Author: David Shama

David Shama is a former sports editor and columnist with local publications. His writing and reporting experiences include covering the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Gophers. Shama’s career experiences also include sports marketing. He is the former Marketing Director of the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL. He is also the former Marketing Director of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Section. A native of Minneapolis, Shama has been part of the community his entire life. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He also has a Master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas. He was a member of the Governor’s NBA’s Task Force to help create interest in bringing pro basketball to town in the 1980s.

Dalvin Cook Joins Elite NFL Runners

Posted on November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 by David Shama

A newsy Monday notes column covering the Vikings, Gophers, Twins, Wild and more:

Dalvin Cook totaled a career-high 252 scrimmage yards (206 rushing, 46 receiving) and two rushing touchdowns in the Vikings’ 34-20 win against the Detroit Lions Sunday. He is now the third player in NFL history to have at least 225 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns in consecutive games, joining Jim Brown (1963) and Deuce McAllister (2003). Cook had 226 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns (three rushing, one receiving) a week ago Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

Dalvin Cook (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

Cook has 12 rushing touchdowns this season, tied for the fourth-most by a player in his first seven games of a season in NFL history. All-time leaders are Brown (14 rushing touchdowns in 1958) and Emmitt Smith (13 in 1995) and Priest Holmes (13 in 2004).

The Gophers’ Mohamed Ibrahim is the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced this morning. He rushed for more than 200 yards and four touchdowns for the second consecutive week in Minnesota’s win Saturday over Illinois. He tied his career high with 224 rushing yards, adding 31 yards receiving and 27 yards on kick returns to set a career high with 282 all-purpose yards. He is the second Gopher ever to have two consecutive 200-yard rushing games and the first since Terry Jackson II in 2002.

Gophers coach P.J. Fleck remembered when the junior running back was on the scout team early in his college career and “never complained” about his status. “He’s earned everything he’s got,” Fleck said.

Trey Potts, Ibrahim’s back-up, was carted off the field Saturday with an apparent ankle or foot injury. Fleck speculated Potts is “day-to-day” for Friday night’s game with Iowa.

Assistant coach Joe Rossi missed the Illinois game because of COVID-19 and Fleck offered no timeline on Rossi’s return, although he did say the defensive coordinator is “doing well.”

What an interesting Big Ten football season so far. Wisconsin, the preseason favorite to win the West Division, has only played one game because of COVID. Minnesota, another popular pick to emerge as the division champ, is off to a 1-2 start, while Northwestern, 1-8 in league games last season, is 3-0 and could win the West. In the East Division nobody saw a 0-3 start for Penn State or 3-0 beginning for Indiana, a program historically among the worst in the nation.

Because he is 40 years old, Minnesota Twins DH Nelson Cruz didn’t make MLB.com’s list from today of the top 25 free agents this offseason based on analytics for future production. No Twins made the list but three former Minnesota players did, second baseman Jonathan Schoop at No. 17, relief pitcher Liam Hendriks, No. 19, and outfielder Robbie Grossman, 24.

MLB.com on Saturday listed the “perfect” free agent fits for all 30 major league teams and tagged the Twins with New York Mets starter Marcus Strommen. He is a potential No. 2 or 3 talent but MLB.com speculates the Mets could extend an $18.9 million qualifying offer. Twins free agent starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi is projected as the right fit with the Boston Red Sox.

Organizer Patrick Klinger reports the Capital Club will hear from Golden Gophers men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino tomorrow (Tuesday) via zoom. Klinger, the former Twins executive who now runs a St. Paul-based marketing company, uses this signature quote in his emails from English essayist and moralist Samuel Johnson:

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”

Pitino will be upbeat tomorrow talking about transfer guard Both Gach. Pitino announced today the Austin, Minnesota native, who played his first two seasons at Utah, has been given immediate eligibility by the NCAA. Gach joined Pitino’s program this summer after playing two seasons at the University of Utah. An almost certain starter for the Gophers this fall, Gach will have two years of eligibility at Minnesota.

A media panel selected a 10-member preseason All-Big Ten team announced today that includes Pitino’s junior point guard, Marcus Carr. He was an All-Big Ten third team selection last season, after having a school record 207 assists.

