Best Williams Arena Memory

Donate To GopherHole
T

TheBarnyard

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
251
Reaction score
280
Points
63
I just wanted to hear some of the best memories of Williams Arena from older fans. I am currently still in school at the U but my family has had season tickets my entire life. The Barn is my favorite place to view a sporting event and I have never heard a louder building. Hilton at ISU is close. Indiana in 2013 is my fondest memory so far. My favorite feeling in the world is when you can feel the energy of the 14625 passionately roaring on the team. What is the loudest or best Williams arena memory that you have?
 

The loudest roaring I ever heard at The Barn was nine years ago when Sid went up to get ice cream at half time and came back to find somebody in his seat.
 

In '75 or 76 (not sure of year), the Gophers played Indiana. Bobby Knight had another powerhouse team at Indiana, and the gym was packed. I went to the game with some guys from St. Cloud State (friend of a friend deal). One of the guys was an Indiana native. He had a banner and wanted someone to help him carry it around the court. no one else would do it, and I had consumed a few beverages, so I said what the bleep. So, we went down courtside, somehow got up on the floor (no idea where security was), and ran around the floor with a pro-Indiana banner. all the Gopher fans were yelling at us and flipping us the bird. we stopped in front of the Indiana bench, and the other guy shook hands with Knight. Then, we got off the floor before we got into trouble. a bunch of my friends from Augsburg were there, and they all gave me grief for an Indiana banner - except for Augsburg's head basketball coach, Erv Inniger, who was an Indiana grad. he got a big kick out of it.
 

Anytime Randy Carter laid someone out with an elbow. cough **Chris Webber** cough
 

Kevin McHale's last game at the barn. He was taken out with about five minutes left for his end of career applause. But the crowd wouldn't have anything to do with that and everyone chanted we want McHale over and over until Dutcher relented and put him back in to the roar of the crowd. Great memory for me.
 


Gophers 107-96 triple OT win over Iowa in 1994. Voshon Lenard and Jess Settles both were fantastic that night. Lenard had career-high 38, Settles 21. Players and fans were completely drained after that game.
 


The Clem Haskins era. It was the high water mark for me despite how it ended.
 

Also, the Iron 5 game vs Ohio State

John Shasky:
GH: Your first game back after the forfeit was against Ohio State at The Barn and you and your teammates were dubbed the "œIron Five"￾ "“ what do you remember about the crowd response that game?

Shasky: We were nervous before the game as we didn't know how the crowd was going to react to us when we came up from the locker room, but the crowd's reaction was nothing short of amazing. The crowd at Williams Arena has always been electric, but that game was unlike anything any of us had seen. Every shot we made, every free throw that went in the crowd went crazy. That meant a lot to our team.


GH: How important was that win against Ohio State?

Shasky: It was a huge win for us. With everything we faced the previous week, the forfeit, losing half our team and our head coach, we really wanted that game. We only won one game after that, but we were competitive in quite a few of them. The guys that were left gave everything we had.


Tim Hanson:

GH.com: Thinking back to your days as a Gopher, which game/games stick out the most and why?

Hanson: Three games stick out for me, in this order:

1. Iron Five vs. Ohio State 1986 - first game after the Madison incident. Beat an Ohio State team led by Dennis Hopson and Brad Sellers 65-60. All five starters played 40 minutes, or close to it! John Shasky, Marc Wilson, Ray Gaffney, Kelvin Smith, and myself. We may have all scored in double figures as well!
 



Illinois, 1997. John Thomas sinks two free throws with a couple seconds remaining for a one-point win and a share of the Big Ten title. A difficult game - in great part owing to how hung over I was - but a glorious finish. What a feeling!
 

A few of my favorite games at The Barn:

- Early 90s - Gophers and Hawkeyes were ranked. Neither Dr Tom Davis or Clem wanted to be first up on the court during warmups, so neither team came up the stairs. The tension built as the clock ticked down towards tip-off. Finally with about 2 minutes to go before tip-off, the Hawkeyes hit the floor. Ten seconds later the Gophers hit the floor and the crowd went crazy.

- 1994 - We beat a solid UW team (with Finley and Griffith) by about 40. A few weeks later we beat them by 30 or so in Madison.

- 1994 - We beat Bobby Knight and the Hoosiers by 51! Knight was so pissed he locked his team out of the locker room at halftime.

- 1997 - Beat the Hoosiers and received the Big Ten regular season trophy. It wasn't our best game, but it was a 40 minute party in the crowd!

