Minnesota Golden Gophers


The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Ten Conference.
The Gophers women's ice hockey team is a six-time NCAA champion and seven-time national champion. In women's ice hockey, the Gophers belong to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In all other sports, they belong to the Big Ten Conference. Most of the facilities that the teams use for training and competitive play are located on the East Bank of the Minneapolis campus. There are arenas for men's and women's basketball as well as ice hockey. The Gopher football team began playing at Huntington Bank Stadium in September 2009. The women's soccer team plays on the St. Paul campus in the Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.
The Cheerleaders and the Dance Team are also part of the university's athletic department; they are present at events for basketball, ice hockey, and football, and compete for UCA/UDA national titles in the winter. The University of Minnesota spirit squad was the first as sideline cheerleading was invented at the U of M, and it prides itself in being one of the largest spirit squads in the country. The U of M spirit squad currently consists of three cheerleading teams, a dance team, Goldy Gopher, and a unique ice hockey cheerleading team. The dance team won its 19th national title in 2019.
During the 2006–07 academic year, the Golden Gophers wrestling team won the NCAA national championship and the Big Ten team title. The Golden Gophers also won conference championships in men's ice hockey, men's golf, women's rowing, men's swimming and diving, and women's indoor track and field.

Sports sponsored

Baseball

  • National Championships :
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances :
  • Big Ten Regular Season Championships :
  • Big Ten Conference Tournament Championships :

    Men's basketball

  • Big Ten Regular Season Championships :
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances :
  • Sweet 16 Appearances :
  • Elite Eight Appearances :
  • NIT Appearances :
  • NIT Championships :
''Note: A 1997 Big Ten regular season championship, NCAA Tournament appearances in 1994, 1995, 1997, and 1999, as well as NIT appearances in 1996 and 1998 were vacated due to NCAA sanctions.''

Women's basketball

  • NCAA Tournament Appearances :
  • Sweet 16 Appearances :
  • Elite Eight Appearances :
  • Final Four Appearances :

    Men's cross country

  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Women's cross country

  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Football

  • National Championships :
  • Big Ten Conference Championships :
  • Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest Championships :
  • Bowl Games :
  • Bowl game victories: 1962 Rose Bowl, 1985 Independence Bowl, 2002 Music City Bowl, 2003 Sun Bowl, 2004 Music City Bowl, 2015 Quick Lane Bowl, 2016 Holiday Bowl, 2018 Quick Lane Bowl, 2020 Outback Bowl, 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl, 2022 Pinstripe Bowl, 2023 Quick Lane Bowl, 2025 Duke's Mayo Bowl

    Traveling trophies

  • The Little Brown Jug – Accidentally left in Minnesota back in 1903 by Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost, it is painted with the victories of the two teams.
  • Floyd of Rosedale – Since 1935 the Gophers and the Iowa Hawkeyes have fought to win this bronze pig. The Gophers won the 2010 and 2011 match up for the pig, upsetting the favored Hawkeyes at TCF Bank Stadium.
  • Paul Bunyan's Axe – Minnesota and the Wisconsin Badgers have passed this trophy back and forth since 1948, although it records the two teams' encounters since 1890.
  • Governor's Victory Bell – The bell was created to commemorate the 1993 entrance of Penn State's Nittany Lions into the Big Ten.
  • $5-Bits-O-Broken-Chair Trophy – The newest of the five trophies. From a 2014 exchange on Twitter, Goldy Gopher created a trophy with a parody account of the then coach of Nebraska Bo Pelini.

    Golf

Men's golf
  • National Championships :
  • Individual National Champions :
  • Big Ten Team Championships :
Women's golf
  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Gymnastics

Men's gymnastics
  • Big Ten Team Championships :
Women's gymnastics
  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Men's ice hockey

  • National Championships :
  • WCHA Regular Season Championships :
  • Big Ten Regular Season Championships :
  • Big Ten Tournament Championships :
  • WCHA Tournament Championships :
  • NCAA Frozen Four Appearances :

    Women's ice hockey

  • National Championships :
  • WCHA Regular Season Championships :
  • WCHA Tournament Championships :
  • NCAA Frozen Four Appearances :