The Gopher men’s hockey team program is the favorite to win the Big Ten Conference in 2020-21, per a poll of league coaches who also designated four Minnesota players with preseason honors. It was announced this morning Minnesota led the poll ahead of Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Penn State.

Minnesota junior forward Sammy Walker is a member of the preseason All-Big Ten first team. Senior forward Brannon McManus and sophomore defenseman Jackson LaCombe are on the second team. Sophomore forward Ben Meyers received honorable mention.

Defending WCHA regular-season champion Minnesota State is the unanimous favorite to repeat as champions, earning all 10 first-place votes in the league’s media poll announced today. The Mavericks are followed by Bemidji State, Bowling Green , Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech, Lake Superior State , Alaska, Ferris State, Alaska Anchorage and Alabama Huntsville. Minnesota State junior goaltender Dryden McKay is the media poll choice as WCHA Preseason Player of the Year.

Nobody is saying Marco Rossi is the next Mikko Koivu yet, but the Minnesota Wild need to develop an extraordinary center and it could be the 19-year-old Rossi. The team’s 2020 first round draft choice might make the Minnesota roster in his first season.

The NHL hasn’t announced when the season will begin but don’t count on spectators being allowed, at least early on.

“The Rundown,” Jeff Crilley’s daily newsletter, reports in today’s issue that early analysis by Pfizer says more than 90 percent of volunteers given the company’s vaccine didn’t develop COVID-19.

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Glorious U Win 60 Years Ago Today

Posted on November 5, 2020 by David Shama

It was a game of the century by our standards, a matchup for the ages when 60 years ago today No. 1 ranked Iowa came to Minneapolis to play No. 3 Minnesota at Memorial Stadium. A potential national championship, Rose Bowl invitation and Big Ten title meant the rewards couldn’t be better for the winner on November 5, 1960.

The energy at the stadium was beyond electric. The rivalry to gain possession of Floyd of Rosedale always made Minnesota-Iowa an emotional day for the two teams and states, but never before had there been a Golden Gophers-Hawkeyes matchup like this. There were an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Iowa fans in the stadium and they were loud and sometimes obnoxious. The Gophers fans, though, answered back in the noisy “Brickhouse” that housed a season record crowd of 65,610, with the turnstile count way over capacity and fans sitting in the aisles.

The buildup to the game and demand for tickets was so intense newspaper columnist Sid Hartman pleaded not to bother him anymore for tickets. Scalping prices were reportedly as high as $100—big money in those days. This wasn’t just a local or Big Ten phenomenon, Minnesota-Iowa was a national story that included major coverage by Sports Illustrated.

After a 2-7 record in 1959, Minnesota was 6-0 and the surprise of college football in the fall of 1960. Insiders had seen the success coming. Coach Murray Warmath had expanded his recruiting to far away places like Pennsylvania and North Carolina. He opened a pipeline for Black players that included the likes of quarterback Sandy Stephens and tackle Bobby Bell.

Stephens was a junior, Bell a sophomore in 1960. To this day, they remain two of the most gifted football players in Gopher history. They were impact players on a roster anchored by a heavy dose of players from Minnesota, with none more important than Minneapolis native and nose guard Tom Brown who won the 1960 Outland Trophy recognizing the nation’s best lineman. He finished second in Heisman Trophy voting—a remarkable achievement for a lineman.

Dana Marshall, from Braham, Minnesota, became a Gopher football student manager starting with the 1957 season. That team was a preseason favorite to win the Big Ten and go to the Rose Bowl. Minnesota began 3-0 but collapsed, finishing the season 4-5 overall, 3-5 in Big Ten games. Marshall recalled in a phone interview the Gophers went on to lose 20 of their next 24 games after that 3-0 start.

In 1960 Marshall was the senior student manager. The season would be the last for redemption for seniors like Brown and captain Greg Larson, another Minnesota native and one of the Big Ten’s best centers. Marshall remembered the morning of the Iowa game there was a players-only meeting at the St. Paul Hotel. Larson spoke and so did Stephens whose words are remembered to this day by Marshall, now retired from a Minneapolis business career and living in Las Vegas.

“Everything we’ve hoped for, or dreamed of, is here before us today,” Stephens told his teammates.

Stephens (front seat) with Bell behind him and RB Bill Munsey.

