Out State Gopher
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- Dec 27, 2023
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Which decade has the best, exciting & frustrating memories for Gopher football. "The Good, Bad, & the Ugly."
Thanks for the Gopher history as I have never heard about those. If we do not talk about our history, history will die with us. Appreciate your thoughts. Anymore?Bierman's many best teams, of course - you'd figure maybe 1936 when the Gophers finished 7-1 (losing only to Northwestern in the mud), but number one in the first AP poll, which was universally accepted as the one and only championship authority. But I'd say 1940, when also 8-0, but finishing a season in which the Gophers plus four opponents made up half of the final AP top ten. Big wins were close; Michigan 7-6, with the Wolves' Heisman winner, Tom Harmon, stopped three times inside the Gopher 5-yard line. Gophers beat highly ranked Northwestern 13-12, on a trick play. That was perhaps the greatest national championship season (but Stanford went to the Rose Bowl).
The worst: I'd say 1983, when Joe Salem's final team went 1-10, with nine straight losses, many by epic scores (Nebraska pasted 84 on the Gophers, Ohio St. 69, Wisconsin 56, Illinois 50, Michigan 58, Iowa 61). Time for a change.
Well, Doc Williams had some great teams going before 1920, sort of the stone age of college football (mostly before the forward pass was a regular thing). He ran up incredible scores against the good, the bad (beating Grinnell of Iowa 146-0), and the ugly (high school teams), but he played very good teams, too - beating Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin and in 1903, a season where the Gophers held 13 opponents scoreless, Williams tied Fielding Yost's great Michigan team, 6-6 in Minneapolis (origin of the Little Brown Jug trophy). Michigan had won 28-strait under Yost's leadership and the Gophers' 6 points were the only ones scored against Michigan that season (in which Michigan is considered today either the national champion or co-national champion with Princeton). As to decades, the '30s have to be the best for Minnesota: three straight national championships, 4 B10 titles, a 28-game undefeated streak, 9 All-Americans and all this against very tough top ten level opposition: Pittsburgh, Northwestern (their best decade), Notre Dame, Michigan, Nebraska (best decade to that point, made the Rose Bowl), Washington, Wisconsin, Ohio St.Thanks for the Gopher history as I have never heard about those. If we do not talk about our history, history will die with us. Appreciate your thoughts. Anymore?