| U of M Alumni Association | U of M Twin Cities |
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11/10/2003
The University of Minnesota Alumni Association has put its money where its mission is. After becoming the first group on record as supporting an on-campus football stadium last fall, the UMAA National Board of Directors unanimously passed a resolution in September that will contribute $1 million to a new, on-campus stadium. Another $500,000 for scholarships will be matched by a University fund, making $1 million of new scholarship money available. UMAA National President Jerry Noyce (B.S. '67) said after the vote that the donation is the perfect way to leave a legacy marking the UMAA's centennial year. "Everyone in Minnesota benefits from the University's scholarship," he said. "And the on-campus stadium complex will be a place where we come together to celebrate shared milestones and create spirit." Executive Director Margaret Carlson (Ph. D. '83) said she has heard an outpouring of support and enthusiasm for an on-campus stadium. Coupling the donation with scholarship funds helped fulfill the association's mission. "The UMAA is here to support academic excellence and keep the University's spirit strong," she said. "Alumni have never forgotten the on-campus football experience." The UMAA contribution came after the announcement that T. Denny Sanford (B.A. '58) was offering $35 million toward a stadium and seeking $35 million in matching, private donations. (Sanford's announcement was followed a couple days later by a pledge of $1 million from Dennis Mathisen (B.A. '66, J.D. '66) and his wife, Gail.) Although Sanford's offer was still being negotiated with the University at the time of the UMAA vote, directors felt they should commit to making the contributions regardless of what happened with other gift announcements. The UMAA donation is contingent upon Board of Regents approval of a stadium project. This is not the first time the alumni association has stepped up to support scholarships and campus construction projects. The UMAA has long supported student leadership scholarships and awards and the Distinguished Teaching Awards, the U's highest honor for great teaching professors. Alumni led the drive to construct and fund Memorial Stadium and Northrop Auditorium in the 1920s. In the 1930s, the association helped convince the federal government to fund 45 percent of the construction of Coffman Memorial Union and then helped raise additional funds through a series of golf exhibitions with Patty Berg (B.A. '51) and other events. Over the last decade, alumni association volunteers joined with others to raise money for the construction of the McNamara Alumni Center and the adjoining Gateway Plaza. Current proposals call for a stadium to be built on a site now used as parking lots just east of Mariucci Arena. Although no formal plans have been developed, Bruininks and Sanford said at a press conference that they believe a stadium—which would also be used by the University's marching band, recreational programs, and some academic programs—could be built for $150 million or less. A fund-raising feasibility study, which should be completed in November, will determine whether private donations could fund the majority of a stadium project. National President: A Win for the Home Team By Jerry Noyce (B.S. '67) I feel like celebrating. I am absolutely elated to report that—at our September national board meeting, the first of the UMAA's 100th anniversary year—we voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to pledge $1.5 million to the University of Minnesota for a new Gopher football stadium and for scholarships. We'll contribute $1 million to a stadium, contingent upon approval of the stadium project by the Board of Regents, and $500,000 to scholarships. What's more, the University has agreed to match that pledge, which boosts the scholarship contribution to $1 million. Addressing the national board before the vote, University President Robert Bruininks summed it up nicely: "We're going to bring our football team back home." Indeed, we're also going to help provide a collegiate home for some of the best and brightest students by easing their escalating financial burden. Not bad for a day's work. But, in truth, this vote was the culmination of two years of hard work by past and present members of our board. Last year, in fact, the UMAA national board, with another unanimous vote, became the first organization to go on record supporting a stadium on campus. That was our verbal support. This is our financial support. If we're going to build this stadium, it's going to happen from the grassroots up. Of course, we love substantial gifts from private donors—they're critical to the success of a fund-raising effort. But the UMAA's conviction to bring Gopher football home is independent of a major lead gift. With our vote, we represented past, current, and future University students. Our gift illustrates the broad support for a new Gopher stadium. It will be everyone's stadium, built by many people. A new stadium will fortify the sense of pride, spirit, and community on campus. It will serve as the gathering place for so many campus traditions—commencement ceremonies, convocations, marching band performances, and homecoming events. And Saturday afternoons every fall, fans from across campus, the state, and even farther-flung places will converge at the home field to cheer their football Gophers. These kinds of traditions are so important to a university and to the lives of its students. I was fortunate enough to attend the University when the Gophers played at Memorial Stadium. On game day, the energy on campus was electric. If the game was at 1 p.m., festivities began hours earlier, when fans from both teams would line University Avenue to await the band making its magical march to the stadium. After the game, win or lose, the celebration would continue. People would fill Dinkytown and Stadium Village restaurants. Fraternity houses on University Avenue would open their doors. It was a full day, and it was incredible how much fun people had. I'll never forget the first football game I attended as a freshman, back in 1963. Tickets were scarce, so I had to enter my name in a lottery along with