Cannon Man

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CWCWCW

CWCWCW

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Forgive me if this has been posted, but I didn't see it. Rod Wallace, the long time Cannon Man from the Metrodome days has passed away. I know Mr. Wallace gave a lot of money to the University of Minnesota. The practice field was funded in large part by Wallace.

Wallace was larger than life. During the 90's I often had conferences at The Thunderbird Hotel in Bloomington. Rod Wallace definitely wanted you to know he owned the joint.

Sorry to see a Gopher fan passing, but I was happy when the Cannon didn't continue at TCF Bank Stadium.

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Cannon Man had a run at TCF before he retired the cannon
 

Anyone who didn't like the cannon is the anti-Gopher.
 

Always knew it was coming but I'll be damned if I still didn't jump when he fired it.
 

Sad. Saw him at Taco Bell Chanhassen once. That made me like him even more.


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That's really sad. That is one of the things I wished transferred from the Dome to TCF.

Sincerest thoughts to the Wallace family.
 


A 21 cannon salute to you sir! Thank you for all you've done for Minnesota Football.
 

Go to a So St Paul high school football game and get your nostalgia back on boyz. They'll even encourage you coming in Maroon and Gold. They have a canon they shoot off after every SSP touchdown. Could it be the same canon?
 



Me and a buddy who went to a lot of dome games always wanted to buy a canon man shirt. We also wondered what qualifications were necessary to become canon man...
 

Cannon man was the best. Grew up with the cannon man at the dome, even got to meet him a few times working at TCF in college. The man was as nice as he was iconic. Truly a legend. Would love a cannon man tribute game at TCF this fall with the cannon brought back into service!
 


I legit miss the cannon. Bring it back Coyle.
 



Wasn't there some whining by locals about the canon. Too loud when they were trying to sleep at 11AM?
 


Sparlimb said:
Wasn't there some whining by locals about the canon. Too loud when they were trying to sleep at 11AM?
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There may have been, but a friend of mine who works in the athletic office said that the reason they got rid of it is they redefined the weapons policy to "zero tolerance" and because the cannon took 10 gauge shotgun shells it was classified as a weapon.

Now, I also believe that Mr. Wallace had been struggling with some health issues at the same time, and I believe he was trying to find someone to take over for him, so the timing was probably not coincidental. Basically they were never going to enforce it while Mr. Wallace was still doing it but they didn't want it passed on to someone else. I guess kind of like not replacing Jim Mitchell singing Hail Minnesota. (I still get shivers thinking about him singing "Thou shalt be their Northern Star!").
 

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