Minnesota Golden Gophers

The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Ten Conference.

The Gophers women's ice hockey team is a six-time NCAA champion and seven-time national champion. In women's ice hockey, the Gophers belong to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In all other sports, they belong to the Big Ten Conference. Most of the facilities that the teams use for training and competitive play are located on the East Bank of the Minneapolis campus. There are arenas for men's and women's basketball (Williams Arena) as well as ice hockey (Mariucci Arena and Ridder Arena). The Gopher football team began playing at Huntington Bank Stadium in September 2009. The women's soccer team plays on the St. Paul campus in the Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.

The Cheerleaders and the Dance Team are also part of the university's athletic department; they are present at events for basketball, ice hockey, and football, and compete for UCA/UDA national titles in the winter. The University of Minnesota spirit squad was the first as sideline cheerleading was invented at the U of M, and it prides itself in being one of the largest spirit squads in the country. The U of M spirit squad currently consists of three cheerleading teams (all girl, coed, and small coed), a dance team, Goldy Gopher, and a unique ice hockey cheerleading team. The dance team won its 19th national title in 2019.

During the 2006–07 academic year, the Golden Gophers wrestling team won the NCAA national championship and the Big Ten team title. The Golden Gophers also won conference championships in men's ice hockey, men's golf, women's rowing, men's swimming and diving, and women's indoor track and field.

Sports sponsored

Baseball

• National Championships (3):

1956, 1960, 1964

• NCAA Tournament Appearances (32):

1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016, 2018

• Big Ten Regular Season Championships (24):

1933, 1935, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2018

• Big Ten Conference Tournament Championships (9):

1982, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2018

Men's basketball

• Big Ten Regular Season Championships (8):

1906, 1907, 1911, 1917, 1919, 1937, 1972, 1982

• NCAA Tournament Appearances (10):

1972, 1982, 1989, 1990, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2019

• Sweet 16 Appearances (3):

1982, 1989, 1990

• Elite Eight Appearances (1):

1990

• NIT Appearances (12):

1973, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2014

• NIT Championships (2):

1993, 2014

Note: A 1997 Big Ten regular season championship, NCAA Tournament appearances in 1994, 1995, 1997 (Final Four), and 1999, as well as NIT appearances in 1996 and 1998 (Championship) were vacated due to NCAA sanctions.

Women's basketball

• NCAA Tournament Appearances (10):

1994, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2015, 2018

• Sweet 16 Appearances (3):

2003, 2004, 2005

• Elite Eight Appearances (1):

2004

• Final Four Appearances (1):

2004

Men's cross country

• Big Ten Team Championships (4):

1909, 1914, 1964, 1969

Women's cross country

• Big Ten Team Championships (2):

2007, 2008

Football

• National Championships (7):

1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1960

• Big Ten Conference Championships (18):

1900, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1915, 1927, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1960, 1967

• Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest Championships (2):

1892, 1893

• Bowl Games (20):

Citrus Bowl – 2015

Duke's Mayo Bowl - 2025

Guaranteed Rate Bowl - 2021

Hall of Fame Classic –1977

Holiday Bowl – 2016

Independence Bowl – 1985

Insight Bowl – 2006, 2008, 2009

Liberty Bowl – 1986

MicronPC.com Bowl – 2000

Music City Bowl – 2002, 2004, 2005

Outback Bowl – 2020

Pinstripe Bowl - 2022

Quick Lane Bowl – 2015, 2018

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas – 2012

Quick Lane Bowl - 2023

Rose Bowl – 1961, 1962

Sun Bowl – 1999, 2003

Texas Bowl – 2013

• Bowl game victories: 1962 Rose Bowl, 1985 Independence Bowl, 2002 Music City Bowl, 2003 Sun Bowl, 2004 Music City Bowl, 2015 Quick Lane Bowl, 2016 Holiday Bowl, 2018 Quick Lane Bowl, 2020 Outback Bowl, 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl, 2022 Pinstripe Bowl, 2023 Quick Lane Bowl, 2025 Duke's Mayo Bowl

Traveling trophies

• The Little Brown Jug – Accidentally left in Minnesota back in 1903 by Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost, it is painted with the victories of the two teams.
• Floyd of Rosedale – Since 1935 the Gophers and the Iowa Hawkeyes have fought to win this bronze pig. The Gophers won the 2010 and 2011 match up for the pig, upsetting the favored Hawkeyes at TCF Bank Stadium.
• Paul Bunyan's Axe – Minnesota and the Wisconsin Badgers have passed this trophy back and forth since 1948, although it records the two teams' encounters since 1890.
• Governor's Victory Bell – The bell was created to commemorate the 1993 entrance of Penn State's Nittany Lions into the Big Ten.
• $5-Bits-O-Broken-Chair Trophy – The newest of the five trophies. From a 2014 exchange on Twitter, Goldy Gopher created a trophy with a parody account of the then coach of Nebraska Bo Pelini.