other students at Territorial Hall. Even though I still had to pay for it, when I won a ticket I felt as if someone had given me a priceless gift. On game day, the first thing that hit me as I approached the stadium was the enthusiasm and the spirit in the air—it was unbelievable. Inside, the stands were absolutely packed. I knew I was a part of something special, something big. It's hard to believe that an entire generation has been deprived of this experience. The Gophers have been playing home games at the Metrodome since 1982. Ten years after the team was displaced, the 68-year-old Memorial Stadium was removed from the landscape. Today, however, we took a significant step toward righting a wrong. Learning, of course, is central to the University experience. We learned that we lost something. And we learned that the right thing to do is to bring it home. To learn more about the stadium initiative, visit www.alumni.umn.edu/stadium. Executive Director: The Keeper of Traditions By Margaret S. Carlson (Ph. D. '83) This fall in the McNamara Alumni Center, I happened upon an orientation for new College of Liberal Arts faculty. After being introduced, they asked about many of the traditional words and symbols we've incorporated into the alumni center. What does "Ski-U-Mah" mean? What is the significance of that huge stadium arch? I was able to answer their questions because for 100 years the alumni association has been the keeper of spirit and tradition for the entire Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. In this centennial year, as the alumni association is engaged in preserving and telling its own history, we're also dusting off and reintroducing the meaning and significance of our legends and lore. Ski-U-Mah? Turn the pages of history back to 1884. The term originated in a cheer created by John W. Adams and "Win" Sargent, his U of M roommate. Used in the "Minnesota March" and the "Minnesota Rouser," it begins with "ski-oo," a Sioux Indian battle cry meaning "victory." "Mah" was added as a rhyming third syllable in the cheer. The yell was printed for the first time in the University publication Ariel in 1885 as "Rah. Rah. Rah. Ski-U-Mah. Minn-so-ta!" And what about the Rouser? It was written by Floyd M. Hutsell for a 1909 contest sponsored by the Minneapolis Tribune to pick a fight song for the U. The rights were later given to the alumni association. And our beloved Golden Gopher was an 1857 entry to our lexicon of traditions. The state legislature was debating a bill that would provide $5 million (estimated at more than $96 million in today's dollars) to build railroads in Minnesota. The bill was bitterly opposed, and a cartoon circulated showing a "Gopher train" pulled by nine striped Gophers with human heads. As a result, Minnesota became known as the Gopher state. In the early 1930s, as the Minnesota football teams, under the direction of Coach Bernie Bierman, were establishing themselves as national champions, they began wearing gold jerseys. The local press described the teams as the "golden-shirted horde" and the "gold swarm." This turned into the nickname the "Golden Gophers." And today the alumni association and the athletics department are working hard to return gold as the primary school color, because of its visual prominence at sporting events. And speaking of athletics, what about that stadium arch? That was preserved, thanks to a gift from the class of 1942, when Memorial Stadium was demolished in 1992. Now rebuilt inside the alumni center, it serves as the entrance to the Heritage Gallery, where the University's storied history is preserved and re-told. The arch also serves as a reminder of the invaluable place that intangible things like pride, spirit, and tradition have in the college experience. That's why part of the legacy of our 100th anniversary is the donation of $1 million to an on-campus football stadium, as well as $500,000 to scholarships. Another piece of the legacy we want to leave this year is fun and light but, in many ways, no less important. We're introducing a new musical cheer for our alma mater. We could picture, in our mind's eye, alumni chanting this ditty around the world in decades to come—as well as in 2104, the association's 200th birthday. A 15-second musical cheer, chosen from dozens of contest entries, will be introduced at our 100th birthday party on January 30, 2004. (Watch the January-February 2004 issue of Minnesota for more on the cheer contest and its judges.) We hope elementary school students across Minnesota will memorize the cheer before the end of the academic year, especially those with teachers who are Gopher grads. And we expect everyone will be humming this tune by the time the spring sports schedule is complete. In researching our own history, we went through a century's worth of documents, photos, and memorabilia. Many brought back priceless memories. Seeing photos of our official University visit to Beijing in June 2000 reinforced to me how vital our traditions are. At a reunion banquet in Beijing that year, I was touched to see that many guests had saved the lapel pins and Gopher stickers we had passed out on previous trips in 1995 and 1996. Our alumni were eager to tell us again about their favorite faculty members and advisers—as well as stories of the host families who made life easier for them. These college memories hadn't faded even for those who had not been back to campus in six or seven decades. What truly amazed me, however, is that when we sang the Rouser at the end of the event, many of our alumni—who probably hadn't heard the song in decades—stood and sang it entirely from memory. Music, colors, symbols—all part of the legend and lore of the campus experience. The education our graduates receive here benefits them for a lifetime, but these other items also create memories that last a lifetime. The alumni association is gathering and guarding the history of those nonacademic things—the photos, traditions, memorabilia, and memories—that add richness to our campus. They truly bring us together as alumni. So it is only fitting that the alumni association is—as our national president Jerry Noyce (B.S. '67) says—"the keeper of the golden flame." | |||||||||||||||
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