What is your, "I remember exactly where I was" Gopher Football Moment?

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Otis

Otis

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The Golden Gophers where playing the Number 1 ranked Michigan Wolverines in good old Memorial Stadium and my family had tickets to the game! We had to drive down from Virginia, MN for the game and we got all the way to Duluth when my Dad realized he had left the tickets pinned to the family reminder board in the kitchen. Well, needless to say, all speed limits were void at that point and we raced back to get then and sped back to the game.

My childhood friends big brother played WR for Hamline and they had a game against St. Thomas that day as well, so I gave my ticket to his dad so I could hang out with my buddy at St. Thomas. Sometime deep in the fourth quarter, there was a roar from the crowd and I heard the announcer say as I stopped playing catch in the Tommies area outside the southern end zone on the track with a football that the Gophers had won the Little Brown Jug 16-0.

And I had missed the whole thing.

What was your, I'll never forget Gopher football moment?
 

1999 Penn State in Happy Valley. Being in the far Endzone from where the kick happened and hearing 100,000 people go dead silent except for the small pocket of maroon and gold clad fans going crazy at the other end of the field.

And in the spirit of trying to find uplifting things in a time with all the negativity that is out there, how about we try to keep this thread to positive moments because we all know which negative ones will rear their ugly head if we let them.
 

MNVCGUY said:
1999 Penn State in Happy Valley. Being in the far Endzone from where the kick happened and hearing 100,000 people go dead silent except for the small pocket of maroon and gold clad fans going crazy at the other end of the field.
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One of those Hey these things happen to other people too! moments ;)
 

1999 Penn State, I was doing an event for the Big/Little Buddy program for the U YMCA at a skating place in St. Louis Park. I was actually using a pay phone to call my roommates and checking on the score. Later that night ran into some team members down town for some celebrating.
 

Otis said:
The Golden Gophers where playing the Number 1 ranked Michigan Wolverines in good old Memorial Stadium and my family had tickets to the game! We had to drive down from Virginia, MN for the game and we got all the way to Duluth when my Dad realized he had left the tickets pinned to the family reminder board in the kitchen. Well, needless to say, all speed limits were void at that point and we raced back to get then and sped back to the game.

My childhood friends big brother played WR for Hamline and they had a game against St. Thomas that day as well, so I gave my ticket to his dad so I could hang out with my buddy at St. Thomas. Sometime deep in the fourth quarter, there was a roar from the crowd and I heard the announcer say as I stopped playing catch in the Tommies area outside the southern end zone on the track with a football that the Gophers had won the Little Brown Jug 16-0.

And I had missed the whole thing.

What was your, I'll never forget Gopher football moment?
Click to expand...
Being at this game was great. Pouring into Stub and Herbs after the game and watching Scott LeDoux boxing Leon Spinks on the "CBS Sports Spectacular" completes the memory. 1977 was a time when you were lucky to get more than one college football game on TV each Saturday and there were not other games or post game shows on to show highlights of winning the Jug.
 


2003, at Penn State. I was sitting in row 1 in the corner of the end zone, with hundreds of other Gopher fans. The Gophers had the lead and the Lions drove inside the 10 as time was running out. Penn State had one last play and lobbed a fade route to a WR. The arc of the ball was literally right down the bridge of my nose. We were all on our feet and went nuts as the ball sailed past the WR's fingertips by inches. The ball bounced once off the turf and hit me square in the middle of the chest. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch it because I was in mid jump with my arms in the air. I'd love to see the tape of that play sometime.
 

I’ll go a little more recent, back to last fall vs Penn State (yeah, I know, it’s not too long ago, but I’m 58, and my memory isn’t what it used to be, so I’ll take just about anything I can get). My wife and I were on a trip to Florida, and gave our tickets to our daughter and son-in-law.

We were watching the game at an outdoor bar at a place in Key Largo. We both had on Gophers gear, and were getting a lot of compliments about “our team” from many others at the bar, including some OSU fans (who, I’m sure, had a particular interest in the Gophers beating PSU).