- I think it was the 2005 season when Grier had one of the best single game performances ever and dominated a ranked UW team. The crowd was just crazy loud.

My all time favorite memory at The Barn was the Welcome Home Celebration after we beat UCLA to advance to the Final Four. The Barn was absolutely packed 3 hours before the team arrived in Minnesota. Helicopters followed the team bus from the airport to the Barn. There were 3,000 fans outside The Barn who couldn't get in, and the players and staff thought that was the welcome home celebration but the players were told to go to the locker room and they heard the pandemonium up stairs. The chants of "BEAT KENTUCKY" were so loud! The older man who sat by himself next to us had tears running down his face. John Thomas said he couldn't stop smiling. It was incredible.

Go Gophers!!

-
 

The welcome home gathering in the Barn in '97 was insane. Definitely my favorite memory.
 

Big Ten opener against Indiana in 1972. Not sure they could have gotten any more people in The Barn. The noise and bedlam started with the pre-game warm-up and never let up. Jim Brewer seemed to come out of nowhere and block an Indiana shot towards the end of the game that saved it. Gophers won by 1 and someone made two big clutch free throws, I think, to give us the victory. The Barn was literally shaking at times. Another reason to remember it was I had gotten an early out from the service that fall by enrolling in grad school. Hated it and quit after one quarter, but I kept my student ticket for that season.

Not that many games after was the Ohio State game. It was probably as loud at the beginning but not as fond a memory because of the brawl. Remember driving home and wondering what the hell happened.
 



BleedGopher said:
A few of my favorite games at The Barn:

- Early 90s - Gophers and Hawkeyes were ranked. Neither Dr Tom Davis or Clem wanted to be first up on the court during warmups, so neither team came up the stairs. The tension built as the clock ticked down towards tip-off. Finally with about 2 minutes to go before tip-off, the Hawkeyes hit the floor. Ten seconds later the Gophers hit the floor and the crowd went crazy.

- 1994 - We beat a solid UW team (with Finley and Griffith) by about 40. A few weeks later we beat them by 30 or so in Madison.

- 1994 - We beat Bobby Knight and the Hoosiers by 51! Knight was so pissed he locked his team out of the locker room at halftime.

- 1997 - Beat the Hoosiers and received the Big Ten regular season trophy. It wasn't our best game, but it was a 40 minute party in the crowd!

- I think it was the 2005 season when Grier had one of the best single game performances ever and dominated a ranked UW team. The crowd was just crazy loud.

My all time favorite memory at The Barn was the Welcome Home Celebration after we beat UCLA to advance to the Final Four. The Barn was absolutely packed 3 hours before the team arrived in Minnesota. Helicopters followed the team bus from the airport to the Barn. There were 3,000 fans outside The Barn who couldn't get in, and the players and staff thought that was the welcome home celebration but the players were told to go to the locker room and they heard the pandemonium up stairs. The chants of "BEAT KENTUCKY" were so loud! The older man who sat by himself next to us had tears running down his face. John Thomas said he couldn't stop smiling. It was incredible.

Go Gophers!!

-
Click to expand...

I was at the two in bold. Remember them well.

One of my friends uncle was the AD at Indiana back then and they sat right behind the Indy bench. We would go over there at end of game to visit. Her uncle was a dick.

A big memory is beating the Fab 5 their frosh year, but my favorite would have to be my first game. 1964 vs Illinois. Lou Hudson, Archie Clark and Don Yates were sophomores(freshmen couldn't play back then. I was totally amazed. Been hooked every since.
 


nooram said:
1989 - win vs #1 Illinois
Click to expand...

May have been after this game I remember Willie Burton climbing on Clem's stool and whipping a towel around and around over his head getting the crowd into a frenzy.
 

Thanks for the great stories. I get chills reading every one of them. Wish I could go back and experience the barn at its best.
 

TheBarnyard said:
Thanks for the great stories. I get chills reading every one of them. Wish I could go back and experience the barn at its best.
Click to expand...

It's yet to come. I firmly believe that. I can't predict how far in the future, but the "good old days" are ahead of us.

Go Gophers!!
 

Mine's the 1973 high school tournament, when the state championship was wide open to all comers, no segregation by size, i.e., 2A, 3A......, 6A. Little Howard Lake -- even smaller then than now-- acquitted itself well and little Melrose either won the whole thing or almost did. Maybe no Tyrus Jones, but Mark Olberding of Melrose played in the NBA.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom