Closest We've been to a Rose Bowl

[RememberMurray]

I knew we were in, in regards to the question, I meant closest since our last appearance.

I could have clarified I suppose, but most respondents to this thread had that understanding.

Yeah, they 'get you' better than I do, I guess. When you said, "What was the closest we've been..." I took it to mean "the closest we've been".

My bad.

 

[GopherVotary]

Didn't want to hi-jack a different thread.

What was the closest we've been to a Rose Bowl? Was it 1999?
Lost in OT to WI. If we had won that, we finish Big Ten play 6-2 tied with Wisconsin. Not sure what tie-breaker rule was back then, but I think that was the closest we've ever been.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team

Our other two losses in Big Ten play were also close losses.

We had Dayne shut down the entire game except one series. I believe Tyrone sat out that one series due to back spasms.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

1962 and 1967 were pretty darned close. Believe me, its not worth re-hashing the details right now.

We couldn't go in '62, even if we had won the Wisconsin game, which we really did - it was stolen by an official named Jones. We earned it in '60, then took Ohio State's place when they turned it down in '61 (can't recall why). But we would have tied for the title in '62 with a Wisconsin victory. The 1962 team was one of the best Gopher teams I've ever seen; great defense, blanked five teams and held two others to one TD. Only real loss was to Northwestern. B10 had some rule that would have kept us from a three-peat.

 

[howeda7]

I hear this a lot, that we would have beat Sparty.
I'd like to think that as well, but what's the reason for that?

We think the kids were so deflated from the horrible, they were not able to execute the following week?
Seems to put a lot of emphasis on the importance of emotion in the college game.

Yes. I was at that game and it just felt weird/dead in the building at the beginning. We outplayed them the last 50 minutes or so.