How would Gopher Football look in 2022 if the team had never moved out of Memorial Stadium?

Donate To GopherHole


We'd be better than Wisconsin at everything, including academics. In fact, I'd argue that the University of Minnesota would have produced at least one US President since 1982 and a football and basketball national championship. Some might say we'd become the Michigan of the West.
 

KollegeKlubConnoisseur said:
We'd be better than Wisconsin at everything, including academics. In fact, I'd argue that the University of Minnesota would have produced at least one US President since 1982 and a football and basketball national championship. Some might say we'd become the Michigan of the West.
Click to expand...
I always thought it was the one thing holding Mondale back from upending Reagan's reelection. Lost a heart breaker.
 

KollegeKlubConnoisseur said:
We'd be better than Wisconsin at everything, including academics. In fact, I'd argue that the University of Minnesota would have produced at least one US President since 1982 and a football and basketball national championship. Some might say we'd become the Michigan of the West.
Click to expand...
Ight
 



The Gophers would have, at minimum, seen much greater on field success in the last several decades, claimed several Big Ten Championships, and likely the elusive 8th Natty. The move to the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome (Shithole Garbage Bag Tent Field) stifled our program over time. At first, it seemed like a good idea, one that would boost attendance. Really, the move away from campus made it harder for students to attend and silenced the already poor tailgate atmosphere. This extinguished the Gophers national brand it had developed from the program's beginning through to the 60's by no longer being located on campus. What other major program plays that far from campus and has consistent success? Not us that was for sure. We claimed 6 National Championships and 10 Big Ten Championships in our time at Memorial Stadium. How many have we since??? If Memorial Stadium still existed, and the Gophers continued our reign over the West, I could see a potential renovation and expansion that would have parallelled Michigan's Big House, potentially larger. Much of our recent resurgence (We know its not PJ's Recruiting expertise) can also be attributed to the home field advantage that the Bank has been able to provide in cold weather situations, an aspect that would have never left the U of M had the magnificent Memorial Stadium remained. Sorry Joe Salem, that was a stupid fucking move.
 

SturbsRegular said:
The Gophers would have, at minimum, seen much greater on field success in the last several decades, claimed several Big Ten Championships, and likely the elusive 8th Natty. The move to the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome (Shithole Garbage Bag Tent Field) stifled our program over time. At first, it seemed like a good idea, one that would boost attendance. Really, the move away from campus made it harder for students to attend and silenced the already poor tailgate atmosphere. This extinguished the Gophers national brand it had developed from the program's beginning through to the 60's by no longer being located on campus. What other major program plays that far from campus and has consistent success? Not us that was for sure. We claimed 6 National Championships and 10 Big Ten Championships in our time at Memorial Stadium. How many have we since??? If Memorial Stadium still existed, and the Gophers continued our reign over the West, I could see a potential renovation and expansion that would have parallelled Michigan's Big House, potentially larger. Much of our recent resurgence (We know its not PJ's Recruiting expertise) can also be attributed to the home field advantage that the Bank has been able to provide in cold weather situations, an aspect that would have never left the U of M had the magnificent Memorial Stadium remained. Sorry Joe Salem, that was a stupid fucking move.
Click to expand...
Side Note: The Gophers win percentage at Memorial Stadium? .582 At the Metrodome? .422 You can't really argue with the stats, the teams played worse, they got worse recruits, they lost homefield advatage, they played in a worse atmosphere, all around ruining the Gopher's lasting standing as a football school and a powerhouse, something that still harms our program and university to this day. What could've been...
 

Not at all sure the venue would have mattered much. Yes, at Memorial Stadium, the Gophers had many very good and often great teams from the late 1920s through the late 1960s but the building didn't make them successful. They had terrific players who were often led by great head coaches. Then integration arrived, Minnesota's pioneering edge in attracting great black players was diminished. The "U" de-emphasized football in the 1970s, killing the idea of funding a massive renovation of Memorial Stadium. At this point, the rise of the Vikings dulled public enthusiasm for the Gophers and made the Twin Cities an NFL bastion. True, the Metrodome was not the recruiting tool that many thought it would be but it was NOT the reason for the decline of the program. Inferior resources, disinterested university presidents and poor performance by athletic directors made it harder to compete with other, better-run programs.
 