All the “can this really be happening” plays, along with some very tasty rum drinks, kept us pretty giddy, until the last PSU drive, when, I have to admit, I began to question my place in the football-fan universe. A few minutes later, after Howden’s interception, telling those around us that I never had a doubt, we were enjoying a lot of high-fives (and a free drink) from strangers. What a great feeling!

My son-in-law said he could feel the entire TCF Bank Stadium shake after the interception. I wish I had been there, but was really glad they had the chance to experience it.
 

2003 Michigan. 3rd row in the endzone of the good old Metrodome feeling the air slowly leave the building.
 




I have a few.
1. 1987 vs Michigan - I was in the upper deck endzone when Thompson broke his 98 yard run straight towards us. It was my first game and the memory will last a lifetime.
2. 1999 vs Penn State - I skipped my sisters house-warming party so I could watch the game at home. When Nystrom lined up for the kick I was laying on the floor "Tim Brewster" style.
3. 2003 vs Michigan - I don't think I spoke for 2 days
4. 2005 vs Wisconsin - I don't think I've ever swore that much in my life
 


The negative far outnumber the positive but I would have to say that the Rhys Llyod kick against Wisc. was my favorite.

We always had two seats in my row that were the mystery seats. Either empty or filled with opposing fans. This game had two very, very drunk Badger fans sitting in those seats. They were completely engulfed with the ecstatic Gopher fans high fiving and hugging each other after the kick.
 

Gophers beat Michigan on the road, 2005. Gary Russell springs down the sideline and busts a big one when essentially trying to run out the clock. Giannini kicks the game winner.

I was a senior in high school, who had to prop a bathroom door open and lay on the floor, separate from my dad who was also watching, because I couldn't stand the pressure of sitting in a chair/standing in the living room near somebody else. Needed isolation.

Not as sexy of a "Where Were You?" moment as others...but I will never forget that experience (my brother called from the U campus to inform us he was running in only underwear up and down the streets of Dinkytown, parading around a replica Little Brown Jug whiskey jug from long ago...I'm sure there were no intoxicating substances involved).

Ski U Mah!
 




-1985 vs Oklahoma: Top row in the dome; I had one of those hand held Gopher football player puppets where you had your hand inside and there were two buttons where you'd press them and the guy's arm would extend like it was cheering or punching, almost like a rock 'em sock 'em robot.
-1986 vs. Michigan: In my dad's blue diesel Oldsmobile in the parking lot at Ridgedale, listening to Ray call Chips game winning kick.
-1993 vs Wisconsin: In the upper deck end zone. Still remember the perfect view of Chris Darkins' screen pass TD & watching the blocking set up & seeing the play develop, seeing a TD about to happen before it played itself out
-1995 vs Purdue: 1st row behind the goal post where the Purdue kicker missed the game winning attempt
-1999 vs PSU: in my parents basement with my buddy. After Arland Bruce's catch, I ran upstairs to get a boom box & brought it down & turned it to 830 so I could hear Ray's call, frantically switching to the correct dial during the Cockerham kneel downs
-2000 vs OSU: In Columbus at the Horseshoe.
-2003 vs Michigan: In a Metrodome suite, watching the horror unfold before my eyes.
-2005 vs. Wisconsin: In the lower deck, watching the horror unfold before my eyes
-2006 NYE: Driving on 212, getting a call from a buddy, telling me that Mason had been fired.
-2007 vs Purdue: In the sportsbook at the Las Vegas Hilton, watching Jamal Harris run back a blocked
FG, only to watch him fumble it, and everybody watching it happen in the book start laughing & mocking Minnesota. Probably my most embarrassed moment to be a Gopher fan. HA HA

Lots of other remember moments, but those stick out. I remember the Saturday after the '03 Michigan, literally being depressed & sick to my stomach, not wanting to do a thing. Eventually went to the SLP Park Tavern that Sat. night, only to then get to watch Lee Evans & Wisconsin upset Ohio State. I was not a fan of college football at that moment....


