University of Minnesota Athletics
Get Gopher Smart
4/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
October 28, 2008 Minnesota is currently one of 14 NCAA FBS football teams with a record of 7-1 or better. Minnesota is one of eight teams in BCS conferences.
October 27, 2008 The University of Minnesota ranked ninth on a list of the 100 most-cited universities in the field of management over the last 25 years in a recent Journal of Management article. Andrew Van de Ven, professor and Vernon H. Heath Chair of Organizational Innovation and Change in the Carlson School’s strategic management and organization department, ranked 15th on the article’s list of the 150 most-cited authors in the field of management during the past quarter century.
October 22, 2008 Minnesota's J.J. Armstrong was the first back-to-back Big Ten tennis singles champion, winning titles in 1911 and 1912. Tennis began as a Big Ten sport in 1910 where John Adams and Armstrong won the first-ever Big Ten doubles championship.
October 21, 2008 As of this date, all of Minnesota's competing fall athletic teams are nationally ranked including football, women's soccer, volleyball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's hockey and men's and women's swimming and diving.
October 20, 2008 The University of Minnesota opened a state-of-the-art Outdoor StreamLab in the Mississippi River this September. The human-made stream/outdoor laboratory is the only one of its kind in the world. Perched on the banks of the Mississippi River's St. Anthony Falls -- directly across the river from downtown Minneapolis, the Outdoor StreamLab was developed to study a wide range of river processes. Historically, research in habitat restoration, dam removal, channel realignment and bank stabilization has been limited to separate indoor laboratory and fieldwork studies. The new facility enables laboratory-quality measurements in a much larger field-scale reach, bringing the best of both worlds together in one publicly visible facility.
October 14, 2008 Freshman Grant Scott is the first Gopher hockey player from the state of Pennsylvania. The Sewickley, Pa. native represents just the 10th state on the Gopher hockey map, joining Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alaska, California, Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey, North Dakota and Washington.
October 13, 2008 Five former Gopher basketball players have amassed at least 10,000 points in the NBA. The list includes Archie Clark, 1966-76 (11,819 pts), Lou Hudson, 1966-79 (17,940 pts), Kevin McHale, 1980-93 (17,335 pts), Mychal Thompson, 1978-91 (12,810 pts) and Ray Williams, 1977-87 (10,158 pts).
October 9, 2008 Minnesota head track and field and cross country coach Steve Plasencia is a two-time United States Olympian. He competed in the 10,000 meters at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games. Plasencia was also the 1990 U.S. National champion in the 10,000 meters and nearly made his third Olympic team in 1996 but he placed fourth in the 1996 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
October 7, 2008 The Minnesota men's swimming and diving program has won seven Big Ten titles since 1996 while only Michigan has won multiple conference crowns in that period with four.
October 6, 2008 The Minnesota soccer program led the Big Ten and ranked 18th nationally in attendance in 2007.
October 3, 2008 The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is connected by a circuit of underground tunnels and skyways called the Gopher Way.
October 2, 2008 Ridder Arena, on the campus of the University of Minnesota, is the first ice hockey facility built specifically for a women's hockey program. The arena opened in 2002 and is connected by tunnel to Mariucci Arena.
October 1, 2008 Mariucci Arena, on the campus of the University of Minnesota, hosted the first NCAA Women's Frozen Four in 2001. The facility hosted the event again in 2006.
September 30, 2008 Minnesota has made an NCAA record 32 appearances in the NCAA men's ice hockey tournament. Michigan is second with 31.
September 25, 2008 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded University of Minnesota chemistry assistant professor Christy Haynes as a recipient of the prestigious 2008 New Innovator Award. She is the first U of M faculty member to win this award which will provide $1.5 million over five years for her research to build a cell-by-cell human immune system to identify potential therapeutic approaches for treating allergic reactions and asthma.
September 24, 2008 Gopher hockey great Neal Broten is the only hockey player to ever win an NCAA Championship (1979), an Olympic gold medal (1980), the Hobey Baker Memorial Award (1981) and the Stanley Cup (1995).
September 23, 2008 In the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Erik Johnson became the first Golden Gopher and Minnesotan ever taken with the No. 1 overall pick when he was chosen by the St. Louis Blues. He also became the first defenseman since 1996 to be drafted first overall, the first blueliner with college hockey ties to be chosen No. 1, the second U.S.-born defenseman to go with the No. 1 pick and the fifth U.S.-born player to be drafted first overall.
September 18, 2008 The University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine ranks first in the number of cat and dog visits to a teaching hospital annually.
September 17, 2008 Because the University's colors varied during the early years, William Watts Folwell, the first president of the University, appointed English instructor Augusta Norwood Smith to choose permanent colors. Smith, " a woman of excellent taste," according to Folwell, chose Maroon and Gold, the University's colors today. First used sometime between 1876 and 1880, the colors were not officially approved by the Board of Regents until March 1940.
September 16, 2008 Minnesota has 20 former players or coaches enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. The Gophers have had at least one player or coach enshrined in each decade since the Hall opened in 1951. Bronko Nagurski and coach Henry Williams were part of the inaugural induction class of 54 legends and pioneers in 1951.
September 11, 2008 Minnesota volleyball head coach Mike Hebert is one of just three NCAA coaches to ever lead two different programs to multiple Final Fours. He is also the only active Division I head coach to compile more than 300 victories at two different institutions.
September 10, 2008 The University of Minnesota Libraries is the top-ranked research library in North America when measured by the number of books, articles and other material it loans to other libraries throughout North America and the world. There are 113 North American research libraries.
September 8, 2008 Gopher running back Darrell Thompson won the first-ever Big Ten Football Freshman of the Year award in 1986. It was 17 years before another Gopher won the award when Laurence Maroney claimed it in 2003.
September 7, 2008 Minnesota finished either first or second in the Big Ten football standings every year but once between 1933-1941. Minnesota won six Big Ten titles in that stretch.
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