Minnesota Golden Gopher Football Luncheon

I had a conversation with my mom on Saturday and I told her I was not feeling well. She got that mom tone in her voice and I realized I had better explain myself.

   

That morning ESPN had their first College Game Day, a preview of the upcoming season, and it was hard to watch. As in I did not care. Did not care, she asked. Something must be wrong…

   

I have tickets to the Minnesota vs. Cal game on September 9^th. My fraternity brother Jason and I are making this our third year in a row to an away game. The last two years were at Michigan and we are 1-1.

   

Tuesday I was invited to the luncheon by Rick Beeson, President of Park Midway Bank and a board member of the Goal Line Club.

   

I had been busy the whole morning and it felt like it was more trouble than it was worth to drive over to St. Paul. But I went anyway.

   

The program and lunch were good but I was still feeling a little ho hum. Then Coach Glen Mason started speaking.

   

He told us why he likes doing what he does in coaching and teaching young people. About the relationships and friendships that are built. That there is something on a day like Tuesday with a warm afternoon but a sense of fall in the air. Maybe not so much in temperature but with state fair going on, school starts next week, it just starts to feel like a football season.

   

And then he started speaking about the last three years of Michigan games and my enthusiasm started kicking in. He talked about the game three years ago up by 21 going into the 4^th quarter on national TV and then mistakes are made and we lose.

   

Two years ago up by four with two minutes to go, Michigan with the ball, and no timeouts. They score to win.

   

But then there was last year. The sweet sound of 111,117 in the Big House, except for a couple of thousand screaming Minnesota fans, stunned in silence as we kick the game winning field goal.

   

It was awesome to hear him talk about his experience that day and I started reflecting on mine and how I am fortunate to remember almost everything from our bar crawl in Ann Arbor that night. (Good thing I was the sober driver on Friday night)

   

I left there with a hop in my step humming the Minnesota Rouser.

   

7 days until I leave for the Bay Area and 9 days until the game. As I started typing this I realized that I somehow deleted a couple of posts from last season so I will do a 2005 In Review later this morning and my 2006 Preview this evening.

   

Let’s Go Gophers…

Comments

[Derrick Moe]

Paul - as a fellow MN blogger, I have to tell you that I was born and spent the first 5 formative years of my life in Ann Arbor, MI. I bleed the Maize and Blue of my beloved Michigan.

I think we may have to put a wager on the game this year. Your rodents against my mighty Wolverines. I would write more but Vanderbilt is in the Big House today and I have to warm up my voice to sing "Hail to the Victors" many times.

Let's Go Blue.

Derrick Moe
The Hire Sense