minnesota

I was looking at Minnesota's spring info a little bit (as well as their recruiting. Only 1 2014 guy so far, but he's a 4-star RB with a really nice highlight real. That's all we need is for Minny to go back to the school of no name guys with an RB that owns everyone). Anyhow, I came across this little gem through their twitter feed. Sometimes, it makes me regret that Michigan has such a huge fanbase that things like this are impossible.

Kill just screamed to bring all 200/300 fans at practice on to the field to put "pressure" on the FG unit. Classic twitter.com/NSandell/statu…

— Nate Sandell (@NSandell) April 20, 2013

Minnesota has hired FIU's Richard Pitino, son of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, as head of ther men's basketball program.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9130241/minnesota-golden-gophers-reach-agreement-richard-pitino

One more time:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130327/vcu-sh...

It doesn't really surprise me that he stayed, but that's quite a long contract.  VCU should remain fairly relevant as long as he's around.  The search continues for Minny and UCLA.

I find this surprising and depressing.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/21948116/tubby-smith-out-at-minnesota

We're gonna see a lot of bald heads on the Minnesota sideline tomorrow.  Earlier this week their Coach Kill along with most if not all of the team shaved their heads for St. Baldrick's charity to honor their WR Connor Cosgrove who has leukemia.  Members of the hockey & baseball teams, and even one from the women's volleyball squad also shaved their heads in the fundraiser.

Salute to Minnesota for doing this for charity.  Hope they inflated their helmets properly, they're gonna be a lot looser on their heads now, it'd be a shame if anyone got a concussion after doing something cool like this.

Link:  http://www.gophersports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/102912aaf.html

Link to Article:  http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121102/SPORTS0201/211020324/Significance-Little-Brown-Jug-not-lost-artist-U-M-sports-historian?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports

There's a nice article in today's Detroit News about the woman who paints the scores on the Little Brown Jug, Jil Gordon.  The article references Greg Dooley's MVictors.com, with a nod to its "Little Brown Jug Lore" section (check it out here http://mvictors.com/?page_id=4885 :  - it's chock full of Little Brown Jug history).  Per Dooley:

The most common story about how the challenge for the Little Brown Jug came do be is inaccurate. Most retellings say that former Michigan coach Fielding Yost sent a letter to Minnesota athletic director Louis Cooke and asked that the Jug, left behind after the 1903 game, be returned. Cooke was said to reply: "If you want it, you'll have to come up and win it."

"The story that Yost wrote or wired or mailed some request after the '03 game — that didn't happen," said Dooley, who said there is no evidence of that communication. "There is evidence to suggest it was hatched before the 1909 game. There was some kind of challenge. Michigan bought the jug in Minnesota, left it there, probably because they didn't care about a 30-cent jug. Minnesota found it — they didn't steal it — and probably thought, 'This is cool' and painted the score on it and the athletic director hung it in his office."

The more you know!  Here's to hoping Michigan is able to keep that jug in Ann Arbor.