In about two weeks Steve and Dorothy Erban and their Minnesota guests will be enjoying the warm temperatures of California. Their Stillwater-based Creative Charters company is offering five-and-seven-day packages to watch the Golden Gopher men’s basketball team play in the SoCal Challenge November 21 and 23 in San Juan Capistrano while experiencing the warm weather and attractions of the California Coast.
Like many of the company’s trips, there will be more to enjoy than the game. “We call ourselves creative, because that’s what we try and do,” Steve told Sports Headliners.
Creative could mean spending nine days in Hawaii as the Erbans did in 1996 when the basketball Gophers were playing there. Or it could mean experiencing what Steve refers to as the “ultimate Gopher hole.” When the football Gophers played in El Paso, Texas for the 1999 Sun Bowl, Steve came up with the idea of taking his travelers on a three-hour trip to visit the Carlsbad Caverns (maximum depth 1,600 feet). Then the Creative Charters group visited a ranch for a big party that included a country band for entertainment.
“You try to make it so it’s not just the game,” Steve said. “It’s something people can enjoy and remember.”
With a show biz flair, it’s not surprising Creative Charters’ admirer Jim Erickson said: “Steve and Dorothy are the Barnum & Bailey of Gopher sports travel.”
Creative Charters has been promoting mostly Gophers men’s basketball and football fan trips since 1993. The Creative Charters’ website does have other offerings including travel to the Kentucky Derby and to the state of Montana where Steve once lived. The Erbans come up with varied destinations and stay flexible like during the Gopher women’s dream basketball season of 2004 when Creative Charters filled up planes to attend the Final Four.
The Erbans are passionate Gopher fans and the last 29 years have been emotionally gratifying, if not always financially successful. Among recent successes was an extended trip to Pennsylvania to experience more than the Minnesota-Penn State football game. The 160 guests got to see Gettysburg National Battlefield and were appreciative of the opportunity. ”You don’t…get any better than that, when they all thank you for getting them set up,” Steve said.
Steve is an architect, and both he and Dorothy are passionate about horse racing. They have been racehorse owners, promoters of the sport in Minnesota and regular attendees at the Kentucky Derby. In 2021 they were inducted into the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame.
The Erbans devote a lot of time to Creative Charters. After all, you don’t just go out and charter an airplane. Dorothy handles much of the back-end work including reservations and transactions. “We kind of say, Steve is the creative, I am the charter,” Dorothy said.
The Erbans estimate they have taken Gopher football and basketball travelers on 500 to 600 trips over the years. And then there have been many other trips including travel to Kirby Puckett’s induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001 in Cooperstown, New York. That excursion came up in conversation when Steve was talking about how things don’t always go as planned.
The Erbans had four groups going to Cooperstown. Steve was bringing the last one to New York when the flight out of Chicago was cancelled. The Erbans responded by using their resources and ingenuity to make other arrangements including taking a ferry across a lake. “We walked into the (Hall of Fame) breakfast five minutes late at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Steve remembered.
After nearly three decades the Erbans are considering selling Creative Charters. “I think our reputation and what we’ve done with Gopher fans…is sort of amazing when you think about it,” Steve said. “…Obviously, we’re getting a little long in the tooth, and it’s time to hope that there are some people out there that have that same sense of Gopher sports.
“We’re not…travel agents. We create things for our Gopher fans because we are fans and season ticket holders. And so, yes, I think we’re open now to talk with people that would be interested in continuing this on.”
Creative Charters got its start when coach Clem Haskins’ Minnesota basketball team was playing in the 1993 NIT Finals in New York. For the semifinals there were only a handful of fans at Madison Square Garden watching the Gophers defeat Providence. Erban decided to charter a 727 so Gopher fans could cheer on the team in the championship game.
Response was so enthusiastic Steve chartered a second plane. “We filled two airplanes in less than 24 hours,” he said.
Steve’s delegation arrived in New York on gameday without tickets for the game. He met with the assistant ticket manager who told him a big block of seats would be far from the court. “I said, Listen, these people paid $200 to fly out to see (their team) and they’re not sitting up there. We gotta be closer to the court. ..”
Steve asked for every available ticket 20 rows or closer to the court, knowing his customers would be scattered but have prime viewing. He bought 286 tickets and had one extra. The Gophers made their fans happy winning the NIT, 62-61 over Georgetown.
Steve’s interest in travelling to Gopher games got started in 1988 when Haskins’ team played in the NCAA Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. A pilot himself, he flew his young son Bryce to Greensboro where there were eight to 10 Minnesota fans. With such small numbers, the strangers became friends watching the Gophers win two games in Greensboro before being eliminated from the tournament the following weekend.
Among the friends Steve made is Paul Dillon, now a semiretired farmer living near Porter, Minnesota (west of Marshall). Steve and Paul have attended every Gophers NCAA Tournament game (24 total) dating back to 1988. “I think what’s interesting about it is that we can say we’re the only human beings on planet earth that have ever done this, and you had to be at the first one (to get the streak started),” Steve said.
Paul has been a Gopher basketball season ticket holder for over 45 years, saying he “just fell in love” with the program decades ago. He and his wife have travelled often with the Erbans and are going to California later this month. He refers to the trips as “Erban safaris” and describes Steve as a “very, very close” friend.
Steve is proud of the 11 total years he and Paul attended all the tournament games. “What was real interesting is two years ago, (with) COVID, they weren’t letting anybody in except parents. Obviously, we were going to tell (AD Mark) Coyle if we got to the NCAA (Tournament) we can’t stop this tradition.
“And so, with COVID what we were going to do is if the Gophers got in, we were going to go to the stadium and stand between the doors, and listen to it (the game) on the radio, so we could say we were in the gymnasium. But we didn’t get in (the tourney), so it didn’t make any difference.”
There you go, more creativity.
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