When did you become a Gopher football fan?

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Anyone going to admit it was 10 days ago?

I’ve been a lifer and went to the U even though I grew up in the 80s in a Hoosier family near Lincoln Nebraska.
 

My great-grandfather took my grandfather to the games on the streetcar. My grandfather took my dad, and my dad took me. And so on and so on. Tradition is a great thing.
 

When Glen Mason was hired. First game watched on TV was his first game against the Rainbow Warriors. Not a good showing.

First actual game attended by the Billds was against Nebraska in 1989 at the Dome. Much better football being played now.
 

early sixties as a kid. Got My season tickets in 1981 or 1982.
 

Since ‘03 as a freshman at the U. My brother, wife, and I all graduated from the U. Have had season tickets most years since with my Dad and brother. Now get to bring my son to games. Lots of ups and downs, but no better way to spend Saturday afternoons making memories.
 


Foggie and Holtz at the U. Went to school there from 95-98. Used to go to the dome or watch all the games at Bullwinkles. Good times. Now I am a 44 year old man with three kids and am luck to get to one game a year...
 

Since 1972 with Rick Upchurch and Tony Dungy back in the day. My father was a professor at the U and he took me as a young kid to my first game when someone gave him two tickets to a game. Been hooked on Gopher football since then. Used to go to the games at Memorial Stadium and buy a ticket from a scalper for $5 or less or they would just give me a ticket. Saw some great games for sure. Can't hold a candle to the old timers on here though. 1950's?! Wow. You have me beat by 20 years. Some longer, this is a great thread and we have been waiting for a while for a team like this. Old timers saw teams like this in the 60's. Got season tickets when TCF opened up.
 
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Lurked moderately as a fan in the 1990s. Baffled with how bad Wacker's defenses were. Became a hardcore fan since 1998 when I started grad school at the U and bought student season tickets dirt cheap. Watched Glen Mason bring the Gophs back to respectability. Traveled to the SunBowl with buddies in 1999 and had an awesome raucous time - what a great year for Gopher resurgance courtesy of Glen Mason. Went to the Micron PC.com Bowl in Miami the following year with my wife (my last bowl game attended). Continued with regular season tickets in the Dome after that through the huge ups and downs in the Mason era. Season tickets in the lower bowl on the 35 yard line cost less than $300 each if I recall correctly...amazing.

Suffered through the early Brewster year at the Dome and kept season tickets at the Bank for 2 or 3 years (whichever year the Gophers played USC at home was my last year). With a kid starting in Fall youth sports every weekend and wife and friends who lost interest in the Gopher Brew era, couldn't keep the season tickets. I've watched pretty much every game the Gophs have played since then with occasional game attendance including several this year. I would love to re-up season tickets after this year if it gets worked out with friends who are also interested. We'll see.
 

Ever since my first year at the U, 1994

Been following Gophers football ever since. Through thick and thin!
 




I started following them in the late 70s. The first game I attended didn't happen until 1995. It was a 39-38 thriller against Purdue during the Air Wacker days. I also saw them beat a very good Syracuse team 35-33 in 1996. It looked like Wacker might get it done but it was all downhill after that game.
 

Maternal grandfather (who attended the U briefly) got me hooked on Gopher football and basketball back in early 1970s. He was a farmer in SW Minnesota and, when visiting my grandparents, I remember Ray's voice on radio booming off the machine shed walls whenever the Gophers made a big play. First game attended was fall 1980 vs. Marcus Allen & USC at Memorial Stadium and came back a year later to watch Mike Hohensee destroy Oregon State on a rainy Saturday at Memorial.

Didn't enjoy the atmosphere of the Dome but was there for many great moments...Rickey Foggie nearly leading U to upset of Oklahoma, Rhys "Churchill" Lloyd's game winner for the Ax, Tyrone Carters two fumble return TDs vs. Syracuse, a win over Iowa courtesy of a late Ron Johnson TD catch that made the Gophers bowl eligible and many other highs as well as several lows. Was at first game vs. Air Force at TCF Bank Stadium, took road trips to LA Coliseum to see Jerry Kill's debut & near upset vs. USC and Vegas the next year for OT thriller in the desert heat and many others at the Bank and will be there this Saturday with my wife and four other family friends. Didn't attend the U, but my oldest is a senior and will also be in attendance on Saturday.

I've been married 23 years and only stipulation I asked of my wife when we tied the knot was to allow me to go to Rose Bowl if Gophers ever made it. Been a couple of close calls, and hopes are high this year I'm a Vikings fan as well, but if forced to make a choice on attending either the Gophers playing in Rose Bowl or Vikings in Super Bowl, I would head to Pasadena 100 percent of the time. Love the direction this team is headed...#RowTheBoat #SkiUMah and #GoGophers
 

October 22, 1977 when my father took his 10 year old son to Memorial Stadium. Trying to get that gambler’s high back ever since.
 



That’s easy - I’ve always been a Gophers fan because my Dad was my first hero (still is), and he’s an alum, huge fan & booster.

He’s the guy who taught me “you go to “The University of _______,” which is what I did when it was my turn - we were living in Florida at the time, which is why I’m a Gator who roots hard for the Gophers.


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Can't recall the specific game, but Billy Cockerham was running wild. I'm also pretty sure he was wearing those hideous, as I always thought of them, "heartbeat" unis with the M on each shoulder.
 

My first Gopher experience was the 1983 game against Nebby. I loved every minute of it and instantly became both a Gopher and Husker fan. The next year RF14 came around and I left the Huskers behind.


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I started at UMD, transferred to the U for an internship in the Twin Cities. ‘04 and ‘05 was my introduction, and I’ve had season tickets almost every year since!
 

