Toughest Gophers of All Time


I’ll take Peter Najarian. Great player on some terrible teams and hung in there.
 

Always difficult to pick the best in any category, but I have Shannon Brooks in my Top 5.
 






MBIII and Rickie Foggie. As great as RF was with not getting directly hit or seriously injured, option qb's were created to get hit - and he took a lot of them.
 











Perhaps not the toughest, but I remember Eric Murray on the ground throwing up after a big hit and playing through it for the rest of the drive.
 

Mitch Leidner played beat up often. Foot injuries
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Lou Hudson played basketball for the Gophers with his arm in a cast... NY Times:
"He played much of his senior season with a cast on his shooting hand after breaking a bone in his right wrist, but he still averaged 19 points per game, often shooting left-handed.

He had played hurt before. In a 1964 defeat of Purdue, he scored 36 points, 24 of them after hitting his head on the backboard, an injury that required stitches during the game.

His jersey was later retired in Minnesota and in Atlanta, where the Hawks first played in the 1968-69 season.

Hudson spent his last two seasons playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. In his final season, 1978-79, he shot 51.7 percent."
NY TIMES

David Cobb and Mo
 

Julian Hook, a small guy that played middle linebacker.
 

Mitch Leidner played beat up often. Foot injuries
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Lou Hudson played basketball for the Gophers with his arm in a cast... NY Times:
"He played much of his senior season with a cast on his shooting hand after breaking a bone in his right wrist, but he still averaged 19 points per game, often shooting left-handed.

He had played hurt before. In a 1964 defeat of Purdue, he scored 36 points, 24 of them after hitting his head on the backboard, an injury that required stitches during the game.

His jersey was later retired in Minnesota and in Atlanta, where the Hawks first played in the 1968-69 season.

Hudson spent his last two seasons playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. In his final season, 1978-79, he shot 51.7 percent."
NY TIMES

David Cobb and Mo
Was just going to say Mitch for this same reason.
 


Matt Spaeth. Played much of his senior year with a separated shoulder and was a big factor in winning the last three games of that season just to get bowl eligible, when he could have just sat out the last few games of that seemingly lost season to get healthy for the NFL draft.
 


Lots of good ones but of the recent guys - Kieft comes to mind. Guy was an absolute ass kicker
 

I think Connor Olson should be in the discussion. To start every game of your career as an interior lineman and never sit out is amazing.

From Gopher Sports:
CAREER:
Started a school and Big Ten record 58 games (every game of his career), seeing action at left guard (29 starts), center (15 starts) and right guard (14 starts).
 


I recall Aaron Brown broke his jaw in a game and kept on playing.
If I remember correctly, he broke his jaw early in the game and didn't tell anyone. No one caught on until he was seen throwing up blood late in the game. He gets my vote.
 






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