BleedGopher
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per the Sun Current:
Every time spring football rolls around, old-time fans of the University of Minnesota football team like to tell stories about the late, great Murray Warmath, who coached the Gophers to their last two Rose Bowl appearances in 1960 and 1961.
One of the favorite stories centers on how Warmath fought off death until the end. When he was 97 years old, a doctor told Warmath that he had only a few days left to live. Always one to take on a challenge, Warmath lived to be almost 99 and 1/2 years old. The coaching legend, who lived in Edina, was born Dec. 26, 2012 in Humboldt, Tennessee and passed away March 16, 2011 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
That wasn’t the first time Warmath proved someone wrong.
With the Gophers languishing in the Big Ten Conference’s second division in 1958, Warmath was hung in effigy on a fall afternoon on the University of Minnesota campus.
Two years later, he was the toast of the campus, leading the Gophers to their first Rose Bowl since the Bernie Bierman era. He lost the game in Pasadena to the Washington Huskies, but a year later, when the Gophers beat UCLA 21-3 for the Rose Bowl title, Minnesota was declared the national champion.
A big part of Warmath’s legacy with the Gophers was his recruitment of black athletes. He landed the cream of the crop - Bill Munsey and Sandy Stephens from Pennsylvania, Carl Eller, Bobby Bell and Aaron Brown from down south. He also brought in Ezell Jones and Judge Dickson to fill key spots in the backfield. In that regard, Warmath was a visionary.
Although Warmath’s overall record as a head coach was a modest 97-84-10, he won big when he had the talent.
Going back to the doctor’s prognosis of death, Warmath was undaunted.
“Murray was too ornery to die,” former Edina High principal Rollie Ring, a long-time Gopher fan and member of the 1941 national-championship team once remarked. Ring followed Warmath’s lead and lived to the ripe old age of 96.
https://www.hometownsource.com/sun_...cle_cd68df88-6142-11e9-abb6-c75de4a8db37.html
Go Gophers!!
Every time spring football rolls around, old-time fans of the University of Minnesota football team like to tell stories about the late, great Murray Warmath, who coached the Gophers to their last two Rose Bowl appearances in 1960 and 1961.
One of the favorite stories centers on how Warmath fought off death until the end. When he was 97 years old, a doctor told Warmath that he had only a few days left to live. Always one to take on a challenge, Warmath lived to be almost 99 and 1/2 years old. The coaching legend, who lived in Edina, was born Dec. 26, 2012 in Humboldt, Tennessee and passed away March 16, 2011 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
That wasn’t the first time Warmath proved someone wrong.
With the Gophers languishing in the Big Ten Conference’s second division in 1958, Warmath was hung in effigy on a fall afternoon on the University of Minnesota campus.
Two years later, he was the toast of the campus, leading the Gophers to their first Rose Bowl since the Bernie Bierman era. He lost the game in Pasadena to the Washington Huskies, but a year later, when the Gophers beat UCLA 21-3 for the Rose Bowl title, Minnesota was declared the national champion.
A big part of Warmath’s legacy with the Gophers was his recruitment of black athletes. He landed the cream of the crop - Bill Munsey and Sandy Stephens from Pennsylvania, Carl Eller, Bobby Bell and Aaron Brown from down south. He also brought in Ezell Jones and Judge Dickson to fill key spots in the backfield. In that regard, Warmath was a visionary.
Although Warmath’s overall record as a head coach was a modest 97-84-10, he won big when he had the talent.
Going back to the doctor’s prognosis of death, Warmath was undaunted.
“Murray was too ornery to die,” former Edina High principal Rollie Ring, a long-time Gopher fan and member of the 1941 national-championship team once remarked. Ring followed Warmath’s lead and lived to the ripe old age of 96.
https://www.hometownsource.com/sun_...cle_cd68df88-6142-11e9-abb6-c75de4a8db37.html
Go Gophers!!
