I Fell in love with Minnesota Gopher basketball while playing basketball for the De La Salle Islanders in High School.
In the 1964-65 season the Michigan Wolverines led by junior Cazzie Russell, Bill Buntin, and Oliver Darden were ranked # 1 in the Associated Press top ten poll at the start and the end of the season. The Gophers led by Lou Hudson, Archie Clark, Don Yates Mel Northway, and Terry Kunze spent 16 weeks ranked in the A.P. top ten poll reaching as high as #3 for 5 of those weeks.
The Gophers lost both games against Michigan with the most memorable being an 88-85 loss at Williams Arena. At game time the Gophers were ranked #6 and Michigan was ranked #1. Michigan won the big ten title finishing the season with an overall record of 24-4 and 13-1 in the Big Ten. Minnesota finished the season in second place with an overall record of 19-5 and 11-3 in the Big Ten. Michigan made it to the finals of the NCAA Tournament and were beaten by the Gail Goodrich UCLA team for the national championship 90-81. In 1965 only 23 teams qualified for the NCAA tournament. A team had to win their Conference title to gain entry. (As an aside; The Minnesota Twins played the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1965 World Series.)
In
the 1971-72 new head coach Bill Musselman won his first big ten game defeating
the fifth rank Indiana Hoosiers. The Gophers
went on to win the Big Title with an overall record of 18-7 and a Big Ten Conference
record of 11-3. In the 1972-73 season
the Gophers were ranked #3 in country toward the end of the season.
Minnesota athletic excellence dates back as far as Bernie Berman’s 93-35-6 record and 7 Big Ten titles and 5 National football championships: PLUS, the 1959-60 Gopher football team gained the #1 ranking in both college football polls and made two back-to-back Rose Bowl appearances in 1960 and 1961. Johnny Kundla won 4 NBA championships as Minneapolis Lakers basketball coach. There was Herb Brooks' 5 WCHA titles and the 3 NCAA Gopher hockey Championships. Dick Siebert coached 5 Gopher baseball teams to the college world series and won 3 national championships. Then, of course, there was the Bud Grant golden era of Viking football winning 11 division titles, 4 conference titles and taking the Vikings to 3 Super Bowls in a 4-year period - 1973, ’74 and ’76. The old Minnesota North Stars Hockey team even played in two Stanley Cup finals.
Minnesota wasn’t always an athletic doormat. Quite the contrary. Minnesota athletics once garnered national exposure and respect over our continued and relentless pursuit of excellence – once made Minnesota fans and the community proud. Such is not the case today. A large part of the problem is a fan base and a community that has created a mindset of an alarming acceptance for mediocrity. We are content to wildly cheer even the most insignificant achievement - usually flukes - and why not? If we can’t get excited over mediocrity, we are left with nothing to cheer about.
Minnesota athletics can best be summarized in validating President John F. Kennedy’s caution: If we …“are complacent and self-satisfied, content with things as they are then our prestige and our influence and our contribution will surly decline.” And so it has.
For many of us who witnessed the 1960’s and 1970’s commitment to success and all the thrills of Minnesota athletic achievement, find it impossible to swallow the fraudulent marketing pill of mediocrity. It’s just too painful.
