The Gopher men's golf team brought a couple of souvenirs to a banquet in their honor--the Big Ten and NCAA championship trophies. Photo by Michelle King

Men’s Golfers Take Title
If ever there was a story ready for Hollywood, the 2001–02 Gopher men’s golf team scripted it. Informed on April 11 that their team was to be eliminated within two months, the golfers stuck together, trusting that their program could be saved. Six weeks later, they won the NCAA title.

The Gophers went to the Big Ten Men’s Golf Championships in Iowa City, Iowa, less than two weeks after learning they would get at least one more season of golf. They rallied from six shots behind in the final round to beat Illinois by four shots and Purdue by five. It was the team’s fifth Big Ten title and its first since 1972.

At the end of May, the team struggled in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships at Columbus, Ohio. In 16th place after two rounds, the team rallied with a one-under-par round (284 for the team’s four best golfers) to jump to fourth, just three shots behind powerhouse Georgia Tech. The following morning, the Gophers roared around the front nine, taking the lead. They relaxed and played it safe over the final holes, finishing four shots ahead of Georgia Tech.

After the tournament, head coach Brad James said that northern teams are not expected to do well nationally. "We had no pressure and we had nothing to lose," James said. "When I ask them to step it up, they step it up. That shows a lot of heart and courage. This team has a bigger heart than any other team I have been with."

Sophomore Justin Smith of Moon Township, Pennsylvania, led the Gophers with a fourth-place finish, five under par. Junior Matt Anderson of Edina, Minnesota, was eighth overall at three-under after shooting a final round 66, tied for best in the tournament. Both were named all-Americans. Sophomore Simon Nash of Pullenvale, Australia, a 2001 all-American, was 51st, sophomore David Morgan of Rochester, Minnesota, was 74th, and junior Wilhelm Schauman of Djursholm, Sweden, also a 2001 all-American, was 80th in the 156-man field.

Backers of the men’s golf and gymnastics and women’s golf programs have raised a large amount of money and appear likely to meet the deadlines set to save the programs until at least 2005.

This was the third NCAA title for Gopher sports programs this year. The wrestling and men’s hockey teams won their team titles, and junior Clay Strother of Jasper, Texas, won two NCAA individual gymnastics titles. Junior wrestlers Jared Lawrence of Sandpoint, Idaho, and Luke Becker of Cambridge, Minnesota, won individual wrestling titles.

Quotebook
"Actually, we thought next year was the year we could win the NCAA. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t stunned right now."
—Men’s golf coach Brad James (center) after his team won the NCAA golf title

New Women’s Basketball Coach Named
Pam Borton, 36, was named Minnesota women’s basketball coach May 24, seven weeks after Brenda Oldfield resigned to take the head coaching job at Maryland. The search was prolonged by uncertainties over the combining of men’s and women’s athletics administration and how the NCAA might rule on self-reported violations that occurred under former coach Cheryl Littlejohn.

Borton comes to Minnesota after five years as the

Pam Borton, photograph by Eric Miller

top assistant at Boston College, where she developed a reputation as a leading recruiter and the team earned NCAA tournament berths in three of the last four years. Prior to that, Borton spent four years as head coach at Vermont, where she compiled a 69–46 record. She had been an assistant at Vermont for five years before that and was a two-time NCAA Division III all-American player at Defiance College in Ohio.

At the news conference introducing her, Borton said she prefers an "up-tempo" style of play, something that should fit well with a team that returns every key player to a squad that went 22–8 and reached the NCAA second round last season. Her top priority, however, is recruiting Minnesota’s many talented high-school basketball players. "My biggest goal is to keep our players in state," she said. "I’d be happy if all 13 players on our roster were from Minnesota. There is enough talent in this state to be able to do that and win."

Quotebook
"I have to hope that a new athletics director will be inclusive and empowering. I’ll have to hope our donors and supporters won’t start coasting downhill but will still pedal uphill. I have to hope that our coaches and student athletes will act upon this golden era and, in a constructive way, keep the ‘her’ in Gopher."
—Former women’s athletic director Chris Voelz at a May 30 farewell dinner. The men’s and women’s athletics departments became a single unit June 15 after 27 years apart.

Remembering Paul Giel
When Paul Giel (B.A. ’55) died May 22 at 69, the University lost one of its great boosters and a champion of all its sports. A Gopher football and baseball star in the 1950s, Giel was athletics director from 1972 until 1989. The Winona, Minnesota, native was a football all-American in 1952 and 1953 as a running back, as well as Big Ten MVP in those years. He also played quarterback on offense, punted, returned kicks, and played in the defensive backfield. For the Gopher baseball team, he was a three-time all-American pitcher and still holds the school record with 243 strikeouts in his three seasons. He played professional baseball from 1954 to 1961, including a brief stay with the Minnesota Twins in their first season of 1961.

After stints as business manager for the Minnesota Vikings and sports director for WCCO Radio, Giel took the athletics director job, reportedly with some reluctance. In his first decade, however, Minnesota won three NCAA hockey titles and Big Ten titles in baseball, gymnastics, basketball, golf, and tennis. For the last 12 years he was vice president of public affairs and chief fund-raiser for the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

Fair play and sportsmanship were paramount to Giel, according to those who knew him. His children and grandchildren recalled that in teaching them the nature of sports his rules were: "No cheating, no pouting, and no gloating."

Jerry Noyce (B.S. ’67), former U of M men’s tennis coach, said Giel was the personification of the good things about sports and Minnesota itself. "He was the U of M in many people’s eyes," Noyce says. "He was a great mentor, leader, role model, and most importantly, a wonderful friend."

Chris Coughlan-Smith is senior editor for Minnesota.