Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi answering a question on how well new football coach Jerry Kill, who last fall coached Northern Illinois to an upset win over the Gophers, will recruit: “He recruited well enough to beat us.”
Tracy Claeys, the Gophers new defensive coordinator, will be the speaker at the C.O.R.E.S luncheon on Thursday, January 13. If Kill is in town, he will also speak. C.O.R.E.S members can make reservations by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. C.O.R.E.S is an acronym for coaches, officials, educators, reporters and sports fans.
Brainerd football coach Ron Stolski, who is also executive director of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, emailed this about Kill: “It is a great hire.”
The association’s annual spring clinic will be March 31-April 2. www.mnfootballclinic.com
Former Gophers national championship football coach Murray Warmath’s 98th birthday was yesterday.
Akron athletic director Tom Wistrcill, a former Gophers associate athletic director, was in town before Christmas to watch his Zips lose to Minnesota in a game that Akron received about $80,000 to play at Williams Arena. Wistrcill said there are no immediate plans to schedule another game between the two schools. Akron’s coach is Keith Dambrot who was LeBron James’ high school coach.
Akron is James’ home town and despite his defection from Cleveland to Miami, Wistrcill said James remains popular in Akron. James’ relationship with Dambrot enabled the Zips to have a sponsorship with Nike. James still works out during the summer at the Zips’ basketball court.
Former Gophers basketball star Clyde Turner runs his annual holiday basketball camp for youngsters starting today and continuing through Thursday at Farview Park in Minneapolis.
After the Vikings-Giants Monday night game in Detroit two weeks ago, interim coach Leslie Frazier attended a downtown 7 a.m. breakfast with community leaders who gathered to hear a year-end review about the Gophers and local pro teams. Frazier didn’t arrive back in Minneapolis until about 3 a.m. that morning.
Vikings quarterback Brett Favre and wife Deanna flew to Milwaukee earlier this month to visit a five-year-old boy dying from cancer. The youngster has been writing the number 4 backward and Favre has honored him by wearing a towel with a backward 4.
The University of Minnesota Duluth football program is the only one in Division II history to have two 15-0 seasons. The Bulldogs won Division II national titles this year and 2008 with 15-0 records led by coach Bob Nielson. If administrators at the local branch of the U are wise, they will consider Nielson, who has experience as an athletic director, as Maturi’s eventual successor in the Gophers athletic department.
No need to look twice but that was Ivy League Yale ranked No. 1 in college hockey last week. Yale was No. 1 in the USAToday/USA Hockey Magazine men’s poll while the Gophers were unranked.
Instructive words from Wayne Gretzky directed at hockey crazed parents in last week’s The Fischler Report: expose your children to other sports. “Especially the ages of 10 through 13,” Gretzky said in the report. “You need a break from hockey. It refreshes you.”
Ticket King notified potential buyers via email that tickets for $25 each were available for last week’s Wild-Calgary game at Xcel Energy Center.