Shama: Memories Endure from Memorial Stadium

per Shama:

It’s been 25 years since the University of Minnesota’s Memorial Stadium was demolished. With calendar year 2017 slipping away, it’s time to remember the Gophers’ old football home.

Minnesota played in the on-campus “Brick House” from 1924 through 1981 before moving into the Metrodome downtown. In my childhood and teen years I developed a passion for both the Gophers and the University on football Saturdays at Memorial Stadium. My dad was a longtime season ticket holder and attending games with him and my mother was a cherished ritual of fall.

I fondly recall the anticipation of each season and the football talk in our home. My father and I constantly argued about coach Murray Warmath. Dad thought the University made a terrible decision in the early 1950s not hiring Bud Wilkinson as coach. Wilkinson was a former Gopher standout as a player and became one of college football’s legendary coaches at Oklahoma. My father was constantly critical of Warmath, including his assessment of how the team blocked and tackled.

Warmath came to Minnesota in 1954 and had mixed results through the 1959 season. Then in 1960 the Gophers won the national championship. Between 1960 and 1962 Minnesota’s cumulative record was 22-6-1. During that era the Gophers also played in two Rose Bowls, losing to Washington and defeating UCLA.

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Go Gophers!!

I would attend two games a year with my Dad. We would drive down from the Iron Range with a "hefty bag" in our pocket... in case rain.

We would have lunch at the long gone Criterion Restaurant on University Ave, near Lexington, and then ride their complimentary MTC bus to the game.
The busses all parked in a little lot at the NE corner of the stadium.... I can still smell the heavy diesel fumes.

I recall a number of games .... TCU, Washington State, Washington, Oregon State (?), Nebraska, plus the B1G games.

My Dad was always screaming about Murray Warmath too... but he wanted him back.

Favorite early players? Rick Upchurch and Marion Barber.