University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Wrestlers Recall Past Halloweens
10/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
By Joey Erickson
It's the end of October and as the temperature and the leaves continues to fall, the minds of children turn to one night: Halloween. Even the youngest kids want to find that perfect costume that represents who they are in some way, impresses all their friends, and leads to the most candy possible. In that spirit, GopherSports,com turned to Minnesota wrestlers to answer one question: "What was your favorite costume?"
Superheroes were one of the more popular trends across the roster.
"I had this Batman costume. The front plastic made it look like you had a six-pack. I really liked wearing that because when I was young, I was chubby. It made me feel a little more cut. I wore it year after year after year until the sleeves at my elbows were worn out. I didn't want to wear anything else." -- Will Balow
"I liked the Hulk. I had those big green muscles." -- Carson Brolsma
"The red Power Ranger. I probably watched that movie with Ivan Ooze twice a day when I was growing up. I loved that movie and I loved the red Power Ranger." -- Jordan Bremer
"Probably a Ninja Turtle. I have no idea [which one]. I can never remember. It might have been purple." -- Chris Pfarr (Editor's note: "purple" was Donatello)
"Superman. I have four pairs of Superman socks. I have two Superman shirts. I have a Superman onesie I actually wore for Halloween about two years ago." -- Brandon Kingsley
Other wrestlers decided to go with heroes of the everyday variety instead.
"I always wanted to be a firefighter [when I grew up]. Probably ages three through six I was a firefighter." -- James Berg
"I was always a soldier or a policeman type for Halloween. I was that type of guy." -- Joshua Mora
Two Gophers had very similar costumes that they wore for multiple years.
"I was always a ninja growing up. Every single Halloween until I stopped wearing costumes in sixth grade. Literally, from kindergarten to sixth grade, I was a ninja every single time. Nothing else. I was just a different type of ninja every year." -- Larry Early III
"A ninja. It was a repeat costume for sure. When I was younger, I would just want that every time." -- Josh Shupe
Several Gopher wrestler opted for scary costumes (or so they thought).
"I wouldn't say it was my favorite but, in third grade or something, I dressed up like Scream. I had that costume in my closet and, for some reason, I was so scared of it. I didn't sleep some nights. I would look in my closet before bed and be like, `Man, I should really take that out.'" -- Nick Wanzek
"When I was really young, I loved dinosaurs. I was a T-Rex, of course. I was terrifying. All the kids were afraid of me." -- Colin Carr
Others went the creative route and wore homemade costumes.
"I didn't really dress up that often [for Halloween] but when I did, when I was five years old, I was a lion. I still have the little mask. My mom made it. It's got fuzzy stuff for the mane and the ears. For the claws, she put fake nails through the end of these brown gloves and super-glued them so I'd have claws." -- Darius Wright
"One year, I got a white shirt and I wrote `Life' on it and I had a bag of lemons and I would give people lemons." -- Faris Karaborni
Group costumes were also a personal highlight for several wrestlers.
"Last year, my friends and me went as a bunch of guys from Top Gun. I was Viper." -- Ben Brancale
"I was a die one year. My sister and I were a pair of dice. That was pretty cool." -- Jordon Rothers
"One year I was an M&M. My brother, my cousin and me. I was blue." -- Gresh Jones
There won't be much time for trick-or-treating on Halloween night for this year's squad. The Gophers will trade costumes for singlets and head to Brookings, S.D. this Sunday for the Daktronics Opens. Follow Gopher Wrestling on Facebook and Twitter for updates from the Dak, and check out GopherSports.com afterwards for a full recap.
Players Mentioned