Last edited:



SturbsRegular said:
The Gophers would have, at minimum, seen much greater on field success in the last several decades, claimed several Big Ten Championships, and likely the elusive 8th Natty. The move to the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome (Shithole Garbage Bag Tent Field) stifled our program over time. At first, it seemed like a good idea, one that would boost attendance. Really, the move away from campus made it harder for students to attend and silenced the already poor tailgate atmosphere. This extinguished the Gophers national brand it had developed from the program's beginning through to the 60's by no longer being located on campus. What other major program plays that far from campus and has consistent success? Not us that was for sure. We claimed 6 National Championships and 10 Big Ten Championships in our time at Memorial Stadium. How many have we since??? If Memorial Stadium still existed, and the Gophers continued our reign over the West, I could see a potential renovation and expansion that would have parallelled Michigan's Big House, potentially larger. Much of our recent resurgence (We know its not PJ's Recruiting expertise) can also be attributed to the home field advantage that the Bank has been able to provide in cold weather situations, an aspect that would have never left the U of M had the magnificent Memorial Stadium remained. Sorry Joe Salem, that was a stupid fucking move.
Click to expand...
Lol. They had like one winning season in the B10 in the 10-15 years before they moved to the dome.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Lol. They had like one winning season in the B10 in the 10-15 years before they moved to the dome.
Click to expand...
The Vikings and pro sports took over. Super Bowl appearances and Twins 1965 World Series appearance. Pro sports took over and we became a pro sports town. Proper renovations and the right coach maybe we were better, but our Athletic Department stopped supporting Football for years the way other schools did. Stadium is really a blip on the radar.
 

I liked the stadium but Homer Hartman who had properties where the Hump was built and had clear conflicts of interest beat the drum in his column to move MN football into the Dome.
He claimed that Black players would be more likely to come to MN if they did not have to play in cold weather.
Today using racist stereotypes like that would have got him fired.
The U decided it was cheaper to move than to bring Memorial Stadium up to modern times.
As the Walrus will tell you college sports were looked down on by multiple U "Prexies" in that era and they had little interest or motivation to do the right thing.
 






It's my understanding Memorial Stadium had become quite the dump in its latter years. It would have needed a major remodel. Attendance had fallen off in the 1970s-1980s probably more because the teams weren't great, coupled with lack of institutional support, but the stadium may have had something to do with that.

I suppose the question should be if a remodeled Memorial Stadium had been kept, would things have turned out differently? A remodeled Memorial Stadium probably helps somewhat, but the lack of institutional support which includes bringing in poor coaches (pre-Mason) probably has a major impact too.
 

Nomellini said:
Not at all sure the venue would have mattered much. Yes, at Memorial Stadium, the Gophers had many very good and often great teams from the late 1920s through the late 1960s but the building didn't make them successful. They had terrific players who were often led by great head coaches. Then integration arrived, Minnesota's pioneering edge in attracting great black players was diminished and the "U" de-emphasized football in the 1970s. At this point, the rise of the Vikings dulled public enthusiasm for the massive expense that would have been required to restore Memorial Stadium. True, the Metrodome was not the recruiting tool that many thought it would be but it was NOT the reason for the decline of the program. Inferior resources, disinterested university presidents and poor performance by athletic directors made it harder to compete with other, better-run programs.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with this to an extent. But the real question is would the U have committed to renovating old Memorial stadium, the admins between Cal Stoll and Glen Mason coaching tenure's tell me no they would not have. Another what if from the Dome days would be what it Holtz stays, the one guy who was very enthused about the Dome. Get a guy who (legal or not) was bringing in players, if we're contending for conference titles and consistently going to Bowl games, which you actually had to earn in those days, perhaps perspective is different on that era as well?
 

What's the basis here of all this more success?

Was Memorial Stadium that big of an advantage that the players ... played better?
 

Panthadad2 said:
It's my understanding Memorial Stadium had become quite the dump in its latter years. It would have needed a major remodel. Attendance had fallen off in the 1970s-1980s probably more because the teams weren't great, coupled with lack of institutional support, but the stadium may have had something to do with that.

I suppose the question should be if a remodeled Memorial Stadium had been kept, would things have turned out differently? A remodeled Memorial Stadium probably helps somewhat, but the lack of institutional support which includes bringing in poor coaches (pre-Mason) probably has a major impact too.
Click to expand...
It was a terrible football venue, more than 2/3rds of the seats were in the End Zone. With no suites or clubs, I have to think the better fiscal option would have been to start from scratch or just gut it and leave the shell.

My freshman year was '87. I know my first few years there at least, I played handball/racquetball in the courts underneath it.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
What's the basis here of all this more success?

Was Memorial Stadium that big of an advantage that the players ... played better?
Click to expand...

Mason often talked about how the Dome was a recruiting disadvantage (poor atmosphere) including rival coaches disparaging it to recruits. Not sure if that's true or not. So it's not that players played better, it's that a decent on campus stadium could attract better players.
 

  • There's no evidence that Gopher football went off a cliff from great to bad after the Dome move. It was more of the same as the 70s for the next 15-20 years after that.
  • I don't think an old stadium on campus would help improve the caliber of high school football in the state or the available prospects.
  • I don't think it would increase attendance a lot up against all the other sports entertainment options in the city. It hasn't at TCF.
  • Memorial Stadium gets the same weather as TCF/Huntington, which has a strong impact on both game attendance and recruiting
  • I don't think Memorial Stadium would be creating revenue or NIL opportunities we don't have today

Gopher football has somewhat improved since the move back to campus in a brand new stadium. I don't know if that's the stadium or better coaching and program development under Kill and Fleck. Even though attendance has dropped somewhat from the Dome era it's a much better fan environment. Old Memorial Stadium would have had even less of a bump at the gates than TCF.

