Tribal plaza at TCF Bank Stadium called "breathtaking" and "educational"

[BleedGopher]

Tribal plaza at TCF Bank Stadium called "breathtaking" and "educational"

From the article:

But after a lot of thought – and a $12.5 million donation to the university – the most central entrance to the new stadium is breathtaking, and educational, to say the least.

As football fans flock to the new stadium this fall to watch Big 10 football outdoors, the first things they will notice are native prairie landscaping, a dynamic water feature, a veterans’ memorial and 11 soaring glass sky markers that stand 18 feet high and 6 feet wide, incorporating information and images about the 11 tribal nations located in Minnesota.

http://www.edenprairienews.com/tribal-plaza-tcf-bank-stadium-honors-american-indian-heritage-108

Go Gophers!!

 

[drunkenMNgopher]

Educational and football usually don't go together, even at a University. But seems this one is a winner! Good job U of M on getting this right!

 

[froggopher]

Tribal tribute

I saw it yesterday when I was nosing around the stadium (in the rain) and was very impressed!

Does anyone know if M.A. Mortenson, the general contractor, built the tribal plaza as well? Or if it was subcontracted out?
Just wondered.

 

[ofergopher]

Get educated - Take a Walk

Educational and football usually don't go together, even at a University. But seems this one is a winner! Good job U of M on getting this right!

Speaking of educational and "getting it right," if you are walking across campus to get to the stadium, particularly those parking on the West Bank, take the Scholars Walk, which extends from between Walter Library and Smith Hall (Chemistry building) all the way to the McNamara Center. You can't help but take pride in the listing of U-related persons who have won the Pulitzer Prize, are Nobel Laureates, have been named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, etc.

The best part of the walk is the Wall of Discovery, which is 250 feet of etchings on the north side of the Electrical Engineering/Computer Science Building. It includes reproductions of sketches, notes, and memoes related to everything from the calculations for the first Cray Supercomputer to Garrison Keillor's poems and lyrics to Herb Brooks' notes for thoughts to inspire the "Miracle on Ice" team.

 

[highwayman]

Speaking of educational and "getting it right," if you are walking across campus to get to the stadium, particularly those parking on the West Bank, take the Scholars Walk, which extends from between Walter Library and Smith Hall (Chemistry building) all the way to the McNamara Center. You can't help but take pride in the listing of U-related persons who have won the Pulitzer Prize, are Nobel Laureates, have been named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, etc.

The best part of the walk is the Wall of Discovery, which is 250 feet of etchings on the north side of the Electrical Engineering/Computer Science Building. It includes reproductions of sketches, notes, and memoes related to everything from the calculations for the first Cray Supercomputer to Garrison Keillor's poems and lyrics to Herb Brooks' notes for thoughts to inspire the "Miracle on Ice" team.

Thanks for ruining a good post with the wit and wisdom of sports-hater GK...

 

[Rick Mons]

Thanks for ruining a good post with the wit and wisdom of sports-hater GK.

Garrison Keillor is a "sports hater?"

Somehow I've been able to be a fan of both Gopher football and basketball and still enjoy Keillor's works. One of my favorite memories of our games against Wisconsin is when the Gophers beat Wisconsin in 2003. Keillor celebrated the victory with the audience at the Prairie Home Companion broadcast. I'm pretty confident he'll do the same when we win this year.

 

[year of the gopher]

Thanks for ruining a good post with the wit and wisdom of sports-hater GK...

I too was surprised to read highwayman's remark that Garrison Keillor is a sports hater. I've never heard him say anything to that effect...and he's a huge supporter of the U. Heck, he has the hockey pep band come on the show to play the rouser every year or so it seems.

My guess is highwayman dislikes him for other reasons.

 

[jthiegs]

I would guess that he does not hate sports. I hope not, since he is one of the Homecoming Grand Marshalls this year, along with Bobby Bell (and Norman Borlaug, Deb Hopp, Fritz Mondale, and Lindsay Whalen)! -Joe

 

[SoMplsHawkI]

The Ballad of Bombo Rivera

Keilor is a big baseball fan and once wrote a song about a Twins player called 'The Ballad of Bombo Rivera'.

Bom-bo, Bom-bo, Bom-bo Ri-ver-a,
What other players only get one of,
Bom-bo gets a pair-a

 

[WAGopher]

Keilor is a big baseball fan and once wrote a song about a Twins player called 'The Ballad of Bombo Rivera'.

Bom-bo, Bom-bo, Bom-bo Ri-ver-a,
What other players only get one of,
Bom-bo gets a pair-a

I didn't know Keilor wrote that song. Bombo played when I was at the U and we used to go to the Twins games at the Met, sit in right field and talk with Bombo. He was a nice guy, but didn't play great. In his defense, there wasn't much to play for those years. I was at an afternoon game once where there was officially about 750 people. I think that included the vendors because it seemed like we were the only ones there. Great memories of cheap tickets, cheap beer and being able to sit anywhere.

 

[highwayman]

You caught me

I too was surprised to read highwayman's remark that Garrison Keillor is a sports hater. I've never heard him say anything to that effect...and he's a huge supporter of the U. Heck, he has the hockey pep band come on the show to play the rouser every year or so it seems.

My guess is highwayman dislikes him for other reasons.

I don't dislike him, I dislike him a lot.

Enough about the slug. Go Gophers.

 

[spermophilus]

Twins Game in 1981

I didn't know Keilor wrote that song. Bombo played when I was at the U and we used to go to the Twins games at the Met, sit in right field and talk with Bombo. He was a nice guy, but didn't play great. In his defense, there wasn't much to play for those years. I was at an afternoon game once where there was officially about 750 people. I think that included the vendors because it seemed like we were the only ones there. Great memories of cheap tickets, cheap beer and being able to sit anywhere.

I too, attended Twins games at the old Met when I went to the U. I remember a Friday afternoon game in 1981 against the Angels. I swear that there were so few people there we tried to actually count them. We counted less than 1,000.

I just looked up that game on Baseball Almanac, and the "official" attendance figure was 2,759. So that counted all tickets sold. Incredible.

That was the last year of the Met, and I didn't realize how much it (outdoor baseball) would be missed. The Met too, of course, but not for the creature comforts - there were next to none.

Another anecdote about how sparse the attendance truly was . . . We were sitting in the left field bleachers (poor college students, of course), and Gary Ward was the Twins' left fielder. One of the Angels hit a fly ball that either he mis-judged or had something funny to it in the wind. As the ball was in the air, Ward uttered "Oh, $#!+" in a conversational, and not shouting, tone. In the silence that <1,000 "generates" you could hear it clear as a bell. I've never forgotten that.