Reusse: Prep basketball, college football made 1960 wonderful for Minnesota sports

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Reusse:

• On Nov. 5, the football Gophers, rated No. 3, defeated No. 1 Iowa 27-10. There was a bulging crowd of 65,292 at Memorial Stadium. The Gophers moved to No. 1 and wound up there in the final ratings from AP and UPI (voting covered only the regular season).

Anyone under that threshold could have heard of the Gophers’ upset of Iowa that fall and have checked the details, but there’s no way to appreciate it without having seen the manner in which Minnesotans greeted one another in the happy days that followed.

Minnesota might not have been big league in 1960, but Richie Olson’s Dutchmen and Murray Warmath’s Gophers had us living large.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/222826491.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Go Gophers!!
 


OOOH, a pandering of the past by the Fat A44.
 


I was a youngster also. Remember watching the Iowa game on I believe channel 4 As a youngster, your hero's were Gopher football players ( Stephens, Bell , Munsey , etc ) After the Edgerton victory over Austin I went outside and shot baskets for about 2 hours ( dirt court , plywood backboard )
 


Ruppert: The game had to be shown on Channel 2 (the educational channel) back then. The play by
play announcer, non other than Rollie Johnson.
 

Let's not forget the last State Title of the One Class era:

Dennis Christopherson coached Sherburn to an undefeated State Championship in 1970 in the last one-class boys tournament.
 

Reusse is a talented dude, but like a lot of columnists, he finds it easier to go negative than write something uplifting. There's something in the human heart that makes it so.

Nice short article.
 

Doc Gopher said:
Ruppert: The game had to be shown on Channel 2 (the educational channel) back then. The play by
play announcer, non other than Rollie Johnson.
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You are correct Doc, at least the Channel 2 part. The only way the Gophers could get a home game televised back then was if it was a sellout. It could then be televised on the MSP educational channel, KUOM. I remember seeing most of the game on TV in one of the stores at Southdale Shopping Center. Don't remember who was doing play by play. Likely was Rollie Johnson, however.
 



station19 said:
Great article and great memories. Too bad there are only a few of us here that can remember them. I was is 5th grade and remember those events vividly.

Some good takes in the comment section........worth the read. State HS Tournament and Gopher Football - didn't get any bigger than that.

http://comments.startribune.com/com...d=222826491§ion=/sports/gophers&comments=true
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That sure was Station 19. I was a Jr. in high school at the time and was fortunate to see Edgerton's quarterfinal game in person at Williams Arena. That was always a hoot to attend the state basketball tournament. The students occupied the entire second deck. It was general admission and they let the students in all at once at the west end of the arena. From there it was a mad dash to get a good seat.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
Grow up already. Drop the childish name-calling. This is a college discussion board, not a grade school playground.
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Reusse uses these columns at least once every couple of years. The device is used to show he really cares, and it warms your memories. Then with the next column he sticks a shiv in the Gophers. He is no friend of the Gophers, don't be fooled.
 

husker70 said:
Reusse uses these columns at least once every couple of years. The device is used to show he really cares, and it warms your memories. Then with the next column he sticks a shiv in the Gophers. He is no friend of the Gophers, don't be fooled.
Click to expand...

I'm not defending Reusse. I'm admonishing you to civilize your criticism of him.
 




The Gophers were no. 3 in one poll, no. 2 in the other. I had a student ticket and by sheer luck was on the 40-yard line with my friends. Late in the game, a chant started - couldn't tell exactly what it was until our section began to boom it out in rhythm; "We're number one, we're number one!" Sports Illustrated did a big article on the game and said Kennedy and Nixon could have ridden down Hennepin Avenue on giraffes and nobody would have paid attention - so enthralled were Minnesotans with the unanticipated return to football glory. Gophers were behind at the half, 10-7, but busted the game open in the second half with savage line play by Outland winner Tom Brown. FB Roger Hagberg had the decisive run, about 40 yards for a touchdown.
 

Good read.
My goodness, how fan interest in the state basketball tournament has deteriorated. Maybe if they didn't have 32 teams making it to "state" more people would care.
 

Would love to see a change in fan popularity in Minnesota. We need the Little Darlings to keep laying eggs like yesterday in Detroit and the Gophers to have a signature year. When we get 6 pages of coverage in the Strib like the Vikings did this morning I will know the Gophers have arrived.
 

CP Gopher said:
Good read.
My goodness, how fan interest in the state basketball tournament has deteriorated. Maybe if they didn't have 32 teams making it to "state" more people would care.
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Keep sending the 32, just run it like they do the hockey tournament. Prioritize the top class. Quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon and night, semis on Friday night. Give DeLaSalle/other AAA powers a little more motivation to play up a class by putting only the top class in primetime. Also bring it back to Williams and play some music to pump it up a little bit in the gym. Some of the pep bands are pretty weak these days.
 

I vaguely remember the early-1960s Gophers, but the Edgerton story is just beyond my years of sports fandom. I remember my dad talking about it for years afterwards though. I suppose this means that I am old.

Those early-1960s Gopher teams were extremely good.
 

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