BleedGopher
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per Shama:
This is a year of celebration for the Golden Gophers’ last Big Ten football championship team. Members of the 1967 team were honored a week ago Sunday at the 10th annual Minnesota Football Honors event. In the fall there will be another celebration when the U athletic department honors the old-timers at Minnesota’s opening Big Ten football game in TCF Bank Stadium.
It couldn’t have been more appropriate that on Sunday, May 7 the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation honored the ’67 group with its annual Murray Warmath Legendary Team Award. Warmath, of course, coached the Gophers for 18 seasons and the 1967 team were his last champions.
The Gophers had been 4-5-1 overall and 3-3-1 in Big Ten games in 1966 but there was optimism going into the 1967 season. This was to be the last season of eligibility for a group of seniors who had come to Minnesota as a much hyped freshman class in 1964. Many of the players were from out of state and had been highly recruited including fullback John Williams from Toledo, who was coveted by legendary coach Woody Hayes and Ohio State.
Bob Stein, who became a junior All-American defensive end in 1967, recalled the team outlook going into the season. “The Big Ten at that time was the best football in the country, along with the Pac-10—so you never knew how things were going to sort out,” Stein told Sports Headliners. “…We thought we were going to be pretty darn good and we hoped for the best, but we didn’t necessarily think we were going to punch a ticket for the Rose Bowl.”
Stein, a St. Louis Park native who also was an All-American in 1968, was part of a formidable defense that held opponents to 12 points per game in 10 games. In the Big Ten it was just 10.6. Minnesota shut out two teams, limited another to three points and three times held opponents to seven.
Stein was the team’s only All-American, but he played down the honor. “I am not trying to be fake modest, but I always felt that a lot of the awards I got were on behalf of the team and the defense. We had lots of good players. You don’t play well in football unless you have good people around you.”
Warmath’s best teams prided themselves on physical football and that usually started with a punishing defensive unit. On the 1967 team was fullback Jim Carter, a tall, muscular and nasty runner from South St. Paul, who also was Stein’s close friend and fraternity brother. The two went head-to-head in pass rushing drills during spring practices and the memories are still vivid. Stein recalled going back to the fraternity house with headaches and in need of rest.
“It was the worst collisions I ever had in football,” Stein said. “First of all, he is a tough S.O.B. Secondly, when he is your buddy (it means even more). He felt the same way.”
Sakal said what his teammates have done in their post college life is even more impressive than their football careers. “We’ve got doctors, dentists, attorneys, CEOS, entrepreneurs, business owners,” said Sakal who is a retired executive with Prudential.
Sakal and many of his lifelong buddies will be in Minneapolis for a big celebration in a few months that will start with a Friday night gathering on September 29. The next day the former Gophers will sit in TCF Bank Stadium near the signage that recognizes them as 1967 Big Ten champions and they will watch Minnesota play Maryland. Sakal said he and his teammates hope to be on the field when the 2017 Gophers come out of the stadium tunnel to take the field.
Let’s hope this year’s team gets an opportunity to brush up against greatness. It’s something that has been missing far too long in Gophers football.
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!
This is a year of celebration for the Golden Gophers’ last Big Ten football championship team. Members of the 1967 team were honored a week ago Sunday at the 10th annual Minnesota Football Honors event. In the fall there will be another celebration when the U athletic department honors the old-timers at Minnesota’s opening Big Ten football game in TCF Bank Stadium.
It couldn’t have been more appropriate that on Sunday, May 7 the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation honored the ’67 group with its annual Murray Warmath Legendary Team Award. Warmath, of course, coached the Gophers for 18 seasons and the 1967 team were his last champions.
The Gophers had been 4-5-1 overall and 3-3-1 in Big Ten games in 1966 but there was optimism going into the 1967 season. This was to be the last season of eligibility for a group of seniors who had come to Minnesota as a much hyped freshman class in 1964. Many of the players were from out of state and had been highly recruited including fullback John Williams from Toledo, who was coveted by legendary coach Woody Hayes and Ohio State.
Bob Stein, who became a junior All-American defensive end in 1967, recalled the team outlook going into the season. “The Big Ten at that time was the best football in the country, along with the Pac-10—so you never knew how things were going to sort out,” Stein told Sports Headliners. “…We thought we were going to be pretty darn good and we hoped for the best, but we didn’t necessarily think we were going to punch a ticket for the Rose Bowl.”
Stein, a St. Louis Park native who also was an All-American in 1968, was part of a formidable defense that held opponents to 12 points per game in 10 games. In the Big Ten it was just 10.6. Minnesota shut out two teams, limited another to three points and three times held opponents to seven.
Stein was the team’s only All-American, but he played down the honor. “I am not trying to be fake modest, but I always felt that a lot of the awards I got were on behalf of the team and the defense. We had lots of good players. You don’t play well in football unless you have good people around you.”
Warmath’s best teams prided themselves on physical football and that usually started with a punishing defensive unit. On the 1967 team was fullback Jim Carter, a tall, muscular and nasty runner from South St. Paul, who also was Stein’s close friend and fraternity brother. The two went head-to-head in pass rushing drills during spring practices and the memories are still vivid. Stein recalled going back to the fraternity house with headaches and in need of rest.
“It was the worst collisions I ever had in football,” Stein said. “First of all, he is a tough S.O.B. Secondly, when he is your buddy (it means even more). He felt the same way.”
Sakal said what his teammates have done in their post college life is even more impressive than their football careers. “We’ve got doctors, dentists, attorneys, CEOS, entrepreneurs, business owners,” said Sakal who is a retired executive with Prudential.
Sakal and many of his lifelong buddies will be in Minneapolis for a big celebration in a few months that will start with a Friday night gathering on September 29. The next day the former Gophers will sit in TCF Bank Stadium near the signage that recognizes them as 1967 Big Ten champions and they will watch Minnesota play Maryland. Sakal said he and his teammates hope to be on the field when the 2017 Gophers come out of the stadium tunnel to take the field.
Let’s hope this year’s team gets an opportunity to brush up against greatness. It’s something that has been missing far too long in Gophers football.
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!