Golden Gophers – Page 324 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Ex-Gopher Turns 103 Years Old Today

Posted on June 30, 2014June 30, 2014 by David Shama

Lu Vorpahl—who is believed to be the oldest living former Gophers football player—celebrates his 103rd birthday today.

Vorpahl was born on June 30, 1911. That was before the First World War and prior to a constitutional amendment extending the right of suffrage to women in the United States. It was even prior to the legendary Bernie Bierman captaining the 1915 Big Ten championship Gophers football team.

A sportswriter recently visited Vorpahl in his apartment at a Minneapolis area assisted living facility. Vorpahl is frail and his hearing is less than perfect but his mind is sharp and spirits are high. Asked the secret to his longevity, he said, “Good friends. They keep you going.”

For a birthday celebration relatives will take Vorpahl on a trip up north today to Breezy Point where he owns a residence. He isn’t sure how long he will stay, possibly a week. What does he want for his birthday? “I just want everybody to have a good time,” he said.

A trip to Breezy Point wouldn’t be Vorpahl’s first travel in recent months. He was in Florida and Arizona earlier this year. He became ill in March while out of town, and about a month ago moved into assisted living. That meant not residing any longer in the Minneapolis area home that he built in the late 1940’s and stayed in for so many years.

At his new residence Vorpahl enjoys church services and going to the fitness center where he will exercise for 30 minutes at a time. On a recent day he was even doing shoulder exercises in his room to lessen discomfort. “I got pains across my back. I guess that’s arthritis or something like that. My shoulder (bothers me) but I can work it out.”

What might Vorpahl have said if football teammates predicted back in the early 1930s that he would celebrate a 103rd birthday and be the oldest living former Gophers football player? He laughed and answered, “Baloney.”

How has Vorpahl been able to achieve such longevity? “I didn’t play hard enough,” he joked. “I am out living all these guys (teammates) who played hard. Those were quite the days.”

Vorpahl played a couple of seasons for the Gophers before an injury forced him to quit football. A halfback, he only played in one game and never lettered. First he played for head coach Fritz Crisler who left the Gophers after the 1931 season to coach at Princeton. Then he played for Bierman whose first season as Minnesota head coach was in 1932. “We had a great coach in those days but he couldn’t make me good enough,” Vorpahl said.

The “Grey Eagle” won his first national championship in 1934 but Vorpahl was no longer on the team. Bierman would go on to coach national championship teams at Minnesota in 1935, 1936, 1940 and 1941. “They really had a coach there,” Vorpahl said. “I’d say Bierman was tops.”

When Vorpahl left the University he had his football memories but he had something more important. “Best thing I ever did was get my degree (civil engineering), and not worry about football where I wasn’t good enough,” he said.

That was 1935 when Vorpahl had his diploma and entered a scarce job market. He found employment even though America was in the Great Depression. A steady job meant he could get married. He and Genevieve were married 61 years before she passed away in 2000. Vorpahl paid her the ultimate compliment when he said Genevieve accepting his proposal for marriage was the highlight of his life. They never had children.

The two of them met at Edison High School. Vorpahl played football for the Tommies and was president of the National Honor Society, graduating in 1929. His intelligence and leadership would serve him well after high school including during World War II.

Vorpahl joined the Army Corps of Engineers in 1940 and helped build runways in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. He also was in New Guinea where for 27 months he and four others lived in a tent. “We enjoyed each other’s company,” Vorpahl said. “We were from all over the country.”

Back in Minneapolis after the war Vorpahl joined a company called Barber Oil. He later became managing director for Union Oil Company of California, now known as Chevron. Retirement came in 1976, and if you’re doing the math that was 38 years ago!

Vorpahl earned a good living and believes in giving back to the community. He was a founding member of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in St. Anthony. He’s been a member of the Knights of Columbus for more than 70 years, and has generously donated money to the University of Minnesota. “I set up a couple scholarships in my wife’s name and my folks’ name in the engineering school,” he said.

A visitor clarified that the scholarships were for engineering students. Vorpahl’s sense of humor was evident once more when he responded, “I am not going to give them (scholarships) to the law school.”

The University invited Vorpahl and other guests to watch a Gophers football game last fall from an enclosed area at TCF Bank Stadium. “Watching it behind glass (out of the elements), you don’t mind it,” Vorpahl said. “That was a real treat—the (amount of) food to no end.”

Vorpahl met all-time leading rusher Darrell Thompson and Gophers coach Jerry Kill at last year’s game. “I rate him (Thompson) up with the best,” Vorpahl said.

