University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Athletics Timeline (2000-2009)
2000
The softball team plays its first game in Jane Sage Cowles Stadium; the facility will host an NCAA Regional two years later.
2000
Women’s rowing becomes the 12th women’s varsity sport at the U of M and Wendy Davis is hired as the first head coach.
2001
The wrestling program launches its best decade ever by winning the NCAA title; it does it again in 2002 and 2007. All 10 Gophers earn All-America honors.
2002
The University’s men’s and women’s athletic departments become one, under newly hired athletics director Joel Maturi.
2002
Grant Potulny scores an overtime goal for a 4-3 Gophers hockey win over Maine and its first national championship since 1979.
2002
The University announces it’s dropping men’s golf, women’s golf and men’s gymnastics; a group called Save Gopher Sports raises funds to save them.
The men’s golf team rewards the program’s rescuers with an NCAA Championships win, the first for a northern school since 1979.
2002
The Baseline Tennis Center opens on campus.
Ridder Arena, the first arena dedicated to collegiate women’s hockey, opens its doors.
2002
Clay Strother wins national titles on the vault and pommel horse at the NCAA Championships.
Women’s gymnastics advances to the NCAA Championships for the second time and earns its best national finish, coming in ninth.
2002
Wrestling repeats as national champions. Luke Becker (left) and Jared Lawrence (right) win individual national crowns.
2002
Volleyball wins its first Big Ten championship, sets a program record for victories and reaches the NCAA Sweet 16 for the third time in four years.
2003
The hockey team repeats as national champions, with a 5-1 win over New Hampshire. The game features four third-period Gopher goals.
A field goal with 23 seconds left gives Minnesota a 31-30 win over Oregon in the Sun Bowl, one of three straight bowl wins.
2003
Adam Steele (left) scores upset win in the NCAA 400-meter run becoming Minnesota’s first NCAA sprint champion.
Terry Silkaitis (right) sweeps the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles at the Big Ten Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
2004
Minnesota’s women’s basketball team reaches NCAA Final Four with three-time All-American Lindsay Whalen (left) leading the way.
Damion Hahn (right) repeats as the NCAA wrestling champion at 197 pounds.
2004
Women’s volleyball team takes runner-up honors at NCAA Tournament during its 11-year streak of consecutive tourney appearances.
2005
The women’s hockey team wins its second straight national championship, after a 36-2-2 regular season.
2005
Football center Greg Eslinger (left) wins the Outland Trophy and the Rimington Trophy.
Guillermo Alvarez (right) wins the Nissen-Emery Award as the nation’s top senior gymnast.
2005
Krissy Wendell is named recipient of Patty Kazmaier Award as nation’s top female college hockey player.
2006
John Anderson (left) becomes the Big Ten’s winningest baseball coach; his teams had claimed three straight conference titles, 2002-04, and he will reach 1,000th career wins in 2009.
Heather Dorniden (right) wins 800 meters race in NCAA Indoor track and field championship.
2006
Men’s golf team ties for third at the NCAA Championships led by four-time All-American Bronson La’Cassie (left).
Dustin Schlatter (right) becomes the first Gopher freshman to win a wrestling national title, taking the 149-pound title.
2007
The Minnesota rowing program moves into new boathouse along the Mississippi River; it also places sixth at the NCAA Championships, wins the Second Varsity Eight title and wins its first Big Ten championship.
2007
Cole Konrad (left) repeats as the NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion with a second straight undefeated season and the Gophers claim the national team title for the third time in the decade.
2008
Liz Roehrig (right) is runner-up in the NCAA heptathlon.
2008
Gopher soccer program reaches the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time after winning the Big Ten regular season title.
2009
Football returns to campus with the opening of 50,805-seat TCF Bank Stadium, the first new Big Ten stadium since 1960. The Gophers defeat the Air Force Academy, 20-13.
2009
For the third time, women’s volleyball team advances to the NCAA Final Four.