Golf

Gymnastics

Men's ice hockey

• National Championships (2 pre-NCAA, 5 NCAA):

1929, 1940, 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002, 2003

• WCHA Regular Season Championships (14):

1953, 1954, 1970, 1975, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1997, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013

• Big Ten Regular Season Championships (7):

2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2025

• Big Ten Tournament Championships (2):

2015, 2021

• WCHA Tournament Championships (14):

1961, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2007

• NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (22):

1953, 1954, 1961, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2012, 2014, 2023

Women's ice hockey

• National Championships (7):

2000 (AWCHA), 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016

• WCHA Regular Season Championships (8):

2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014

• WCHA Tournament Championships (7):

2002, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

• NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (15):

2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

Women's rowing

• Big Ten Championships (1):

2007

• NCAA Champions in V2

2007

Women's soccer

• Big Ten Championships (4):

1995, 1997, 2008, 2016

Softball

• Big Ten Regular Season Championships (4):

1986, 1988, 1991, 2017

• Big Ten Tournament Championships (5):

1999, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018

• Women's College World Series appearances (3):

1976, 1978, 2019

Spirit Squads

Dance Team

• National Championships (13):

2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019

Swimming

Men's tennis

• Big Ten Team Championships (15):

1910, 1911, 1912, 1918, 1932, 1933, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2015

Track and field

Men's track

Women's track

Volleyball

• Big Ten Championships (3):

2002, 2015, 2018

• NCAA Tournament Appearances (21):

1989, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

• Sweet 16 Appearances (16):

1989, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016

• Final Four Appearances (5):

2003, 2004, 2009, 2015, 2016

Wrestling

• National Championships (3):

2001, 2002, 2007

• Big Ten Team Championships (12):

1910, 1912, 1913, 1941, 1957, 1959, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007

Notable non varsity sports

Rugby

Minnesota rugby plays Division I college rugby in the Big Ten Universities conference against traditional Big Ten rivals such as Wisconsin and Iowa. Minnesota qualified for the national playoffs in 2008, and finished the 2008 season ranked 7th in the nation. Some of Minnesota's games have been well attended by fans, with the team drawing as many as 6,000 fans to watch the team play at TCF Bank Stadium.

Traditions

The "Golden" Gophers

The University Mascot is derived from a nickname for the state of Minnesota, "The Gopher State." The original design was based on the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. The state nickname derives from a political cartoon by R. O. Sweeny, published as a broadside in 1858. The cartoon depicted state legislators as gophers dragging the state in the wrong direction. The nickname was associated with the university as early as the publication of the first yearbook in 1888, which was titled "The Gopher". Other early yearbooks included depictions of gophers as well, and the University of Minnesota football coach Clarence Spears officially named the football team the Gophers in 1926. After the radio announcer Halsey Hall began referring to the team as the Golden Gophers due to the color of their uniforms, the team was renamed under coach Bernie Bierman.

School songs

School songs for the university include Minnesota Rouser, Minnesota March, Go Gopher Victory, Our Minnesota, Minnesota Fight, Hail! Minnesota, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Notable athletes and coaches

Baseball

Basketball

Football

Golf

• Tom Lehman
• James McLean

Gymnastics

• Newt Loken
• Joey Ray
• Marie Roethlisberger
• John Roethlisberger

Hockey

Men's

Women's

• Winny Brodt
• Natalie Darwitz
• Courtney Kennedy
• Gisele Marvin
• Noora Raty
• Jenny Schmidgall-Potter
• Krissy Wendell

Swimming

• Yoav Meiri (born 1975), Israeli Olympic swimmer
• Justin Mortimer
• Bar Soloveychik (born 2000), Israeli swimmer

Track and field

Women's

• Gabriele Grunewald

Men's

• Hassan Mead
• Buddy Edelen

Wrestling

• Shelton Benjamin — professional wrestler, 36–6 record in two seasons with the Gophers.
• Verne Gagne – NCAA champion, owner of the defunct American Wrestling Association and its former heavyweight champion (10 times), member of Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, and several others.
• Cole Konrad – 2 time undefeated, NCAA individual champion at 285 lbs; current mixed martial artist and the former Bellator Heavyweight Champion
• Nik Lentz, wrestler; current mixed martial artist for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (featherweight)
• Brock Lesnar – Former UFC Heavyweight Champion and current WWE champion.
• Dustin Schlatter – 79–2 record in two seasons with the Gophers
• Jacob Volkmann – 3-time all-American, former UFC fighter.
• Gable Steveson - Olympic gold medalist

Athletic directors

Note: From 1974 to 2002, there were separate athletic departments for men and women's sports.

Facilities

See also

• List of college athletic programs in Minnesota

External links