During the years after Warmath quit coaching the Gophers, I stayed in touch not only with him but also some of his former players. I knew Gophers football was slipping…the program’s glory and pride was becoming a distant memory. I was more than aware, too, that Warmath’s former players idolized him and were grateful for all he had done for them.
By the late 1980s I was organizing the first and only Warmath biography. I didn’t have time to write the The Autumn Warrior but turned to Mike Wilkinson, a local writer, passionate Gophers fan and a friend. Former Gophers like Jim Carter, Bobby Cox, Paul Giel, Dick Larson, Mike Wright and others provided the financing to make the book possible.
The coach who taught me and so many others about dealing with adversity and overcoming obstacles through discipline, hard work and preparation was given a tribute through this book. In it he talks about his career including a candid reference to the famous 1962 Wisconsin game when controversial officiating cost the Gophers the game and another Big Ten championship.
Warmath stormed into the officials’ room after the game, the last on the 1962 schedule. He told them they had “stolen” the Big Ten title from the finest group of young men he had been associated with. He would never forgive them for being so “incompetent and so unfair.”
In the book Wilkinson quotes Warmath almost 30 years after the 1962 debacle in Madison, a game so infamous that even President John Kennedy remembered it. “I’ll tell ya something,” Warmath said. “It’s just been within the past year or two that I finally haven’t been awakened in the middle of every night of every week and started thinking about that goddamn game.”
The Autumn Warrior documents Warmath’s great games and near misses, but at his funeral today a lot of people will remember their personal relationships with the coach. Former Gophers who needed a father, or at least another solid role model. Maybe a player who had Warmath’s support during legal or medical problems.
Warmath helped a lot of people including African-Americans who were not welcome at southern colleges during his coaching years at Minnesota. He provided opportunities to play at Minnesota, despite criticism for making the Gophers among the most integrated teams in the country.
Never was his stand on using black players more controversial than when he stayed with Sandy Stephens as his quarterback. Stephens was inconsistent as a sophomore and even as a junior on the 1960 national championship team, but by 1961 he was a special player. How special? So good he became the first All-American black quarterback in major college football history.
It took courage for both Warmath and Stephens to face down those who wanted them to fail. They learned a lot about character and “characters” at Minnesota. Today we can fully appreciate their legacy.
When I say goodbye to Murray today I will have a lot of memories but one that will command attention is something he said to me several years ago: “Dave, I always felt like you were one of the few newspaper men I could ever trust.”
That statement and our relationship mean so much to me.
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