How could I let the memory pass without writing about it?

On Sunday it will be 50 years since the Golden Gophers last played in the Rose Bowl.  Back then I was a sophomore at Washburn High in Minneapolis.  But on January 1, 1962 I was one of 98,214 fans who watched the Gophers kick butt in a 21-3 win over UCLA.

My family followed the Gophers with passion and arguments often were part of the dinner time conversation at our house.  Family opinions differed about head coach Murray Warmath and the personnel on his roster.  But we all shared one expectation: the U football program should be among the best in the country.

My dad was a young man when Bronko Nagurski became a national football legend playing for the Gophers.  Soon after Nagurski’s playing days ended, coach Bernie Bierman arrived on campus and began reeling off national titles.  Before he was through coaching in 1950, Bierman’s teams were credited with five national championships.

At Minnesota you expected to chase Big Ten and national titles.  By 1960 the Gophers produced another national championship and a first ever trip to the Rose Bowl.  Back then the national champion was named before the bowl games, and a good thing it was for the Gophers.  We sat at home and watched in disbelief as Washington upset Minnesota 17-7 in the 1961 Rose Bowl.

I was furious and so was Warmath and the returning players.  The Gophers, if the opportunity was there, wanted redemption in another Rose Bowl.   The path to Pasadena opened in the fall of 1961 when Big Ten champion Ohio State saw its academic administration (I am not making this up) turn down the Rose Bowl invitation.

The Gophers had finished second in the Big Ten race in 1961 and were happy to head west with probably Warmath’s best team ever.  The coach’s teams from 1960-1962 were all national powers and compiled a 22-6-1 record, but the 1961 team was the best balanced offensively and defensively.

Sandy Stephens was a senior All-American quarterback and Bobby Bell was a junior All-American tackle who the following season would win the Outland Trophy.  The Gophers had a second tackle, similar to Bell, who was capable of stopping a defense almost by himself, sophomore Carl Eller who would be an All-American in 1963.

I loved those Gophers teams of the early 1960s and when my Uncle John booked a train ride for the two of us to California for the 1962 Rose Bowl I couldn’t wait to hear the conductor yell, “All aboard!”  It was a memorable ride through the Rocky Mountains with our first stop in San Francisco. Then it was on to Los Angeles where I read and tried to absorb all I could in anticipation of the game.

In the nights before the Rose Bowl I remember listening to the Lakers on the radio, and also seeing a TV special about Elgin Baylor whose basketball acrobatics had started when the team was in Minneapolis.  I reveled in being close to the Lakers again while fighting off the disappointment of the great franchise having relocated from Minneapolis to southern California.

But whatever sorrow I carried gave way to the magical day of January 1, 1962.  It was a Rose Bowl scene like you’ve seen so many times over the years on television.  Blue sky, steady sunshine and that majestic stadium with 100,000 seats and the San Gabriel Mountains in the background.

I was ready for revenge and so were the Gophers.  The final score had Minnesota winning by 18 points but that didn’t indicate the difference between the Gophers and Bruins on this day.  The Gophers dominated second half ball possession and other stats for the game.  Minnesota had 21 first downs, UCLA eight.  The Gophers gained 397 total yards, the Bruins 107.

Stephens was the game’s MVP and is now a member of the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.   He scored two of Minnesota’s touchdowns, led the team in rushing yards and completed seven of 11 timely passes.

It was a day for the ages if you were from Minnesota.  Not even keys locked inside the rental car could put a dark cloud over my Rose Bowl day experience.

The train ride back home was a blur but one thought dominated my mind.  These Gophers, who had finished 6-1 in the Big Ten and 8-2 overall, could beat anybody in the country including 1961 national champion Alabama.  The Gophers had lost the opening game in 1961 to Missouri, 6-0, and Wisconsin beat Minnesota 23-21.  Nine points stood between the Gophers and another national championship.

Both the final Associated Press and UPI polls ranked Minnesota No. 6 in the nation.  It’s the highest ranking the Gophers have had since the national championship season of 1960.  Now even the most passionate of fans wouldn’t dare utter a whisper about another national title, but many of us hope for another Rose Bowl.

While generations of Minnesotans have been born and died without another glorious Gophers journey to Pasadena, I can be grateful for the trip and the triumph of 50 years ago.