Probably 1973, going to games with my cousin and uncle at Memorial Stadium. Tony Dungy, Rick Upchurch, Keith Fahrnhorst. Stopping at Arby's down the street from the stadium before the game.
 


Tlsbhansen said:
Probably 1973, going to games with my cousin and uncle at Memorial Stadium. Tony Dungy, Rick Upchurch, Keith Fahrnhorst. Stopping at Arby's down the street from the stadium before the game.
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This is my wheelhouse, too. Really started going to games in 1968, but this was my formative years and our routine as well.

Since I was a wee tot, my Grandma Margaret (U of M ‘26) told me the tale of the 1924 Memorial Stadium dedication and the destruction of Illinois. She always spoke of “getting that guy out of there,” meaning Red Grange.

I was born a Gopher fan, and always will be. Seen a lot. Will see a lot more now.
 

Face The Facts said:
Glad you aren't like the WI people who move to MN and keep clinging for generations to their old state teams despite moving here decades ago.
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Thanks. It took over ten years of living here to convert but, eventually, I found myself more interested in following Minnesota teams. I had been an Iowa fan for over 30 years so I felt it was time for something different. It's not like I "hate Iowa." More often than not I want them to win unless they're playing Minnesota.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
Why would you want people to switch allegiances based on where they live?
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People can do what they want, of course, but hanging on to old memories and attachments and not appreciating the offerings of where you have lived for many years is sort of like living in the past. I'm not a particularly sentimental type.

The last time I attended Iowa was close to 40 years ago and I lived in the state for a total of about 8 years. I've lived in Minnesota almost 20 years and anticipate living the rest of my life in this state (and that's fine with me).
 

I went to see my first Gopher game on a field trip in 1972 and they beat Iowa for homecoming 43-14. After that I went to school there from 1982-1986 and that is when I got to be a big fan. The Lou Holtz years were my favorite and Rickey Foggie is still my fave player. This year is already one of my favorites - I have had a lot of fun watching the games this year.
 

1959 - first attended game with my Dad
1960 - Gopher Fan for life
 

Birth

Never went to too many games in person as my family lived in outstate Minnesota, but spent every fall weekend hunting pheasants and deer and listening to the velvety voice of Ray Christianson whenever we drove to another spot. I think I liked the car part and the radio more than hunting!

First Gopher football game was Homecoming at Memorial Stadium vs. Michigan State. Never will forget the frat house that had a spartan in one window and Goldy flipping him off from another!

First Gopher basketball game: Minnesota vs. Indiana 1976. I have to admit, I was kind of cheering for Indiana. Loved Bobby Knight.
 

I've been a fan all of my life. Growing up in southern Minnesota, my dad would go to the Minnesota-Iowa game every year. Minneapolis or Iowa City. This would have been in the late 50's early 60's. My first game was as a kid in the mid 70's at the Brickhouse vs Michigan. Not many games on TV back then, hardly remember seeing us on TV. But i do remember watching the Hall of Fame Bowl game vs. Maryland in 1977. Must have been around Christmas and I was with family in Rochester. Leaned The Rouser at an early age. I always find it funny that people dont know the lyrics to The Rouser...just Rah Rah Rah and Minnesota...not the full song.
 

My parents both attended the U for either undergrad or grad school, but I grew up out of state. Accordingly, I have been a gopher fan my whole life in the sense that I would prefer them to win, but being out of state in the dial up internet era I didnt really follow them closely. I enrolled in the U fall 2006, so that is when I seriously started following the teams.
 

Well, very early sixties. Don't remember the last Rose Bowl. But remember getting the Minneapolis Star every Sunday and coloring in with crayons all the black and white photos from the Gopher games! :)
 

Summer of 1985. While swimming at my neighbors house he gets a telemarketing call from Lou Holtz, informing him that he thinks they will have a pretty good team and that he should buy season tickets. After a quick consultation with my dad they agreed and went in on a 4 pack. My dad took me to every game that year and Rickey Foggie was and still is my all time favorite Gopher.
 

As a kid I was aware of the Gophers and really started getting into all sports in 1979, attending my first game at Memorial Stadium that fall against Purdue. My dad took me another game that season and a couple more each in 1980 and 1981. I rooted for the Gophers in football, basketball, and hockey in the same way I did for the Twins, Vikings, North Stars, and Kicks. My dad hated the Metrodome because he didn't want to spend nice fall days indoors when we played in the afternoon and didn't want to go to Saturday night games because that's when he and my mom would usually go out. My instances of attending games from the 1982 to the late 1990s were irregular. Some seasons I'd get to one or two games, but in others none at all.

I finally went all the way and became a hardcore fan during the Glen Mason era, getting on board during the 1999 run to the Sun Bowl. Now we make bowls on a fairly regular basis. At that point it was only our 4th bowl game since the last Rose Bowl appearance on 1/1/62. Barring Tim Brewster related meltdown seasons and the time needed to recover, we've been pretty regular bowl visitors since that 1999 season. The games now felt like they actually mattered. We could hang with the big time teams more than in the past and we weren't just playing out the string as had been the case since I'd become a fan in 1979 until 1999 barring Holtz's last season and Gutey's first.

From then on, a group of friends and I would buy the cheapest tickets we could, regardless of location, and then would meet up in section 226 or 227 at the Dome for games other than the Iowa and Wisconsin visits and the 2003 Michigan game when we'd get seats together. Out of a half dozen of guys, there'd sometimes be all of us and sometimes as few as two, but I'd always be there. I went on the road to games at Illinois, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State (for the upset win), and Wisconsin. Not wanting to be shut out at TCF Bank Stadium, I got a pair of season tickets in 2009 and have gladly kept them even as falling attendance has made them less of a necessity. The fans that go to Gopher football are the best in town because they're so dedicated, enthusiastic, and full of hope despite the Gophers not always giving us reason to be hopeful.
 

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