His great teams and players provided Gophers fans with memories for the ages. And to think it almost didn’t happen.
Warmath was losing games and making enemies by the late 1950s. The extreme critics dumped garbage on the lawn of the Warmath home in Edina, and hung him in effigy on campus. Others raised money to buy out his contract.
Warmath stubbornly refused to fold in the middle of such criticism even though he had options to coach at other schools. Warmath insisted he was a “good football coach” and would prove it.
That’s what he did, erasing the 1-8 and 2-7 seasons of 1958 and 1959 with a national championship in 1960. During the early 1960’s the Gophers were among the elite of college football and then again in 1967 when Warmath won his last conference championship.
Warmath and his staff were excellent coaches. But as with any coach, talent was needed, too. Warmath, who often spoke with colorful phrases, liked to say: “No mule ever won the Kentucky Derby.”
Even as a kid I believed Warmath wasn’t fully appreciated in this state. There were critics that seemed to resent his southern roots and Tennessee accent. Then, too, he wasn’t supposed to be in Minneapolis leading the Gophers. Former Gopher Bud Wilkinson, a Minneapolis native, was setting the college football world on its ear in the 1950s at Oklahoma and the Warmath critics said we had the wrong guy coaching on the sidelines at Minnesota.
As sports editor of the Minnesota Daily I developed a rapport with Warmath in the 1960s. One summer I convinced him to spend hours with me tape recording interviews about his life and approach to coaching. The result was a series of articles in the Daily titled: “From Garbage to Roses.”
Warmath recognized my passion for the Gophers. It also didn’t hurt that I bought into his mantra of tough discipline for his players and his game day philosophy of total commitment to defense, field position and the kicking game.
Even though Warmath was more than 30 years older, he sometimes confided in me. He was paranoid about the intentions of both the University administration and local media, believing neither one was particularly supportive of his Gophers. His mood could turn cranky on any number of subjects, perhaps complaining about recruiting or even two hippies he saw copulating in the bushes near campus. At times I am sure he couldn’t wait to get home and enjoy a Jack Daniels.
Warmath’s players could complain about him, too. He pushed them so hard before the season began that some observers believed the Gophers had unnecessary injuries and were tired early in the season. There was praise, however, when it was obvious the Gophers often were better conditioned than opponents during fourth quarters and in late season games.