David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Voices of Past Call for Gophers to Cook Wolverines

Posted on September 30, 2026September 30, 2026 by David Shama

Pay attention now if you have a pulse for University of Minnesota football. It’s Michigan week and the Golden Gophers have an opportunity Saturday to connect with their glorious past.

Make a visit to campus this week. Walk over to the old site of Memorial Stadium where the McNamara Alumni Center now stands at 200 Oak Street Southeast.

And listen!

Can you hear the voices of five-time national championship coach Bernie Bierman and his Heisman Trophy winner Bruce Smith? Wait, isn’t that southern drawl coming from coach Murray Warmath? And that’s two-time Big Ten MVP Paul Giel admitting even in the afterlife “The Minnesota Rouser” still gives him chills.

Maybe hear the chorus of other voices chanting, “Wish Again, Michigan!”

Long ago it was a given that Michigan and Minnesota would be in the hunt for Big Ten and national championships. Both schools approached their matchups with confidence and that’s what spurred the “Wish Again, Michigan” pinback buttons that Gopher fans proudly wore at home games.

This was a rivalry worthy of newsreels in movie theaters across the country. It was rooted in the greatness of two proud programs and encapsulated in a piece of crockery, the Little Brown Jug.

Minnesota-Michigan football rivalry trophy — Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota

In November of 1903, a day after Michigan and the Gophers played to a 6-6 tie in Minneapolis, U custodian Oscar Monson brought a water jug to athletics director L.J. Cooke. According to lore, Monson said in his Scandinavian accent: “Yost (the Michigan coach) left his jug!” The Gophers painted the jug and from there was born the oldest travelling rivalry trophy in college football.

The jug has mostly been “ay-wall” in the city of lakes since 1968. The Gophers have defeated Michigan four times during that span in the famous series that stands 73-23 and 3 ties in favor of the lads from Ann Arbor.

Three of the four most recent Minnesota wins were on the road. The one home victory came in 1977 when the 4-2 Gophers staged a dramatic upset against a then No. 1 ranked Michigan team. Minnesota punished Bo Schembechler’s Wolverines that day in game that had a roaring crowd at Memorial Stadium delirious over the 16-0 upset.

Butch Nash played for the Gophers in the 1930s and then was an assistant coach over five decades at his alma mater. He reveled in the Michigan-Minnesota Little Brown Jug rivalry. It was Nash who spoke from the heart about the importance of the rivalry to Gopher players and coaches before the wins in 1977 and 1986.

In 1986 quarterback Rickey Foggie’s fourth quarter running set up a game-winning Chip Lohmiller field goal for a 20-17 win over No. 2 ranked Michigan in what would be a 6-5 regular season for Minnesota. First-year head coach John Gutekunst was in his first season and had taken over for miracle worker Lou Holtz whose savvy moves in two seasons at Minnesota included bringing Nash out of retirement to be a volunteer coach.

In 2005 running back Gary Russell’s 61-yard sprint down the sidelines positioned Jason Giannini for a game-ending field goal and a 23-20 Minnesota win. Gopher coach Glen Mason was so excited that after his 5-1 team returned home, he brought the jug with him when he and his wife went out to dinner.

Among the highlights of coach Jerry Kill’s career at Minnesota was his 30-13 road win over the Wolverines in 2014. Quarterback Mitch Leidner ran for a touchdown and passed for another in the victory. A 30-yard interception return for a touchdown by De’Vondre Campbell was part of a defensive performance that saw the Gophers limit Michigan to 171 yards in total offense as Minnesota opened the season 4-1.

Warmath, who enjoyed his Jack Daniels, probably found the whiskey extra smooth when he celebrated wins over Michigan three seasons in a row from 1960-1962. The Gophers were national champions in 1960 and played twice in the Rose Bowl (1961 and 1962) during a stretch when Minnesota went 22-6-1.

Two of the three wins by Warmath’s teams came in Ann Arbor but the one home game is the most memorable. All-American Minnesota quarterback Sandy Stephens (who also played defensive back) had a game in Memorial Stadium on October 28, 1961 that is one of the highlights of his career.

The Wolverines led 20-8 in the fourth quarter. That set up one of the great Minnesota comebacks in Little Brown Jug history. Minnesota rallied to win 23-20 in the closing minutes with big plays including a one-handed interception by Stephens of a Michigan pass late in the game that ended any Wolverine hopes of winning.

Stephens ran 63 yards for a touchdown to give Minnesota its first score of the game when trailing 13-0. Married just days before, he was among multiple heroes on offense and defense. “Sandy played a hell of a game. He must have been playing for his new wife because he never played that well for me,” Warmath joked in his biography The Autumn Warrior.

Leave it to Giel to play one of the most extraordinary games of his career against Michigan. The Wolverines came to Minneapolis ranked No. 5 in the country and the Gophers were a mediocre team who would have been a lot worse without their All-American run-pass superstar.

