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Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a Canadian-born professional American football fullback and offensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL), renowned for his strength and size. Nagurski was also a successful professional wrestler, recognized as a multiple-time World Heavyweight Champion.
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been awarded annually since 1993 to the collegiate American football defensive player adjudged by the membership of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) to be the best in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The award is named for Bronko Nagurski, who played football for the University of Minnesota and Chicago Bears, and is presented by the Charlotte Touchdown Club and FWAA.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Ten Conference.
Bernard W. Bierman was an American college football coach best known for his years as head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football program. Between 1934 and 1941, his Minnesota teams won five national championships and seven Big Ten championships and had four perfect seasons.
George Randall Gibson was an American football player and coach. He played college football as a guard at the University of Minnesota from 1926 to 1928. He was captain of the 1928 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team and was named to the 1928 College Football All-America Team. Gibson was a teammate and roommate of Bronko Nagurski. The two are jointly honored as the namesakes of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football training complex, the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex. While at the University of Minnesota, Gibson was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represents the University of Minnesota in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Founded in 1882, Minnesota has been a member of the Big Ten Conference since its inception in 1896 as the Western Conference. The Golden Gophers claim seven national championships: 1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, and 1960. Since 2009, the Golden Gophers have played all their home games at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Edwin Clarence Widseth was an American professional football player who was a tackle for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons. He played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team of the University of Minnesota, where he was a consensus All-American in 1935 and 1936. Widseth was drafted by the New York Giants in the first round of the 1937 NFL Draft, and was chosen for the Pro Bowl in 1938. He was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ice hockey. The Golden Gophers have won five NCAA national championships, in 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003. The team also shared the 1929 National Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship with Yale. and captured the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship for amateur hockey in 1940. The Gophers are currently coached by Bob Motzko. Under Don Lucia the Gophers earned a spot in the NCAA tournament in eight seasons during a nine-year time span, including five number 1 seeds and three appearances in the Frozen Four. The team's main rivalries are with the University of Wisconsin and the University of North Dakota, although several other schools claim Minnesota as their archrival. For much of the team's history, there has been a strong emphasis on recruiting native Minnesotan high school and junior hockey players, as opposed to out-of-state, Canadian, or European players. This helped high school ice hockey grow in Minnesota, particularly starting with Hall of Famer John Mariucci, who refused to recruit players from Canada. Minnesota high school ice hockey programs grew from 26 in 1945 to over 150 in 1980. Head coach Doug Woog championed home-grown talent even more, only recruiting Minnesota players in the late 1980s and 1990s, but recent rosters have been more diversified.
The Dickinson System was a mathematical point formula that awarded national championships in college football. Devised by University of Illinois economics professor Frank G. Dickinson, the system ranked national teams from 1924 to 1940.
Francis LeRoy "Pug" Lund was an American football player. He played college football as a halfback for Minnesota Golden Gophers and won All-Big Ten Conference honors in both 1933 and in 1934. He was captain of the 1934 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team that compiled a perfect 8–0 record and won the national championship. He won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the conference in 1934 and was also a consensus first-team player on the 1934 All-America college football team. Lund was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1958.
The 1934 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represented the University of Minnesota in the 1934 college football season. In their third year under head coach Bernie Bierman, the Golden Gophers compiled an undefeated 8–0 record, shut out four opponents, and outscored all opponents by a combined total of 270 to 38.
The 1935 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represented the University of Minnesota in the 1935 college football season. In their fourth year under head coach Bernie Bierman, the Golden Gophers compiled an undefeated 8–0 record and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 194 to 36.
The 1941 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represented the University of Minnesota in the 1941 Big Ten Conference football season. In their tenth year under head coach Bernie Bierman, the Golden Gophers compiled an undefeated 8–0 record and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 186 to 38. The team's national championship run in the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor was chronicled in journalist Danny Spewak's book, "From the Gridiron to the Battlefield: Minnesota's March to a College Football Title and into World War II," published in 2021 by Rowman & Littlefield.
A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best college football team. Division I FBS football is the only National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sport for which the NCAA does not sanction a yearly championship event. As such, it is sometimes unofficially referred to as a "mythical national championship".
Richard Smith an All-American football player for the University of Minnesota in the mid-1930s. During Smith's three years as a starter at tackle, the Golden Gophers did not lose a game.
The college football rankings for the 1936 college football season included the first AP Poll, the Toledo Cup rankings based on input from a judge's committee of 250 sports editors, and the Litkenhous Ratings. The 1936 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team was ranked as the national champion in all three rankings.
Antoine Duane Winfield Jr. is an American football safety for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Minnesota, and was drafted by the Buccaneers in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Charles Arthur Pharmer was an American football player who played at the halfback and fullback positions. He played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers from 1927 to 1929. He also played in the National Football League (NFL) for the 1930 Minneapolis Red Jackets and the 1930 and 1931 Frankford Yellow Jackets.
The 1935 college football season rankings included (1) a United Press (UP) poll of sports writers, (2) a poll of sports editors conducted by the committee responsible for awarding the Toledo Cup to the nation's top college football team, and the (3) Boand, (4) Dickinson, and (5) Houlgate Systems. The Minnesota Golden Gophers (8–0), led by head coach Bernie Bierman, were selected as national champions in the UP poll, the Toledo Cup voting, and the Boand System. The SMU Mustangs, led by consensus All-Americans Bob Wilson and J. C. Wetsel, were selected as national champions by Dickinson and Houlgate.
The 1934 college football season rankings included a poll of leading newspapers conducted by the Associated Press (AP), a poll of 250 sports writers conducted by the committee responsible for awarding the Toledo Cup to the nation's top college football team, and the Boand and Dickinson Systems, mathematical systems operated by William F. Boand and Frank G. Dickinson. The four ranking systems were unanimous in selecting the undefeated Minnesota Golden Gophers as the national champion. Professor Dickinson gave the nod to Minnesota even though one-loss Pittsburgh received a higher mathematical score.
References
- 1 2 "Minnesota Wins Toledo Cup For U. S. Football Supremacy". Big Spring Daily Herald. Big Spring, Texas. February 6, 1935. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
- 1 2 3 Briggs, David (January 8, 2023). "What if one of the greatest trophies in sports was named after Toledo? In college football, it once was". The Blade. Toledo, Ohio. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Toledo Cup — National Collegiate Football Championship (Trophy). Gibson-Nagurski Athletic Center, University of Minnesota. January 6, 2023. Archived from the original on May 6, 2023. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
1934, 1935, 1936 — University of Minnesota
- 1 2 Emerson, Seth (August 20, 2023). "College football's last 3-peat: The Minnesota national title history Georgia is chasing". The Athletic . Minneapolis . Retrieved September 14, 2023.
The years of the national titles are posted inside the stadium, and there are banners in the team's facility. Otherwise, there are scant reminders. Maybe it's the midwestern reserve, not wanting to brag. Maybe it's just not dwelling on the past. Which may be why the silver, three-foot tall trophy has gone largely unnoticed.
- ↑ Putnam, Herbert S. (December 23, 1935). "Athletic H-A-S-H". Fremont Tribune. Fremont, Nebraska. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
- ↑ "Gophers Take Toledo Trophy". Casper Star-Tribune. Casper, Wyoming. December 31, 1936. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
Minnesita [sic] wins the Toledo cup for the third successive year, thereby gaining permanent possession of the first symbol of the nation's mythical football championship, it was announced today in New York by Westbrook Pegler, executive secretary of the Toledo Cup committee.
