New Year’s in Pasadena…hopefully in my lifetime

It has been 50 years since the MN Gophers have last won a National Football title. It has been 49 years since the Gophers have played in the coveted Rose Bowl (the longest drought in the Big Ten) OR since any Gopher fan has been able to be somewhere warm, watching their favorite football team live on New Year’s Day. A lot of things have happened since then.

*The MN Gophers have lost 296 football games including 54 losses to the hated Badgers and Hawkeyes
*The MN Gophers have had ONE 10 win season
*The MN Gophers have finished better than 5th in the Big Ten only ten times
*The MN Gophers have introduced 8 new head football coaches
*The MN Gophers have played in 3 different home football stadiums
*10 presidents have entered the White House

I felt a pang of envy when I was at the airport on Thursday surrounded by Rose Bowl bound Wisconsin fans (this was quickly replaced with rage at their arrogance….how many national football titles do you have??? Exactly.) But, I have a renewed confidence that New Year’s in Pasadena is in the making within the next 10 years.

As crazy as the Gophers make me at times, I will always be a loyal fan. There will NEVER be any serious consideration about getting rid of my season football tickets. While I have endured only 14 years of heartbreak as a season ticket holder, my commitment to the Gophers is that similar to a marriage…in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. This is not to say that there will not be threats of a “break”, temptation to cheat (and cheer for Nebraska-my second favorite football team), and possible periods of counseling needed over the course of my Gopher fandom. My crazy, optimistic Gopher fanatic friends will be right there with me. Each of their responses when I texted them from the airport on Thursday about my pang of jealously when seeing all the Wisconsin fans: “That will be us someday”. I am just hoping that someday is not a day when we are actually justified in wearing our “Goldie’s Oldies” jackets (https://mnsportsgal.com/2010/12/23/goldies-oldies-why-not/ for how Goldie’s Oldies came to be).

About mnsportsgal

I am a self declared, crazy MN sports fan and was not even born and raised in this state. I CHOSE to come here 14 years ago and have been an insane, out of control MN sports fan since the day I stepped on the University of MN campus in September of 1996. I have attended 325 MN Gopher sporting events in the last 13 years, including 18 road trips that have ranged from Denver to El Paso to LA. I am on the waiting list for Gopher hockey season tickets (hint, hint to anyone of any influence that may end up reading this…I think I am #1345 on the list), so sadly, my Gopher sporting event total is not as high as I would ideally like it to be. As if being a MN Gopher fan was not enough, I have attended a much less impressive 61 MN Twins, Vikings, and Wild Games over the last 10 years (after college when I had an actual salary to blow on this type of stuff). I know crazy sports fan has taken on a whole new level of madness when I have planned vacations around seeing a sporting event of a team that I am not even a fan of. I have made 7 roadtrips that include 3 trips to Lincoln NE, a trip to the 2003 Final Four in New Orleans, a trip to the 2003 Orange Bowl (Iowa vs USC), a trip to Stockholm to see their local hockey team (why not-I will be in Stockholm…what sporting event can I see??), and a trip to Denver to see the Rockies. I have attended close to 400 MN sporting events in my short 13 year fan history and this may not compare to many other crazy Gopher fans, but my craziness is confirmed in the fact that I have decided to document it. I am not alone in this madness. I have a support system of equally fanatic friends and family who antagonize this craziness and I have posted some of my favorite all time quotes and ask for additional contributions on those that may have slipped my mind. I am a Marketing person, so an expert at all things Power Point and Excel. Proper grammar and not using run on sentences or fragments is not something they teach us in business school, so do not judge the technical aspects of my blog writing please. I apologize ahead of time to my English major friends.

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2 Responses to New Year’s in Pasadena…hopefully in my lifetime

Kelly Chappell says:

January 2, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Amen to a Maroon and Gold Rose Bowl trip…new development in our household…our little one now cheers “Go Gophs” for ANY televised sporting event. We watched the Badgers (and all of the other Big Ten teams go 0-4 in bowl wins) and she yelled, “Go Gophs” for them all. She has her momma’s pipes–at least she’s been trained early.

- mnsportsgal says:
  
  January 3, 2011 at 4:08 pm
  
  LOVE it!!! Keep any of those Illinois/Northwestern kiddies away from her at daycare!! 🙂