Doing Right by Gopher Football
1/23/2003Within weeks of moving to Minnesota in 1966, I became a Gopher football season-ticket holder. At the time, I knew little about the state and less about the University of Minnesota. But before the season was over, I had learned the "Minnesota Rouser" and bought maroon and gold Gopher gear. I learned about the legend of Paul Giel (B.A. ’55) and that the Gophers had been to back-to-back Rose Bowls a few years earlier. Although I was a born-and-bred Kansan, within a few short months I was well on my way to becoming an adopted Minnesotan because of my devotion to the Golden Gophers.
When we asked our national board members to share on our Web site their favorite memories from their time at the University, they, too, talked about their remembrances of on-campus football. Our national president, Deb Hopp (B.A. ’75), mentioned meeting her late husband, Mark, at the Minnesota-Indiana game on October 16, 1973. Dennis Schulstad (B.A. ’66), one of our vice presidents, said that—other than when he was in the Air Force—he had not missed a Gopher football home game in 40 years. Steve Litton (B.S. B.A. ’65, D.D.S. ’67), our representative from the School of Dentistry, loved being in the card section at the football games. And just about every board member recalled how exciting it was to see and hear the marching band stepping down University Avenue.
So last spring, when the state legislature asked the University and the Minnesota Vikings to study the feasibility of a joint-use stadium on campus, the alumni association’s board of directors asked if it could play a role in the process. We dedicated four advocacy committee meetings to the topic. But we began to hear rumblings that a joint facility might not be feasible on campus and that other locations may need to be explored. At its last meeting, our advocacy committee decided to separate the issue of partnering with the Vikings from the more basic question: "Do we want Gopher football back on campus?" The answer was a unanimous and resounding yes.
This recommendation moved on to our 43-member UMAA National Board on November 23. Robert Stein (B.S. ’60, J.D. ’61), who is now a UMAA vice president and but had been chair of the Faculty Senate Committee when Gopher football moved to the Metrodome in 1982, said, "Whether or not the decision was a correct one back at the time the move was made, playing off campus is not acceptable for the University at the present time." Football is not just a game, he said: "It brings a lot with it, such as community spirit and alumni support and involvement."
Jerry Noyce (B.S. ’67), UMAA president-elect and chair of the advocacy committee, recommended that the alumni association be the first organization to go on record supporting a stadium on campus as an important part of campus life and memory-building. The UMAA National Board’s official resolution, which was passed unanimously, states that, "The University of Minnesota Alumni Association believes that it is in the best interest of the University community to bring Gopher football back on campus."
About the same time, the Minnesota Vikings had made a decision to withdraw from the joint proposition, citing a variety of reasons, including that the 32-acre site across from Williams and Mariucci arenas was not big enough. Immediately, there was talk of a joint stadium on the State Fairgrounds, in Anoka, in Blaine, and other locations. The alumni association sent a message to University President Bob Bruininks and Board of Regents Chair Maureen Reed (B.A. ’75, M.D. ’79) that we would be opposed to any partnership moving Gopher football any farther from campus. And the Minnesota Student Association and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly passed their first-ever joint resolution, advocating for the return of Gopher football to campus.
Bruininks announced at the December Board of Regents meeting that the University would "step back" from a joint Gopher-Vikings stadium and begin to explore a smaller, on-campus, Gopher-only facility. There were those who immediately rebuked the University and the alumni association, saying that there will never be two stadiums. And no one can disagree that the state is in dire financial straits at this time—trying to amend a $4.5 billion deficit. The stadium issues won’t likely be resolved in this legislative session.
But we need to take a longer view. Golden Gopher football has been an important part of the spirit and sense of community of this state for more than 120 years—and it will be for at least 120 more. We need to do what’s right for the Gophers and the University this time around. It won’t be easy. There will be those who will tell us repeatedly that it can’t be done.
But bringing Gopher football back to campus should be done. And when it happens—and I know it will—we will thank the tens of thousands of alumni who cheered on the football Gophers at Memorial Stadium over the decades and who remember what that experience was like. They will be the ones who—with the support of the student groups and the alumni association—help bring Gopher football home again.
 | | | |  | | Football memory? | | If you are among those who have felt that on-campus football experience, you can begin by putting into words what football on campus meant to you as a student, as an alum, and as a citizen of Minnesota. Write to us at: Campus Football Memories, McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55455, or send to fling003@tc.umn.edu. |
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