, sitting forlornly in the trainer's room, cursing the fact a game with this upstart school had been scheduled.
It was a greater humiliation a week later, when the Gophers opened at home with a 35-35 tie with Ohio.
A year later, the situation was righted when Ohio came to Minneapolis again and the Gophers won 48-7. We weren't proud of the victory; merely satisfied that the MAC had been put back in its lowly place.
In 1971, the schedule was expanded from 10 to 11 total, and from seven to eight in the Big Ten. Nebraska, Washington and Kansas were the non-conference opponents in 1971, then Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas in 1972.
That's what a Gophers' schedule was supposed to look like, and then:
On Sept. 22, 1973, the Gophers played North Dakota. The other non-conference games were Nebraska and Kansas ... but North Dakota, on a modern Gophers' schedule? It was an embarrassment to the legacy of Tom Brown, Bobby Bell, Sandy Stephens, of all the Rose Bowl Gophers.
In 1977, the Gophers played in their third bowl game: the first-ever Hall of Fame Classic in Birmingham, Ala.
Cal Stoll's outfit had a 7-4 regular season that included victories over Michigan and Washington, the Rose Bowl opponents that season, and also UCLA.
Still, this affair in Birmingham was now the 13th bowl game approved by the NCAA. Even with those big victories on the Gophers' resume, we thought it was a bit silly that 26 teams were being allowed to play in bowl games.
The next bowl game came in 1985, after Lou Holtz left for Notre Dame and John Gutekunst took the Gophers to Shreveport, La. to play Clemson in the Independence Bowl. There were now 19 bowl games - clearly ridiculous.
I called Frank Howard, the retired, legendary Clemson coach, looking for a column. "You from the St. Paul Dispatch, you say,'' Frank said. "Does that paper get out of the city limits, boy?''
He talked. I laughed. Finally, he asked: "What's your record at Minnesota?''
"Six-and-5, coach,'' I said.
"We 6-and-5, too,'' Frank said. "This ain't no bowl game. This is a battle of pissants.''
A year later, the Gophers lost to Pacific 24-20 in the Metrodome, and lost at Oklahoma, 63-0, and still they went to a bowl game (Liberty) by going 6-5.
I've seen everything since then. I've seen the Gophers lose to MAC teams - starting with Ohio 23-17, on Sept. 9, 2000 in the Metrodome.
I've seen the schedule raised to 12 games in 2002, and Glen Mason without embarrassment offering up Southwest Texas, Louisiana-Lafayette, Toledo and Buffalo as the non-conference opponents.
I've seen North Dakota State come into the Dome and trample the Gophers - and South Dakota come into TCF Bank Stadium and grease the skids for Tim Brewster's departure.
I've seen too much.
Worse, I remember too much. I can't forget when playing real teams from real conferences was the norm. I can't forget when the Gophers - and the rest of the Big Ten, for that matter - had standards.
I'm sorry.
http://www.1500espn.com/blogs/remembering_too_much_about_gophers
Go Gophers!!
This caused some self-introspection during Tuesday's commute home from Hubbard headquarters and led me to this conclusion:
The problem is I'm too damn old. I have refused to give up the standards for the Gophers that were embraced in my youth.
My first recollection of Gophers' football is kneeling along the backline of an end zone at Memorial Stadium, when Iowa came to Minneapolis in 1954. I'm not sure of the end zone, only that it was the one in which the Hawkeyes' Earl Smith arrived with what he thought was a game-winning touchdown.
A moment later, Smith heard a roar of approval from the home crowd (65,464) and found out there was flag that would bring the ball all the way back to near the opposite end zone. Smith uttered a word that would've gotten his mouth washed out with soap at St. Gabriel's grade school in Fulda, Minn.
The Gophers won that day, 22-20, and a 9-year-old was hooked.
The next year, the Gophers would play a pair of non-conference games - Southern Cal and Washington - and then seven in the Big Ten. And that was the norm in the years that followed:
Washington, Pitt, Nebraska, Missouri, Oregon, California ... Army and Navy when they were still relevant on the national scene.
There was a distressing moment in 1967, when the Gophers not only scheduled Utah - Utah! - but survived by a paltry 13-12.
The season turned out OK, as the Gophers tied Purdue and Indiana for the Big Ten title at 6-1.
Strange things started happening in 1969: Arizona State, from a conference called the WAC, and Ohio, from the MAC, both appeared on the schedule.
The Gophers went to ASU, ran into speed they could not have anticipated and lost 48-26. My friend Jon Roe was covering for the Minneapolis Tribune and has told the story of Murray Warmath, drenched in sweat, sitting forlornly in the trainer's room, cursing the fact a game with this upstart school had been scheduled.
It was a greater humiliation a week later, when the Gophers opened at home with a 35-35 tie with Ohio.
A year later, the situation was righted when Ohio came to Minneapolis again and the Gophers won 48-7. We weren't proud of the victory; merely satisfied that the MAC had been put back in its lowly place.
In 1971, the schedule was expanded from 10 to 11 total, and from seven to eight in the Big Ten. Nebraska, Washington and Kansas were the non-conference opponents in 1971, then Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas in 1972.
That's what a Gophers' schedule was supposed to look like, and then:
On Sept. 22, 1973, the Gophers played North Dakota. The other non-conference games were Nebraska and Kansas ... but North Dakota, on a modern Gophers' schedule? It was an embarrassment to the legacy of Tom Brown, Bobby Bell, Sandy Stephens, of all the Rose Bowl Gophers.
In 1977, the Gophers played in their third bowl game: the first-ever Hall of Fame Classic in Birmingham, Ala.
Cal Stoll's outfit had a 7-4 regular season that included victories over Michigan and Washington, the Rose Bowl opponents that season, and also UCLA.
Still, this affair in Birmingham was now the 13th bowl game approved by the NCAA. Even with those big victories on the Gophers' resume, we thought it was a bit silly that 26 teams were being allowed to play in bowl games.
The next bowl game came in 1985, after Lou Holtz left for Notre Dame and John Gutekunst took the Gophers to Shreveport, La. to play Clemson in the Independence Bowl. There were now 19 bowl games - clearly ridiculous.
I called Frank Howard, the retired, legendary Clemson coach, looking for a column. "You from the St. Paul Dispatch, you say,'' Frank said. "Does that paper get out of the city limits, boy?''
He talked. I laughed. Finally, he asked: "What's your record at Minnesota?''
"Six-and-5, coach,'' I said.
"We 6-and-5, too,'' Frank said. "This ain't no bowl game. This is a battle of pissants.''
A year later, the Gophers lost to Pacific 24-20 in the Metrodome, and lost at Oklahoma, 63-0, and still they went to a bowl game (Liberty) by going 6-5.
I've seen everything since then. I've seen the Gophers lose to MAC teams - starting with Ohio 23-17, on Sept. 9, 2000 in the Metrodome.
I've seen the schedule raised to 12 games in 2002, and Glen Mason without embarrassment offering up Southwest Texas, Louisiana-Lafayette, Toledo and Buffalo as the non-conference opponents.
I've seen North Dakota State come into the Dome and trample the Gophers - and South Dakota come into TCF Bank Stadium and grease the skids for Tim Brewster's departure.
I've seen too much.
Worse, I remember too much. I can't forget when playing real teams from real conferences was the norm. I can't forget when the Gophers - and the rest of the Big Ten, for that matter - had standards.
I'm sorry.
http://www.1500espn.com/blogs/remembering_too_much_about_gophers
Go Gophers!!
The problem is making a relevant point about anything always takes a second place to irritating people for Patrick 
