As many of you will agree, it means something special to be known as a Gopher in college athletics. But while it’s a privilege to represent the University of Minnesota at the college level, the pride of being a Gopher doesn’t end there. Athletes who go on to play professionally in their given sports keep the Gopher spirit at heart, and many alumni have achieved great things post-college.
Some of them can be tracked to this day at sites like thegameday.com by following the results of their respective teams, and today we’ll be looking into three of the greatest Gophers of all time.
All three individuals have achieved quite remarkable things since graduating, and we’d like to briefly share their stories now.
Paul Molitor—Baseball
Let’s kick things off with arguably the greatest Gopher of them all, Paul Molitor. Otherwise known as “The Ignitor”, Paul Molitor attended the University of Minnesota back in the 70s. As a college athlete, he was nothing short of incredible, and his talents caught the attention of professional MLB teams.
Molitor was drafted in 1977, and this kicked off what would turn out to be an immense career. As for his key achievements, Molitor played professionally in the MLB for 21 seasons, and in this time, he amassed a batting average of over .300 and scored more than 3000 hits. In fact, Molitor is still 10th on the all-time MLB hits list.
Arguably, his greatest achievement was winning the World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays, a feat he managed in 1993. Molitor received the MVP award in that same season.
Kevin McHale—Basketball
Moving to another Gopher legend now, we’d like to bring Kevin McHale back into the spotlight. McHale played basketball for the University of Minnesota, and he set numerous records during his time at the school. These records were set during McHale’s four-year stint at Minnesota from 1976 to 1980.
Most notably, McHale racked up over 1700 career points and was named as an All-Big Ten basketball player. He went on to play for the Boston Celtics in the NBA from 1980 to 1993, winning the NBA Championships three times. He also coached the Houston Rockets between 2011 and 2015, which shows how much McHale was valued in professional basketball.
Lindsay Whalen—Basketball
Last but not least, it just wouldn’t be fair to overlook Lindsay Whalen. This incredible athlete represented the Golden Gophers from 2000 to 2004, and she was so great that Minnesota retired her jersey number (13) in 2005. Whalen is still the leading all-time scorer for the Gophers with close to 2,300 points, and naturally, she went on to play professionally after graduation.
As expected, she killed it on the court after graduating, winning two Olympic Gold Medals and playing for some of the biggest teams in Europe, such as Galatasaray and Dynamo Moscow. Recently, Whalen returned to where it all started, becoming the head coach of the women’s basketball team, a role that ended in 2023.