'
 

1968 - the OJ Simpson game against USC. I was there with my HS Band (it was Band Day!). It rained and drizzled during the first half, but the weather improved for the 2nd half. Gophers lost the game but the highlight was when the gophers ran a trick play on a KO Return. quoting from an article I found:

The Sept. 21, 1968 game at Memorial Stadium between the No. 16 Gophers and the second-ranked Trojans. Receiving a kickoff while trailing 16-13 with 7:56 remaining in the second half, the Gophers George Kemp tossed a cross-field lateral to senior John Wintermute, who scrambled 83 yards for the score to give Minnesota a 20-16 lead.

I didn't realize or remember that the Gophers were ranked 16th at the time. USC came back in the second half and won the game 29-20.
 

Best In-Person Memories (Chronological):

1986 at Camp Randall vs Wisconsin - First Gopher game I remember well. Watching Rickey Foggie and the Gophs beat Al Toon and the BADgers.
1995 at Metrodome vs Purdue - Chris Darkins went absolutely nuts in this game for 294 yards in a classic against Mike Alstott. As a freshman at the U, it felt like a sign of hope as the Gophers went to 3-1.
2014 at Memorial Stadium vs Nebraska - Mitch Leidner hits KJ Maye with a beautiful pass on 3rd-and-long and BBC makes an unreal strip and recovery to seal the game. Lincoln goes silent.
2019 at TCF vs Penn State - Without a doubt, the best in-person sporting experience I've had in my life.

Best Memories Watching on TV (Chronological):

1986 - Gophers at Michigan - Chip Lohmiller's kick stuns No. 2 Michigan.
1999 - Gophers at Penn State - Dan Nystrom's kick wins it. I jumped so high in my living room that I hit my head on the ceiling!
2005 - Gophers at Michigan - Gary Russell's run and Giannini's kick. Definitely got misty that day.
2018 - Gophers at Wisconsin - Was watching at my future in-laws' as we were visiting for Thanksgiving. That is the day they truly understood how nuts I was for the Gophers.
 

It was late October in 2008, I was working on my fire pit project and I had just finished listening to Minnesota beat Purdue on the radio. A new neighbor came over to check things out but I was more interested in telling him that the Gophers won again and Tim Brewster might be the guy to finally turn things around at the U. He didn’t care. He didn’t even know who, or what, a Purdue was. He made some comment about never playing sports and that all the jocks from his high school years were as he put it “assholes”. We’ve pretty much just waved to each other since then.

The other one was the year 2000, Minnesota at Ohio St. It was a wonderful, warm, sunny day in the Twin Cities. Right before kick-off my very pregnant wife had a photo shoot idea pop into her mind that involved going to a park so I could take sepia-tone photos of her and her belly for the baby’s scrap book. So we jumped into our Camry with the radio that only got AM stations and drove to Minnehaha Falls. This park didn’t provide the backdrop she was looking for so she suggested we drive all the way to Taylor’s Falls. I thought, okay, at least I can listen to the game on the way with no interruptions. This is when I found out that she does not like radio stations with a lot of static and she asked that I turn it off. I told her, “but Minnesota is winning! They could actually beat Ohio State!”. She said she would like to savor our time together in all it’s peace and quietness before the baby comes. Ya, I pretty much missed the whole game.
20 years later we are still married, and I believe those photos never left the Memory Stick.
 

Three from 2003 alone. Being at PSU for the victory, the Michigan debacle, but the big one was delaying my buddy's wedding by refusing to leave the back room during the Wisconsin game. It was late in the 4th quarter, the groomsmen/bridesmaids were asked to get into the church and I flat out said no, I'm not leaving until the game is over. Three different people tried to get us to leave, and I held firm. After the kick, we practically ran screaming into the church.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
Three from 2003 alone. Being at PSU for the victory, the Michigan debacle, but the big one was delaying my buddy's wedding by refusing to leave the back room during the Wisconsin game. It was late in the 4th quarter, the groomsmen/bridesmaids were asked to get into the church and I flat out said no, I'm not leaving until the game is over. Three different people tried to get us to leave, and I held firm. After the kick, we practically ran screaming into the church.
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I've never been more proud of you than I am right now.