Make no mistake Stephens had big days in mind when he came to Minnesota. He was a prize recruiting catch for Warmath. Woody Hayes wanted him at Ohio State. Ara Parseghian, coaching at Northwestern, badly wanted Stephens who was a high school superstar in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Gopher historians might tell you that never in the history of Minnesota football has the school landed a more sought after recruit than Stephens, who as a dual-threat star made All-American in 1961 and was named by the Chicago Tribune as the Big Ten’s MVP.

But if November 5, 1960 belonged to any single player, it was Brown. The undefeated Hawkeyes had an explosive offense led by a group of running backs who probably were all faster than any of the Gophers. This game, however, was defined by strength, cunning and sheer will as Brown and Company shut down the Hawkeyes. “Players were just in awe watching Brown because he was so strong,” Marshall said.

Brown made his presence known early in the game, rattling Iowa center Bill Van Buren whose bad snap on a first quarter punt led to a short drive for a Minnesota touchdown. Marshall said word was a frustrated Van Buren uttered the following on that Saturday afternoon years ago: “I’ve got a second half to play against that son of a bitch.”

Minnesota had a 7-3 halftime lead and Iowa scored a touchdown in the third quarter to go ahead 10-7 . But the Gophers led 13-7 entering the fourth quarter and added two more scores to make the final 27-10 for the nation’s new No. 1 team. Marshall said the fourth quarter domination was typical of Minnesota’s performance late in games all season.

Warmath was a hero and was hoisted on to the players’ shoulders in the delirious moments after the game. In the coach’s biography, The Autumn Warrior, author Mike Wilkinson reported “the crowd went crazy” and fans hoisted up reserve quarterback Joe Salem who had come off the bench to provide key plays in relief of Stephens.

“This is the greatest moment of my life. Nothing comes close,” Larson said in a quote from the Warmath book. A modest Brown said, “I guess I got in my licks.”

Minnesota stumbled at home the next Saturday, when Purdue got out to an early lead and the Boilermakers went on to a 23-14 victory that quickly took the Gophers out of the No. 1 spot in the nation. The Gophers then went to Madison for the season finale and got an impressive 26-7 victory over Wisconsin on November 19.

Marshall recalled that the win over the Badgers had the Gophers wondering if they still could become national champions. No. 1 Missouri was upset by Kansas the same day Minnesota was winning in Madison. In late November when the final polls came out Minnesota was back on top at No. 1 in the country.

Back then the Associated Press and United Press International named their national champions before bowl games and didn’t change rankings afterwards. Minnesota’s record was 8-1 overall and 6-1 in the Big Ten. Iowa, also with an 8-1 record, finished No. 2 in the UPI poll and No. 3 in the AP.

The Gophers had a better conference record than Iowa’s 5-1 but the two teams were declared co-Big Ten champs. One of Minnesota’s league wins was against an Indiana program on NCAA probation, so the victory wasn’t credited to the Gophers in determining the Big Ten champion. “We precariously got punished for Indiana’s problems,” Marshall said.

The Gophers had won their first league and national titles since 1941. They earned the school’s first ever Rose Bowl invitation. Although Minnesota lost to Washington in Pasadena, the 1960 season was the start of a glorious three-year run where the Gophers compiled a 22-6-1 record. Through it all, no game had higher stakes than November 5, 1960.

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P.J. Fleck: Gophers Defense ‘Talented’

Posted on November 2, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Monday notes column quoting Mike Zimmer and P.J. Fleck about their inexperienced defenses, and Dave St. Peter on free agents and building next year’s team.

The 0-2 Golden Gophers football team has given up 94 points but in a Zoom call with reporters this afternoon Fleck stressed it is inexperience, not abilities, that is the defense’s problem. “We have a very talented defense,” Fleck said. “…We’ve got a lot of really good players.”

The defense is without seven starters from last year’s 11-2 team, including linebacker Kamal Martin who had some nice plays for the Green Bay Packers Sunday against the Vikings. Fleck used Martin as an example of a young talent with the Gophers who before he left the program had refined his skills including major improvement as a tackler.

Fleck said his inexperienced players are in position to make tackles but not executing. He wants to see more “gang tackling” as the Gophers try to end the explosive plays made by the opposition through two Big Ten losses. Fleck, who said defensive effort is not an issue, referred to a “developmental program” with the Gophers and said, “You’ve got to allow them to fail, to grow. I know it’s hard. …”

This has been the most difficult stretch for Minnesota defensive coordinator Joe Rossi since he took over in that role during the 2018 season. Fleck said Rossi is one of the best at what he does. “I think he is one of the best football coaches I’ve ever been around,” Fleck added.

