Author: David Shama

The Minnesota Football Coaches Association’s clinic last weekend had a record attendance of 1,150, about 275 more than last year.

At the clinic Bethel’s Steve Johnson was presented the Tom Mahoney Man of the Year award.  In 22 seasons at Bethel, Johnson has made the Royals an MIAC power and gained admiration as a mentor.

The coaches association also announced that Brainerd’s Ron Stolski is the 2010 Coach of the Year.  Stolski became the state’s prep leader in career wins last fall.

Gophers head coach Jerry Kill spoke at the clinic.  He said players who show lack of effort may find themselves wearing a t-shirt that says: “Minnesota Loafers.”

Kill places emphasis on special teams.  He said a team that blocks a punt wins the game about 90 percent of the time.  In three seasons coaching at Northern Illinois, his teams blocked 12 punts.  In seven years at Southern Illinois the total was 28.

New Gophers’ offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover told Sports Headliners that wide receiver Da’Jon McKnight is a “phenomenal player.”   He’s working for the first time with McKnight in spring practice and the Dallas native led the Gophers in receiving last season with 750 yards and 10 touchdown catches.

The Gophers were 3-9 last season and ranked 10^th in both scoring and total offense among Big Ten teams, but Limegrover said “we have some pretty talented kids.”   He likes the attitude of his players in spring practice.  “We haven’t had to coach effort,” he said.

The MIAC is one of three conferences with 10 teams in the Division III Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Standings.  The standings are determined by a team’s performance in NCAA Division III Championship events in up to 18 sports – nine women’s and nine men’s.  St. Thomas is the leading MIAC school, ranking No. 20 with 335 points.  The Tommies won the national men’s basketball title last month under coach Steve Fritz.

It was 50 years ago this spring the Minnesota Twins played their first ever regular season game. The Twins beat the Yankees 6-0 in New York on April 11, 1961.

The game was televised back to Minnesota and it might have caused a weekday record for bogus sick days among our youth.  I was among the guilty, finding an excuse to be in front of the TV at home, rather than working on reading, writing and arithmetic at school.

This was not a decision I regret.  The Washington Senators, not so lovable losers in our nation’s capital for many years, had relocated to Minneapolis-St. Paul in the fall of 1960.  Anticipation of seeing the new team had been building all winter.

The Senators were renamed the Twins after various nicknames had been reviewed including the Griffs.  That name was suggested to honor team owner Calvin Griffith and his family.  Although the Twins nickname prevailed, it was a grateful owner that welcomed a move from Washington, D.C. where his team was about as popular as a Capitol Hill scandal.

After the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and other city leaders had spent the better part of a decade pursuing a major league baseball team, it was also a grateful community that greeted Griffith and his team in 1961.  Griffith’s Senators, along with the New York Giants, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox had all been rumored to be interested in moving here in the 1950s.

Griffith finally made the relocation, bringing a franchise that had not been in the World Series since 1933.  But the Senators had been building with promising young talent including sluggers Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison.  There was a hint of better days ahead, perhaps a winner in Minnesota within a couple of years.

Part of the organization’s scouting strategy was to acquire Cuban players.  The team’s best pitcher was Cuban curveballing wonder Camilo Pascual.  But for some reason manager Cookie Lavagetto sent another Cuban, Pedro Ramos, to the mound for that historic first game in Yankee Stadium 50 years ago.

Ramos was a journeyman pitcher.  Calvin’s son, Clark Griffith, remembers Ramos and watching the game on TV while serving in the Navy.  “He had an attitude that he could throw the fastball by anybody, and he couldn’t,” Griffith told Sports Headliners.

Lavagetto didn’t even last half the season as Twins manager before being fired, but he made the right choice with Ramos.  The right-hander shutout the Yankees in the first game of a season where he would compile an 11-20 record.

This was the famed Yankees team of 1961 that featured a then modern day “Murder’s Row” of sluggers including Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Moose Skowron. The Yankees’ pitching ace, Whitey Ford, won 25 games that season but couldn’t beat Ramos on opening day.

While the Yankees went on to win the World Series, the Twins finished 70-90.  But by 1962 the Twins were 91-71 and in 1965 Griffith’s franchise had won the American League pennant and was playing in the World Series.

Tonight the Twins play in Toronto in their 51^st regular season opener.  The kids won’t have to call in sick to school to watch this opener.

Those dreaded 11 a.m. starting times for Big Ten football games may soon be only memories.

Big Ten schools located in the Central Time Zone, including Minnesota, have started many home games at 11 a.m. for years to accommodate the conference’s TV commitments.  The network obligations haven’t been popular with many fans who found 11 a.m. too early in the day for their convenience or comfort.

Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners this week that a change for the coming fall is possible. “With the new negotiations that commissioner Delany has done with ABC, ESPN and the Big Ten Network, it looks very favorable that there may be a possibility that beginning as early as next fall we’ll be able to play at noon,” Maturi said.

If Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is successful, no future conference games will begin at 11 a.m.  Start times here could be noon, 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Maturi said all the athletics directors in the Central Time Zone realize “what a challenge” it is for fans to deal with the 11 a.m. starts.  Maturi said a noon kickoff, or later when possible, better accommodates tailgaters, students and particularly fans travelling from outside the metro area.

A major college football start time of 11 a.m. Central is uncommon outside the Big Ten.  Locally, the Vikings traditional start times are noon and 3:15 p.m.

Noon kickoffs for Gophers games this fall could help attendance.  The Gophers have a chance to sellout all their home games in the 50,000 seat TCF Bank Stadium but that isn’t assured now.

Maturi said the renewal process for season tickets is underway and that will help determine how much ticket inventory is available.  The Gophers have an appealing home schedule that includes Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin.

New coach Jerry Kill has a team that was 3-9 last season but Maturi said fans like Kill’s “genuineness.”  Maturi hopes Kill’s popularity will continue to increase.

“I think coach Kill has done everything right,” Maturi said.  “I think people have really identified with him.  I think people like him.  People want him to succeed and give him a chance.  We’re hopeful, again, with an unbelievably attractive home schedule that people retain their season tickets. …”