University of Minnesota Series?

C

cincyhorn

100+ Posts
My brother and I were talking about our earliest memories of watching Longhorn baseball. He is a few years older than I and remembers seeing Paul Molitor.

A quick check of the archives shows that from around 1950 - 1980 the Gophers of Minnesota made an annual trip to Austin. How did this tradition start and why did it stop? I assume Dave Winfield pitched a few games in Austin??
 
Oh yeah, they used to come down on spring break and tour the south, because the weather prevented them from playing that early up there. Other teams did this too.
As I recall, they quit coming after feeling they were getting hosed by homer umpires. The reality was that might have been the last straw, but I think they were tired of getting their butts kicked by playing Texas, always a strong team anyway, which had already played 20 games, and they were still shoveling the snow away from the entrance to some basketball gym to practice in back home, and hadn't seen the sun in six months.
Besides, no one wants gophers running around on your nicely manicured lawn.
 
interesting fact, during the years they played Texas, they went to the College World Series five times and won three of them. Since they stopped the coming to play the horns, they have also have not been back to the CWS.

Also, searching the web, Dick Siebert was the Gophers coach during most of the trips in to Austin. He pasted away a year or two before they stopped coming down. I'm sure that had something to do with them no longer making the trip.
 
The Metrodome opened in 1982. Minnesota plays a number of games early in the season in the Metrodome as well as hosts an early season tourney there.
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When they were here in '76, they kicked our ***, 3 out of 4. They had a young infielder who we could not keep off the bases. Triples - doubles - stolen bases - flawless fielding. It was Molitor.
 
We should be glad Jack Morris (grew up in St. Paul) went to Brigham Young, if they kicked our *** without him.
 
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