Minnesota has seven more games on the schedule with a trip to Illinois next. Fleck said the chance for players to learn, gain more experience and improve will only grow. “We’re going to be playing a lot more people, and that’s the investment we’re going to continue to make,” he said.

Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, who passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more in Maryland’s 45-44 win over the Gophers last Friday, is the Big Ten’s Co-Offensive Player of the Week along with Ohio State QB Justin Fields.

Interestingly, the Vikings played seven rookies on defense yesterday in their 28-22 win over Packers. Zimmer has been the Vikings’ head coach since 2014 and before that spent many years as an NFL assistant, but that seven number made an impression.

“It was interesting, I will say. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that as well,” Zimmer said this afternoon on a media call with reporters.

Injuries and off-season departures have resulted in new players and the mistakes they inevitably make. “Defensively we started out a little slow (yesterday),” Zimmer said. “Some of the young guys, I think they just wanted to watch the Hall of Fame quarterback (Aaron Rodgers), instead of watching their guy, but we played better in the second half. …”

Cornerback Jeff Gladney got beat in the first quarter yesterday on a touchdown pass to Green Bay’s Davante Adams. Gladney should have been positioned to the outside of Adams, not the inside. When he headed toward the sideline coach Zimmer barked at him but the rookie appeared to pay little attention and just kept running.

Zimmer said Gladney started out on the outside and then got out of position. “That’s where (outside) he should have been all the way.”

Rookie cornerback Cameron Dantzler had to be carried off the field with a neck injury yesterday. “He’s doing well,” Zimmer reported. “Got a chance to play this week.”

The Vikings, 2-5, play the Detroit Lions, 3-4, at US Bank Stadium Sunday, and have four of their next five games at home. No predictions from Zimmer, but he expressed optimism about Sunday if the effort and execution of yesterday continues on both offense and defense.

This fall the Minnesota Twins have eight free agents: Ehire Adrianza, Alex Avila, Tyler Clippard, Nelson Cruz, Marwin Gonzalez, Rich Hill, Trevor May and Jake Odorizzi. St. Peter, the club president, told Sports Headliners he is uncertain whether the Twins will negotiate with all eight and it’s “probably unlikely” all the free agents will be on the 2021 spring training roster.

St. Peter declined to talk about specific Twins free agents but acknowledged there are big decisions ahead (presumably at the top of the list are Cruz, Odorizzi and Gonzalez). He didn’t commit his organization to signing free agents from other teams, although he said that is certainly a possibility—along with possible trades and promoting players from within the system as ways to improve his club.

Perhaps the Twins indirectly showed their interest in Chaska native Brad Hand when they recently declined the option on the contract of key Minnesota reliever Sergio Romo. The Cleveland Indians have also declined an option on Hand who last season was 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA and an American League-leading 16 saves.

Because of the pandemic this will be an offseason like no other as the 30 MLB franchises show how much, or little, they are willing to pay players, starting with free agents. Sportico interviewed MLB commissioner Rob Manfred who said in a recent story teams amassed $8.3 billion in debt from financial lenders and lost $2.8 to $3 billion in operational expenses this year. Manfred is cautious about what baseball will look like in 2021.

St. Peter referred to the “economic carnage” of 2020 but didn’t offer details about Twins finances. “We’re no different,” he said.

The Twins won the AL Central for a second consecutive season. “We really like our club,” St. Peter said. “You’re always looking for ways to improve, and that’s what the offseason will be about.”

The 2020 Twins often impressed with their pitching and defense. “Our offense was average, which I think was surprising,” St. Peter said. “We expected our offense to be better than that. But pitching and defense is what wins championships at the end of the day. …”

The goal of management is to head out of spring training with an improved team capable of reaching the World Series, St. Peter said.

The NHL’s 2021 Winter Classic scheduled for January 1 at Target Field has been postponed, but St. Peter is hopeful his venue will eventually host the game that was to be played between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues. He also said college football at Target Field remains of interest with St. Thomas being among possibilities to participate in a game.

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