It would have made my time as a student in the Dome era more fun to actually have a stadium in Stadium Village.
 
Last edited:

Panthadad2 said:
Mason often talked about how the Dome was a recruiting disadvantage (poor atmosphere) including rival coaches disparaging it to recruits. Not sure if that's true or not. So it's not that players played better, it's that a decent on campus stadium could attract better players.
Click to expand...
I'm always wary of recruiting tidbits. I'm sure some things make an impression, but I doubt a team in the dome is somehow missing out on a lot of higher ranked recruits because of the dome.

The staff can recruit well ... or it can't.

The only thing that really seems to make obvious differences are money and recent, sustained, high level success. Everything else ... duno.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I'm always wary of recruiting tidbits. I'm sure some things make an impression, but I doubt a team in the dome is somehow missing out on a lot of higher ranked recruits because of the dome.

The staff can recruit well ... or it can't.

The only thing that really seems to make obvious differences are money and recent, sustained, high level success. Everything else ... duno.
Click to expand...
Wasn't there a point at which the Dome was helping with recruiting? When it was an opportunity to play in a brand new NFL stadium? Those were the worst Gopher teams of all.

There were like 60k people there to watch the Gophers lose 84-13 to Nebraska. Now, half as many show up to watch the Gophers beat up teams they mostly lost to in the Dome era.

Worse attendance has coincided with much improved football and stadium experience.
 

I think a big question is how much it would have cost to renovate it, and what would the end result be? I was nine when they moved to the dome, so I never went to a game at Memorial (we had season tix for a number of years in the dome) but I remember my dad telling me the place was a dump. The other thing I've heard from people is that because the incline of the bowl was so shallow, that even though it was one deck, some of the seats were extremely far from the field, which isn't really something you can easily fix.

I kind of liken this to people who romanticize Met Center and say it shouldn't have been torn down. Yes, it was a great venue for hockey and concerts. And after the Stars left, the NHL would never, ever have granted the Twin Cities an expansion team to play in a 1968 vintage building with only 15,000 seats and virtually no suite revenue. It was functionally obsolete around the time it was torn down. Obviously the Dome had it's faults, and as a college football venue, it was awful, but we have a beautiful stadium now and are better off for it.
 

Wow, the Wisconsin/Iowa fan troll accounts are popping up now, aren't they!
 

fmlizard said:
Wasn't there a point at which the Dome was helping with recruiting? When it was an opportunity to play in a brand new NFL stadium? Those were the worst Gopher teams of all.

There were like 60k people there to watch the Gophers lose 84-13 to Nebraska. Now, half as many show up to watch the Gophers beat up teams they mostly lost to in the Dome era.

Worse attendance has coincided with much improved football and stadium experience.
Click to expand...
Would outside at Memorial Stadium, that IIRC was pretty decrepit, do better?
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Would outside at Memorial Stadium, that IIRC was pretty decrepit, do better?
Click to expand...
With weather conditions and presumably natural grass I think the Nebraska place kickers would have had a more difficult time kicking Extra Points. They went 9 for 10.

Crazy, they missed the first one then went for 2 on their next TD. Converted the kicks on the next 9 PATs. Of course if the Huskers went to 2 more often, the score could have gotten really out of hand.

On the bright side the Gophers in Flecklike fashion dominated Time of Possession: 37:25 to 22:35. Minnesota punted 13 times.

1983 Minnesota football

Nebraska scored almost at will against outmanned Minnesota in an 84-13 win over the Gophers. NU rolled up its biggest score ever against a Division I-A team and its most overall since 1917.
www.huskermax.com www.huskermax.com
 

fmlizard said:
Wasn't there a point at which the Dome was helping with recruiting? When it was an opportunity to play in a brand new NFL stadium? Those were the worst Gopher teams of all.

There were like 60k people there to watch the Gophers lose 84-13 to Nebraska. Now, half as many show up to watch the Gophers beat up teams they mostly lost to in the Dome era.

Worse attendance has coincided with much improved football and stadium experience.
Click to expand...
Choosing 1 game is anecdotal.
 

Ope3 said:
It was a terrible football venue, more than 2/3rds of the seats were in the End Zone. With no suites or clubs, I have to think the better fiscal option would have been to start from scratch or just gut it and leave the shell.

My freshman year was '87. I know my first few years there at least, I played handball/racquetball in the courts underneath it.
Click to expand...
There were courts underneath it ?
 

Ope3 said:
It was a terrible football venue, more than 2/3rds of the seats were in the End Zone. With no suites or clubs, I have to think the better fiscal option would have been to start from scratch or just gut it and leave the shell.

My freshman year was '87. I know my first few years there at least, I played handball/racquetball in the courts underneath it.
Click to expand...
Are you sure those weren't in Cooke hall or the fieldhouse?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom