Four-plus years after going to St. Cloud, Reusse arrived in St. Paul writing for the Pioneer Press.  Later he switched to the Star Tribune and between Minneapolis and St. Paul newspapers has been writing a column for three decades.  Ask other journalists about Reusse and many will say his touch (how he uses words and phrases) is among the best in the country.  When Reusse began writing he copied the clichéd filled style of most sportswriters during that era.  But Reusse worked at his writing, thinking about how he enjoyed taking a “mild situation” and exaggerating it, or a “horrible” one and understating it.  He also read and admired the country’s best sportswriters including a roster of legends in Boston such as Will McDonough, Bob Ryan and Leigh Montville.

Reusse started covering the Twins for the Pioneer Press in 1974.  He enjoyed “turning a phrase,” working with the excitement of writing under a deadline, and also fitting in a few hours of daily drinking.

An addiction to alcohol forced a decision in April of 1981.  Twins vice president and friend Clark Griffith had told Reusse to call him when Reusse was ready for treatment.  “There was no risk to my job or anything like that,” Reusse said.  “I got sick of being hung over. I was single, (and) my first wife had divorced me in ‘79.  I was running around with a younger crowd and acting goofy.  Just got sick of being hung over and one Sunday morning called Clarkie and the next morning I was in Saint Mary’s (for recovery).”

That spring the North Stars were in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Reusse grew up without exposure to hockey and to this day struggles with his interest in the sport.  He said the “good news” about being in treatment was he avoided about “30 days of hockey columns.”

Reusse hasn’t had a drink of alcohol since April 27, 1981.  He said it’s “the greatest feeling in the world” to see a police car’s lights in his rear view mirror and know “they can’t hurt you and ruin your life.”  Then he added: “Fortunately I did my heavy drinking in the ‘70s when drunken driving was legal.”

Alcohol is the easiest of addictions, Reusse said.  He’s seen others struggle with booze, cigarettes and over eating.  He has battled a weight problem for years, using crash diets and seeing the pounds fluctuate.

“I must be at 300 now,” he said.  “It’s terrible.  I haven’t tried one of my crash diets for about three years now.  I am ready probably for another one.  Obviously it’s (the extra weight) not healthy.”

Reusse, who weighed 170 pounds in high school and 190 after treatment for alcoholism, has no major health problems but is worried about his weight and so, too, is his family.  “I am concerned,” he said. “I am like everybody else.  I am afraid I am going to tip over.”

But Reusse has seldom missed a day of work and remains energetic. “It’s amazing how lucky I have been with my healthy considering how fat I am,” he said.

Reusse “loves writing baseball” and he talked about the “smaller the ball, the better the scene” theory of sportswriting.  Baseball and golf, he believes, offer special opportunities to describe the scenes with the fields, courses, stands, galleries and more, not just the “combatants.”

Then Reusse brought up Gophers football and how many readers believe he is a “big U basher.”  He followed Minnesota teams in the 1950s and remembered sobbing as a 12-year- old when the top 10 and undefeated Gophers lost to Illinois in 1957, a season that held promise of a national championship.

Reusse said it amuses him when he walks into a Gophers game now and fans ask him to write “something good.”  That’s not up to him, he said, that’s on the Gophers.  “People think that you go to a game thinking you know what you’re going to write.  No, you go to a game to see what happens.”

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Joel Maturi hasn’t decided whether to extend the contract of Gophers football coach Tim Brewster and likely won’t make that determination until January.  The Gophers athletic director told Sports Headliners during an interview last week that despite criticism of Brewster he “fully expects” his coach to return for a fourth season in 2010.

All staff receives extensive annual evaluations and Brewster’s review will be made after January 1.  By then the Gophers will have played in their yet to be determined bowl game.  The result of that game will determine whether Minnesota, now with a 6-6 record, finishes above or below .500 under Brewster who has also had records of 7-6 and 1-11.

The Gophers are headed to a bowl game for a second consecutive season after playing a challenging nonconference and Big Ten schedule.  Minnesota finished 3-5 in the conference, a better record than Michigan’s 1-7, a program that is the winningest in college football history.  The Gophers lost five games to teams headed for bowls and two of Minnesota’s defeats were by a total of six points.

Yet the Gophers lost four of their last six games (two of the final three).  The offense didn’t produce a touchdown in the 16-13 win over South Dakota State and the 12-0 loss to Iowa.  That sort of stuff had the sky falling after the Iowa game, according to many Gophers fans.

A week ago Sunday Maturi found himself wading through well over 100 emails. “There seems to be a belief…that we’re in shambles here, and quite frankly I don’t share that belief,” Maturi said.

A notion some fans won’t let up on is that retired NFL coach Tony Dungy will ride back to campus on a white horse to announce he’s the new football boss.  “Tony Dungy is not coming to Minnesota, and it’s not the money,” Maturi said.  “I talked to Tony.  He was the first call I made (in January 2007 while looking for a coach).  We’ve talked many times since that time.

“I don’t know if Tony will ever coach again, No. 1, and if he does, he will probably go back to the pros.  I appreciate and respect (that) people say, ‘Well, we’ve got to get Tony Dungy.’  Well, that would be wonderful.  And, again, this is not at the price of Tim Brewster.  I am just trying to say that people have that image because he (Dungy) played here, and he coached with the Vikings and with the Gophers, therefore he will come back here as a coach.  Not going to happen.”

Dungy hasn’t coached in college since 1980 when he was an assistant at Minnesota.  His decades of coaching experience and success (Super Bowl champion coach for Indianapolis in 2007) have been in the pros.  Maturi said beyond that there’s another reason Dungy isn’t likely to come back here and that is the cold weather.  Maturi said Dungy’s wife Lauren “wasn’t crazy” about the climate in Indianapolis and that Tony is a “family man” who values those sorts of considerations.

In January of 2007, before Brewster was hired, Maturi sought not only Dungy’s interest in the job but also the names of candidates to be considered.   “If and whenever a change is made again while I am the athletic director, he will still be the first call because I have such great respect and admiration for him and his knowledge of the game and of Minnesota,” Maturi said.

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Maturi hired Brewster who had never been a pro or college head coach, or coordinator.  In Brewster Maturi saw a high energy 46-year-old who had a national reputation as a recruiter, a badly needed job skill at a place like Minnesota where much of the roster must be assembled with players from other states.  In Brewster he also hired a coach who had been a valued assistant to elite head coaches like Mack Brown of Texas and Mike Shanahan from Denver.  “I thought he (Brewster) was the best coach that we had available to coach at the University of Minnesota,” Maturi said.

For many years college athletic departments have needed to show fiscal restraint.  It’s been rumored that Maturi, who had to pay expensive buyouts to terminated football and basketball coaches, hired Brewster because he could pay him less (about $1 million per year) than other Big Ten head football coaches earn.  “No, I hired (basketball coach) Tubby Smith shortly thereafter and we paid him a buck or two,” Maturi said in reference to Smith’s salary and incentives that have the potential to push him well beyond $2 million.

There’s a huge challenge to having a successful college football program and the initial anticipation that comes with a new coach doesn’t ensure success.  Dan Hawkins, for instance, has flopped at Colorado after making Boise State a program that emerged from the college football wilderness under his leadership.

“There’s a good example,” Maturi said.  “Hawkins at Colorado.  He’s the one who got Boise State going, right?  Would you agree with that?  Because I get a lot of people now telling me I should go hire coach (Chris) Petersen (Hawkins’ successor) and I am respectful of that.  There are no guarantees (of success).”

After three seasons Brewster still has Maturi’s confidence. “I still like what I think he brings to the table and I am still optimistic about our future,” Maturi said.

Maturi believes there are lots of positives about the Brewster era.  Among the most significant are Brewster’s efforts to establish relationships with the state’s prep coaches, Gophers football alumni and with boosters.  There also have been “no major violations” of NCAA rules, Maturi said, and Brewster has been fiscally responsible with his program.  Maturi said, too, that Brewster has been “outstanding” in the athletic department supporting “other causes and coaches, and there’s a belief that we have more better players (now) in the program.”

In fairness to Brewster, Maturi and others recognize that his head coach has only had time to deliver two recruiting classes, 2008 and 2009.  Football is a sport requiring large numbers of able players and success is often determined by both talent and experience.

Maturi said people can manipulate statistics any way they want to make a point but during the interview even he came back more than once to the Gophers 6-6 record.  If the Gophers win their bowl game they finish with a better record than in 2006 when coach Glen Mason’s team was 6-7.  Otherwise, the record (including 3-5 conference records) will be the same and that concerns Maturi.

“If we lose our bowl game, and we certainly hope we’re going to win it, we’re identical to the program we took over three years ago,” he said.  “Identical and I believe after a much tougher schedule.  And I know we all want more than that, but it hasn’t shown on the field, but it hasn’t regressed (either).”

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