He likes Kill, too, but recognizes the coach has been rebuilding the program that has struggled for decades despite a royal legacy from Bierman. “I think we’re getting a little better but we need help,” Vorpahl said.

Vorpahl “loves” football and regrets not being able to earn a letter. That seems like something the Gophers could do something about.

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Ali and Mackay: A Magical Relationship

Posted on June 25, 2014June 28, 2014 by David Shama

It was more than 50 years ago that Cassius Clay first won the heavyweight boxing championship. He later changed his name to Muhammad Ali and was admired by the world for his boxing prowess, showmanship, and views on racial and religious tolerance and justice. Retired since 1981 and slowed for decades by Parkinson’s disease, Ali remains “The Greatest” to millions of admirers including his close friend Harvey Mackay—the Minneapolis entrepreneur, best-selling business author, motivational speaker and former University of Minnesota golfer.

Ali and his wife Lonnie are the cover story for the June issue of the AARP Bulletin. A photo shows the “Champ” receiving a tender kiss on the forehead from his wife with this headline: “Caring for The Greatest, Lonnie and Muhammad Ali’s Brave Ordeal.”

The story is a lesson about love, compassion and devotion. Writer Jon Saraceno describes how Lonnie and her support team work to ensure the comfort and best possible outcomes for Ali who struggles with his speech and spends much of his time in a motorized chair. Part of Lonnie’s message, too, is how important it is for the caretaker to develop and maintain his or her own coping mechanisms.

“From my perspective, it’s the finest article I have ever read on the ‘Champ’ and his relationship with Lonnie,” Mackay told Sports Headliners. “It’s the best (article) of going into her heart and showing who she is. I think he (Saraceno) captured her magnificently.”

Mackay and his wife Carol Ann treasure their friendship with the Alis. Both couples own residences in the Phoenix area. Through the years they have shared many restaurant dinners and visits to each other’s homes.

“We go to each other’s birthday parties,” Mackay said. “Every other week we’re often with them. Lonnie is one of Carol Ann’s best friends.”

Mackay is on the board of directors of Celebrity Fight Night, a world-class annual event in Phoenix that has raised nearly $100 million for charities in 19 years, according to its website. The event draws a who’s who of names including Hollywood and sports stars, and annually honors Ali as the featured guest. Celebrity Fight Night has made the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute a significant recipient of the fundraising.

It’s been decades now since Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. The disease and his age (72) are more difficult opponents than he ever faced in the ring including Sonny Liston who Clay dethroned for the world heavyweight championship in February of 1964. “Yet, rarely does a whisper of complaint come from the man known as ‘The Greatest,’ “ Saraceno wrote.

“You just have to appreciate his guts,” Mackay said. “I marvel at his ongoing attitude and graciousness toward others.”

Mackay saw a trembling Ali light the 1996 Olympic Torch in Atlanta and knew this was an American hero he needed to meet. Mackay was researching and writing Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty, The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need.

Mackay long ago recognized the incalculable value of developing and maintaining relationships. He has an extraordinary database of names, phone numbers, addresses and profiles of people who are both close and casual acquaintances. In his Dig Your Well tutorial he tells how to get to know people, maintain relationships, ask for what you need, and “how to unlock any door…anywhere…at any time.”

His Rolodex is phenomenal but Mackay isn’t “The Greatest.”

“Nobody knows more people than he (Ali) does. I decided I had to meet him and do a chapter on Muhammad in the book,” Mackay said.

Mackay searched both his Rolodex and memory, recalling that Ali grew up in Louisville. Mackay knew former Kentucky governor John Y. Brown who was one of 17 financial backers of Ali early in the fighter’s career. Brown told Mackay he could help with an introduction because he knew Ali’s photographer and confidant, Howard Bingham.

Bingham set up an appointment for Mackay at the “Champ’s” 88 acre estate in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Mackay would spend eight hours interviewing Ali but before he went to Michigan he did his homework. His learned Ali loved magic and that the “Champ” performed some tricks himself.

Mackay was fond of magic, too, and knew a few tricks. “I went to a magician and brushed up on my magic before the trip,” Mackay remembered. “When I met Ali I not only did a magic trick for him, but showed him how it was done. It was something that turned him on.”

Ali also performed magic for Mackay who detailed the experience in his networking book:

“As an audience of one, I was privileged to be entertained at a magic show, complete with sleight of hand, disappearing coins and hankies, and optical illusions. …

“ ‘Watch my feet,’ he said. He took three steps, turned his back on me and made himself appear to float three inches off the ground.”