I was asked to perform a friends wedding (the day of the Nebraska/Gopher home game a few years ago) while driving around with said friend.
I wasn't too keen on doing weddings anymore, and it was a home game, so I said no and that I wouldn't be going to the wedding if it was during the afternoon. By the end of the car ride, I had relented and agreed to everything. I wasn't happy about it, but it was o.k. in the end since Nebraska won.
 

Your first game is always the one you remember most. Mine was on October 28, 1961 against Michigan. I had just turned 11 years old. Minnesota was behind most of the game. With Michigan ahead 20-16 and just a few minutes left in the game, Warmath sent in Tom Tiegen a reserved linebacker and needing a fumble recovery. Tiegen hit their running back so hard the ball popped straight up in the air and Minnesota recovered. Sandy Stephens led the Gophs into the end zone for a 23-20 victory. Stephens then intercepted a long pass on the last play to secure the game. Stephens had just gotten married a few days before. I've been at every home game except for four games since that game. It is still one of the top five most exciting games that I have attended.
 

1999 PSU at the Edina Fuddruckers with my dad

We always went out to lunch every Saturday to watch the game. Most of those memories are bad.
 

I think mine is a bit more recent. I have many from being in the Marching band, but I think those are a cop-out for this prompt.

It was this past year, Fresno State. I went with My Brother, Dad, and Uncle. We're all alum, and so we've been trying to go to 1 away game a year now since my brother and I are graduated. Anyway, we made it to the game and were sitting in the opposite endzone from CAB's amazing catch. That is moment one. When the pass went up and he caught it we all waited for the ref's signal then leapt up cheering.

A little while later it was Fresno State's ball and my uncle said to me "A fumble would be nice here to seal the game," to which I responded "Or an interception". No more than 30 seconds later Winfield Jr made the game winning interception. It was a pretty awesome moment.
 

I'm going to go with the 59-56 win over Purdue at the Metrodome in 1993. Wildest Gopher game I've ever seen.

Some others that stick out in my memory -
-Game 1 at TCF Bank Stadium vs Air Force
-Last year vs Penn State
 



Ski U Master said:
Nothing in the OP about that. Don't hide from the past.
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This is too true.

I almost posted about boarding a flight back to Mpls with the Gophers playing Texas Tech I believe in a bowl game. As I boarded the plane I remember the Gophers having a comfortable 35 point lead. Later, my brother picks me up at the airport and says, "Can you believe the Gophers Fucked that one away!"

That was an unhappy moment.
 

My girlfriend decided she needed to take a load of laundry downstairs with about a minute left in this year's PSU game. She was quite upset that she only got to see the aftermath of the spontaneous, shirtless dancing that followed the INT. That one is going to stick around in my mind for a good while.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
I have a few.
1. 1987 vs Michigan - I was in the upper deck endzone when Thompson broke his 98 yard run straight towards us. It was my first game and the memory will last a lifetime.
2. 1999 vs Penn State - I skipped my sisters house-warming party so I could watch the game at home. When Nystrom lined up for the kick I was laying on the floor "Tim Brewster" style.
3. 2003 vs Michigan - I don't think I spoke for 2 days
4. 2005 vs Wisconsin - I don't think I've ever swore that much in my life
Click to expand...
My first game. My seats. My memory. We must have been very close for that play. Crazy.
 

Strangely, 2018 WI game.I know neither team was really good yet we had such a monkey on our backs vs our archrival.

We go to Madison and absolutely crush them. I mean, ppl were leaving at beginning of 4th. We went on "the drive," didnt score, and yet still emasculated the entire stadium. We ran the ball at will.

It was glorious!
 

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