    Women's rowing

  • Big Ten Championships :
  • NCAA Champions in V2

    Women's soccer

  • Big Ten Championships :

    Softball

  • Big Ten Regular Season Championships :
  • Big Ten Tournament Championships :
  • Women's College World Series appearances :

    Spirit Squads

Dance Team
  • National Championships :

    Swimming

Men's swimming
  • Big Ten Team Championships :
Women's swimming
  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Men's tennis

  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Track and field

Men's track

Outdoor track and field
  • National Championships :
  • Big Ten Team Championships :
Indoor track and field
  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Women's track

Outdoor track and field
  • Big Ten Team Championships :
Indoor track and field
  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Volleyball

  • Big Ten Championships :
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances :
  • Sweet 16 Appearances :
  • Final Four Appearances :

    Wrestling

  • National Championships :
  • Big Ten Team Championships :

    Notable non varsity sports

Rugby

Minnesota rugby plays Division I college rugby in the Big Ten Universities conference against traditional Big Ten rivals such as Wisconsin and Iowa. Minnesota qualified for the national playoffs in 2008, and finished the 2008 season ranked 7th in the nation. Some of Minnesota's games have been well attended by fans, with the team drawing as many as 6,000 fans to watch the team play at TCF Bank Stadium.

Traditions

The "Golden" Gophers

The University Mascot is derived from a nickname for the state of Minnesota, "The Gopher State." The original design was based on the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. The state nickname derives from a political cartoon by R. O. Sweeny, published as a broadside in 1858. The cartoon depicted state legislators as gophers dragging the state in the wrong direction. The nickname was associated with the university as early as the publication of the first yearbook in 1888, which was titled "The Gopher". Other early yearbooks included depictions of gophers as well, and the University of Minnesota football coach Clarence Spears officially named the football team the Gophers in 1926. After the radio announcer Halsey Hall began referring to the team as the Golden Gophers due to the color of their uniforms, the team was renamed under coach Bernie Bierman.

School songs

s for the university include Minnesota Rouser, Minnesota March, Go Gopher Victory, Our Minnesota, Minnesota Fight, Hail! Minnesota, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Notable athletes and coaches

Baseball

  • John Anderson
  • Harry Elliott
  • Brent Gates
  • Jack Hannahan
  • Mark Merila
  • Paul Molitor
  • Denny Neagle
  • Greg Olson
  • Glen Perkins
  • Robb Quinlan
  • Dick Siebert – coach
  • Terry Steinbach
  • Dave Winfield
  • Dan Wilson

    Basketball

Men's

  • Ron Behagen – Former National Basketball Association player
  • Walter Bond – Former NBA player, and motivational speaker
  • Randy Breuer – Former NBA player
  • Jim Brewer – Former NBA player
  • Willie Burton – Former NBA player
  • Archie Clark – Former NBA player
  • Louis 'Doc' Cooke, coach
  • Bud Grant – Former NBA player, National Football League player and longtime Hall of Fame head coach of the Minnesota Vikings
  • Clem Haskins – coach
  • Lou Hudson – Former NBA player
  • Kris Humphries – NBA player
  • Sam Jacobson – Former NBA player
  • Bobby Jackson – NBA player
  • Mark Landsberger – Former NBA player
  • Voshon Lenard – Former NBA player
  • Kevin McHale – Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer and former President of Basketball Operations/head coach of the Houston Rockets
  • Mark Olberding – Former NBA player
  • Joel Przybilla – Former NBA player
  • Flip Saunders – Former NBA head coach
  • Tubby Smith – Former head coach
  • John Thomas – Former NBA player
  • Mychal Thompson – Former NBA player
  • Trent Tucker – Former NBA player
  • Ray Williams – Former NBA player
  • Trevor Winter

    Women's

  • Janel McCarville – Former WNBA player for the Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, and Charlotte Sting
  • Lindsay Whalen – Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, current Gopher's Women's Basketball Head Coach, and former WNBA player for the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun
  • Linda Hill-MacDonald – Former head coach
  • Rachel Banham - WNBA Player for the Minnesota Lynx
  • Amanda Zahui B. - WNBA Player for the Los Angeles Sparks

    Football

Players