THE GOPHER FOOTBALL TEAM WAS UNSTOPPABLE IN THE THIRTIES & FORTIES: They won Big Ten and national titles in 1935, 1936, 1940, and 1941. Never lost a game, either. In those two decades, they had seven Big Ten titles and the aforementioned national titles. They also wore golden jerseys and pants during this era, hence "golden gophers." And then Glen Mason had to go and mess all that up.
COACH BOMBAY ATTENDED MINNESOTA LAW SCHOOL: He may be a fictional character in a Disney movie, but Gordon Bombay was a Minnesota hockey legend, and just happens to be a Gopher.
SPEAKING OF HOCKEY THEIR REAL HOCKEY TEAM DID THIS RECENTLY:
The Gophers lost in the national championship game to Union College, but what a premiere year for the Big Ten hockey conference, and Michigan wasn't even in the mix.
THAT TIME MICHIGAN PLAYED THEM IN THE METRODOME ON A FRIDAY NIGHT: Major League Baseball's playoffs got in the way of college football's holy day, so Michigan and Minnesota played in prime time the night before. It took until the fourth quarter for Michigan to wake up and put up 21 points to tie. They then took the lead late and held on for a three point victory, somehow.
MAYBE THEIR LIBRARY WILL HOUSE BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ONE DAY: The main library on the Twin Cities campus, the Andersen Library, holds the world's largest archive of Sherlock Holmes material. Books, journals, documents, artwork, and Arthur Conan Doyle artifacts are all there. The collection is stored in an underground bunker of sorts, so perhaps Robert Downey, Jr. hides in there when one of his movies bombs.
THE WORLD'S NICEST ALUMNUS: Garrison Keillor attended Minnesota in 1966 and earned a BA in their Creative Writing program. "Where all the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are above-average" should be on the University's seal as a recruiting tool for the football team.
YES, THEY HAVE THEIR OWN "RAH-RAH" CHANT: A couple of rugby players came up with a team yell in 1884, and settled on combining a Sioux battle cry with other things. "Ski-U-Mah!" was the result, and it has been a Gopher tradition ever since. I thought it was just some weird curse word the fans yelled when Michigan quieted the Metrodome in 2003.