Which Decade

[Out State Gopher]

Which decade has the best, exciting & frustrating memories for Gopher football. "The Good, Bad, & the Ugly."

 

[btowngopher]

2000s. The most exciting and frustrating Mason times capped with the initial excitement and frustration with Brewster.

 

[fmlizard]

Probably the 1930s from what I hear. 3 straight natties would help take the sting out of the Depression.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

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.

 

[Out State Gopher]

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.

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?

 

[short ornery norwegian]

going by decades
the best ---
1900-1909: 9 winning seasons, 5 conf titles, 1 Nat'l Championship
1910-1919: 10 winning seasons, 3 conference titles
1930-1939: 8 winning seasons, 5 conf titles, 3 National Championships
1940-1949: 9 winning seasons, 2 conf titles, 2 National Championships
1960-1969: 7 winning seasons, 2 conf titles, 1 Nat'l Championship

-- the bottom
1990-1999: 2 winning seasons ('99 Mason went 8-4 and finished ranked in the top 20)

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

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?

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.
Second best decade: the 40s - 2 B10 and national championships, 6 All-Americans, including one Heisman winner, Bruce Smith, '41. A time-out for WWII took Bierman back into the Marines which made him coach of Iowa-Pre-Flight, which quickly became a national power and beat the Gophers, 7-6 in '42. Michigan and Notre Dame were dominant in the 40s, with Army the best in the war years, when they beat everybody, including Notre Dame. The 1946 Notre-Dame/Army game at Yankee Stadium was a huge sellout and considered an epic. Notre Dame was back and the game ended in a scoreless tie. In '47 Notre Dame and Michigan were co-national champions and Bierman's rebuild back home was paying off - his Gophers gave Michigan, which held 8 of 10 opponents to single digits, a close call,13-6. Michigan went on to crush once-beaten SoCal in the Rose Bowl, 49-0. Bierman's best teams were '48 and '49, with much expected of the '49 team, with consensus All-Americans Leo Nomellini and Clayt Tonnemaker, plus Bud Grant, Billy Bye and Gordy Soltau. They routed Ohio State at Columbus, 27-0, and moved to #3 in the AP poll (behind Notre Dame and Army), but were upset the next week at Michigan, 14-7 (Bud Grant said it was because Bierman drilled the team for hours before the kick-off, a mistake he never would make as a coach). That single loss would not cost MN the B10 title and the Rose Bowl, but a Homecoming loss to lowly Purdue the following week, 13-7, did. Bierman openly scorned his players that week before the game and they came out flat. Rebounded to beat Iowa 55-7, but the season was such a disappointment that it led to Bierman's firing after a terrible 1950 season.
Next best decade: the '60s, under Warmath: national title, two B-10 titles, multiple famous All-Americans. The worst decade: the Wacky '90s, when the Gophers had eight straight losing seasons. When Lamanzer Williams made All-America under Glen Mason in '97, it was MN's first All-American at any level of choosing since 1972. Of course, Mason's 8-4 '99 season, including the first bowl since '77, was the begining of a new era (until Brewster).