That magical day years ago in Michigan was the beginning of Mackay’s relationship with “The Greatest.”

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Birthday Means Travel for Ex-Gopher

Posted on June 23, 2014June 23, 2014 by David Shama

Ryan Bingham doesn’t have much on Mark Dusbabek.

Bingham was the fictional character played by George Clooney in the 2009 movie “Up in the Air.” Bingham spent years flying to various cities where he informed workers their services were no longer needed—because the company brass didn’t have the guts to do it themselves.

Dusbabek, the Faribault native and former Gophers and Vikings defensive player, turns 50 today and he chuckled last week when a stranger compared his life with Bingham’s. It’s not that Dusbabek’s job is to terminate employees; the similarity is perpetual travel.

Today Dusbabek will travel from Hartford to Los Angeles on a plane, a place where he is more than comfortable. The Las Vegas resident spends 30 weeks a year travelling in the United States and internationally as a PGA Tour rules official.

He enjoys the nomadic life and offered no complaints about experiencing his birthday on the road. After his pro football career ended in the early 1990s he worked in finance but golf was never far from his mind. He wanted a job change and told Sports Headliners, “I always loved golf.”

So much so that Dusbabek wanted to develop a career in the sport. He didn’t expect a high paying opportunity to be handed to him, and it wasn’t. He spent a year as an unpaid volunteer working for the Southern California Golf Association.

Then came the opportunity to become a PGA Tour rules official. Dusbabek might spell opportunity in all capital letters. There are only 11 PGA rules officials and he earns a “comfortable salary” travelling to some of the most famous golf courses in the world.

How rare are openings for rules officials? “When people retire or die,” said Dusbabek who is now in his ninth year as a rules official.

The job title of rules official partially explains Dusbabek’s responsibilities. “Rules are probably about 10 percent of what I do,” he said. In addition to making sure tournament players know and adhere to rules, he assesses golf courses, works with tournament partners and sponsors, and may even “set holes one day.”

The PGA schedule starts in January and goes into December. That’s a lot of 14 to 16 hour days and doesn’t leave much time for Dusbabek to even play golf (seven handicap), or see his college-age daughter in California. But that schedule might take his mind off the aches and pains from his football career.

“I’ve had 17 surgeries. It gets a little worse every year,” Dusbabek said.

His career with the Gophers included two seasons playing for coach Lou Holtz in 1984 and 1985. The two reconnected several years ago and Dusbabek learned Holtz cared enough about him to be knowledgeable about his former player’s life.

Dusbabek, who has worked tournaments like the Masters and U.S. Open, admires Gophers coach Jerry Kill. Dusbabek is passionate about the best high school football players deciding to attend the University of Minnesota instead of going away to school. “It sounds great (leaving home) but what are you going to do afterword?” he asked while referring to the job opportunities in Minneapolis awaiting University of Minnesota graduates.

It’s going to take commitments by the state’s best players to turn the Gophers into a special program. Dusbabek knows too many of the elite players have left the state since his time at Minnesota. “Quite frankly, it pisses me off,” he said.

Worth Noting

When the Twins swept the White Sox yesterday it was their first four-game sweep since June 2-5, 2011 against the Royals. The Twins won 6-5 as Joe Mauer drove in two runs and had back-to-back RBI games for the first time this season.

Starting and winning pitcher Phil Hughes, now 8-3, lasted five innings and gave up five earned runs. Coming into the game the Twins’ collective ERA of 2.71 for starting pitchers was the fifth lowest in the American League since June 9.

Note on the Target Field message board during Saturday’s game: If Mauer, the Twins $23 million hometown first baseman, wasn’t in baseball he would pursue a career as a carpenter.

Message board note No 2: White Sox first baseman and slugger Adam Dunn had a cameo role as a bartender in the acclaimed movie “Dallas Buyers Club.”

Former Gophers defensive back Brock Vereen wasn’t selected until the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft but there’s speculation he could become a starting safety next season for the Bears. ESPN.com reported last Thursday the Bears like what “they have seen from rookie safety Brock Vereen,” and that he’s been takings reps with the first team defense.

The June 23 issue of Sports Illustrated includes a story on the Big Ten with disclosure the 12 existing league members will each receive $44.5 million in annual revenue starting in 2017-2018—“Up from an already national-best $25.7 million last year, with TV accounting for a whopping $33 million of that.” Maryland and Rutgers, new members later this summer, won’t receive full shares until 2020-2021, the magazine said.

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