A trip to the Horseshoe just to watch the halftime show would top my list.
I to, have tried to visit all Big 10 cities. I have not been to Nebraska it is on the list as the next must travel to spot.
1. Penn State Was there in 1999 when Gophers upset the Lions. That was one of those wow moments for me in time as it was sureal when Cockerham heaved up the football and we actually caught the deflection. I think I even shed a tear I was so happy for the team and all of us fans. Seemed like justice was served after the year before cheating by Joe Pa crying for a flag.
There fans were totally cool even congratulatory, Penn State fans will treat you well and they have awesome places to visit on campus, it is a pain and the butt to get there though. We had crappy seats and were really far away but you could really hear the crowd noise, almost feel the vibration of the floors and the band was great. Good looking cheerleaders too. Fans are very gracious in defeat and victory. Just probably deserving of that reputation as really good football fans. Penn State fans are pure class.
2. Ohio State the horse shoe was awesome both times I was there. Great rare Gopher victory in 2000 and I got blasted by a supersoaker from Brutus the Buckeye for waving a Gopher flag. Besides the game the Skull session was awesome and so was hinygate, this is something you should experience with friends. They seem to like gopher fans there too.
You know it is a special game when an Ohio State fan is telling you about the last time that the Gophers beat Ohio State there 50 years ago when Neo the lion Nomellini played for the Gophers and he could describe in great detail what a ferocious player Nomelini was on the football field, he said he was unblockable that day. Shared some beers with some pretty good fans after the game near some frat houses. Then we rode up and down the BLVD with a Gopher flag haning out the window blasting the Rouser. Got a lot of weird looks but that was an awful good time. 2002 we got beat pretty good.
3 Michigan probably because of the three times I have been we won there once in 2005 and they have some pretty cool fans. A Dr. can't remeber his name, who is a fan of Michigan paid for my parties dinner and drinks to congratulate the Gophers on a great win, even took a picture with us because he said Gophers winning was historic event. I still have the picture but not the envelope with the postage from it.
Granted we do not beat them very often recently so there fans were quite gracious. 2007 was OK except some radio guy broadcasting before the game kept heckling us because he said I didn't know the Gophers actually had any fans, we must have been the first Gopher fans to walk by. This years game was really fun for a half of football. You do not get much room in this stadium they give you enough room for about a half a cheek a person to sit down, and you feel like your a million miles away from the field. There band is pretty weenie for there reputation ours kicks their butts anyday of the week. You get a few hecklers but for the most part Michigan fans kind of put you on ignore. Park at the school not the Golf course as it is cheaper to park at Pioneer. They know how to get you in and out of Ann Arbor, U of M PD and administration could learn a thing or two about game day parking from Michigan, on what to charge and how to manage it best.
4. Iowa Kinnick stadium you sit up really close to the field and it is kind of low but the games are usually fairly entertaining. Have been to Iowa twice when the Gophers won and twice when they have lost. For the most part the Iowa fans treated us fairly well with the exception of a few drunks who wanted to make a point of making fun of Gopher fans and taunting us for calling the Metrodome Kinnick North, I was like I know I have seen the T-shirt you don't need to avertise it to me I have been there even during the 2008 debacle. Parking was reasonable and belive it or not there are some Hawks fans that like to visit and share food. Most seem to have negative feelings towards this place when Iowa fans are here but they are actually fairly decent to watch a game with. To be truthfully honest most of the Hawks fans are fairly decent people, despite the grief we give them and the who hate iowa chants and such. *********** is of course the exception, what a wierdo.
I could almost rate them higher except hotels are expensive and the food isn't the greatest at the places we have stopped at to eat. Iowa fans are fairly nice salt of the earth folks though. They get downgrade for crappy slow service restaraunts.
5. Northwestern mainly because it is easy drive, you get cheap tickets and parking and there fans like to share barbecue and Old Style beers from there tailgaiting. Northwestern fans are fairly cool to party with. That and you can have fun in Chicago with a lot of great places to eat and go see after the game.
6. Purdue only for the fact if your single, the girls are not great looking but they are fairly friendly and looking to party, wink wink. That and that choclate bar is a fun hangout except for I had a boilermaker fan try and chase me and pee on me with his dink hanging out. Now that was crude. That and we had a group try and pee on us off a parking ramp. Not sure why boiler fans think it is cool to try and pee on people.
7. Michigan State I have been only once but the weather was really nice. Marquise Gray had a hell of a game to bad we didn't win the game because the Gophers played like they should have won that day. Besides a painted green guy on a bike yelling at us as we were walking up "Some Spartan Spirit character" the game was fun. I only rank them low because this was a fly in fly out same day game and we did not get a lot of time to visit with the fans or get the real flavor of the Michigan State campus, we didn't really get to visit.
8. Wisconsin only because their fans go out of there way to be rude and inhosbitable or hostile. Have been four times and all four times were fairly miserable with the fans really being buttholes especially when trying to park. Had private lots that didn't want to allow us to park because we were Gopher fans. How stupid is that, money is green and spends the same. That and at the game we had fans chuck marshmellows with coins in them at us, that actually hurt when they hit you. Stupid skunks must still think they are in high school. Had a frined get spit on his Gopher jacket by a drunk fan. For how much they like to brag about being fun, they sure treat Gopher fans poorly.
They don't seem to like Visiting fans, or at least especially not Gopher fans over there. You would think with as much as they like to party and have beat us lately they would just want to have fun and a good time. Guess not. I suppose that is why they are rivals though.
Just never a lot of fun, and there reputation as the Big 10 worst fans is well earned. Hopefully they cheer up and stop being such ungracious hosts.
I have actually been to College Park Maryland to see a football game but it was a business trip and they were playing FSU. Great food, cool fans and good places to see all over the area including DC. This I think will be a road trip for Gopher fans once we start playing them on occassion. I think Gopher fans will really enjoy seeing a football game agaisnt the Terps. They have a unique deck between the lower deck and the upper deck of the stadium. It was a good to great venue to watch a football game. That and we should win the games more often than not.
Illinois been there for a basketball game, but not football. I did not like Champaign, it was kind of boring and the hotel rates were fairly ridiculous, they are on weekends anyways but it is a long trip to get gouged. Not sure if I would go but the Gophers have had quite a lot of success lately beating them at least in the recent decade. What a crappy basketball arena, you sit really high up and the angle is really steep. Just not my idea of a place to see a bball game at.
Indiana guess really have not thought about going to visit the Hoosiers much at least not football.
