University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Athletics Timeline (1940-1949)
1940
The Gophers win Big Ten and national football championships again.
1940
Bob Hanning wins Minnesota’s first NCAA individual men’s gymnastics title, taking the parallel bars crown.
1940
Minnesota wins the National AAU men’s hockey championship.
1941
Perfect overall and conference seasons set the stage for Minnesota’s fifth national championship in eight seasons.
Bruce Smith, star halfback, becomes Minnesota’s only winner of the Heisman Trophy.
1941
The men’s gymnastics team is runner-up in the NCAA Championships. Newt Loken (all-around - left) and Delver Daly (still rings - right) win national titles.
1942
Jack DeField (pole vault - left) and Bob Fitch (discus - right) win Minnesota’s first NCAA track and field titles.
1944
Louis Lick wins the NCAA men’s golf individual title.
1947
Les Bolstad, twice the Big Ten Medalist while playing for Minnesota, returns to launch a 30-year coaching career here.
1948
Minnesota’s men’s track team wins the NCAA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Fortune Gordien (left) wins his third straight NCAA discus title and Lloyd LaMois takes the national triple jump crown.
1948
Dick “Chief” Siebert is hired as head baseball coach; in three decades he’ll lead the team to 11 Big Ten regular series championships and three national championships.
1948
Verne Gagne wins national title at 191 pounds; he’ll do it again as a heavyweight the next year.
1949
Women join the Golden Gophers cheerleading squad.
For a second time, Minnesota’s men’s gymnastics team is runner-up at the NCAA Championships.
Colin Connel (right) becomes Minnesota's first NCAA boxing champion, claiming the 165-pound title.
1949
Linemen Leo Nomellini (left) and Clayton Tonnemaker (center) are named consensus All-Americans. The duo, along with multi-sport star Bud Grant (right), are all selected in the top 14 of the NFL Draft the following spring.