In the 1953 game the senior halfback from Winona scored two touchdowns and passed for a third in a 22-0 victory. The upset came in the 50th anniversary game of the Little Brown Jug!

Bierman won national championships at Minnesota in 1934-1936, and 1940 and 1941. His first three national title teams didn’t allow Michigan to score a single point as the Gophers outscored the Wolverines 100-0! The “Grey Eagle’s” 1940 squad won 7-6 against Michigan and the next season beat the Wolverines 7-0 in front of more than 84,000 fans in Ann Arbor.

Those undefeated 1940 and 1941 teams included Gopher football immortal Bruce Smith from Faribault. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1941, the only Gopher in history to earn college football’s most coveted individual award. He fit the profile of the All-American boy of that era, and Hollywood even made a 1942 movie about him titled “Smith of Minnesota.” (Don’t bother to ask if any other Gophers had movies made about them.)

Gopher Heisman Trophy legend Bruce Smith — Mural in Faribault

It was in 1940 that Smith may have starred in his most revered game. Playing on a muddy field against Michigan at Memorial Stadium, the Wolverines took a 6-0 lead. But Smith, a halfback in the single-wing offense, ran 80 yards through the muck for a touchdown that along with an extra point gave Minnesota a 7-6 win.

Smith was destined to be special. His father Lucius Smith played tackle and kicked for the Gophers about 30 years before his son became a hero at Minnesota. In 1910 the Gophers and Michigan, both undefeated, played a game to decide the national championship. The Wolverines won 6-0 in Ann Arbor and for some unknown reason Lucius held himself responsible for the painful loss. Legend is he vowed to have a son who would avenge the defeat.

That’s the kind of lore making the Little Brown Jug rivalry so iconic. Come Saturday, the Gophers get an opportunity to write another chapter they and their fans will remember for a long time.

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Big Apple Will Be No Retreat for QB J.J. McCarthy

Posted on September 28, 2026September 28, 2026 by David Shama

If quarterback J.J. McCarthy felt the impact of outside criticism during his tenure with the Vikings, he should know he is diving into the deep end of the pool in New York City.

Gotham is now home for the 23-year-old as of today when the Vikings sent him to the Giants for a 2027 fifth round draft choice. McCarthy, Minnesota’s first round draft choice in 2024, never did establish himself as the team’s long-term answer as the starter at the most important position on the field.

This despite head coach Kevin O’Connell declaring his protégé “the franchise quarterback” prior to the beginning of the 2025 season. McCarthy couldn’t achieve enough consistency to prompt a commitment from O’Connell who brought in veteran Kyler Murray to be the “man” during the past off season.

McCarthy’s subpar mechanics have been a repetitive topic of conversation in the northland and amateur psychologists have debated his level of confidence. While, of course, McCarthy didn’t acknowledge self-doubts, his mental outlook understandably could have been at least side-swiped by booing fans, media jabs and digital digs.

There’s no pretention here to know what’s inside McCarthy’s head but he is a long-time practitioner of meditation and mindfulness. And it will be no yoga camp or mental health retreat in New York where media and fans are capable of eating quarterbacks for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If McCarthy wants a tutorial, he’s probably got the phone numbers of former quarterback teammates Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones on speed dial. They could tell stories about the raucous and often disapproving culture of the big city from their times with the Jets and Giants respectively. Darnold got an earful for not being the franchise savior and Jones was even booed on draft night.

J.J. McCarthy, Vikings QB, image by David Shama — J.J. McCarthy

This is a change, however, that McCarthy and his inner circle apparently wanted. He could have a shot at the starting job later this season, replacing 32-year-old journeyman Jameis Winston. Starter Jaxson Dart is injured and out for the season.

McCarthy will start out with the confidence of head coach John Harbaugh who almost certainly spoke with brother Jim Harbaugh prior to the trade. The latter was McCarthy’s head coach at Michigan in 2023 when the Wolverines won the national championship. There’s no reason to believe Jim gave his brother anything less than a positive endorsement about McCarthy.

The Giants get a quarterback friendly deal with McCarthy. He’s under team control through 2027, with a team option for 2028.

The Vikings apparently lost patience with McCarthy’s development. Why else would you move on so quickly from a No. 1 draft choice and the possibility of still becoming your starter in a quarterback cluster where neither Carson Wentz nor Murray have come close to dazzling and may not.

The view here is McCarthy didn’t cause problems internally for the Vikings. He was a solid teammate and could be among the first to congratulate another Viking on making a big play.

If the Giants finish around .500 or worse in the standings after this season, the fifth round draft choice could yield a top 150 or so player in the draft. This year the Vikings took Max Bredeson in the fifth round and the fullback projects as a valued part of the team for years to come. BTW, the best of modern day NFL fifth rounders include stars Tyreek Hill, George Kittle and Puka Nacua.

Don’t think the Vikings didn’t try to do better than a fifth round pick. That’s apparently the market value right now for McCarthy who in his 10 NFL career games has thrown 12 interceptions and 11 touchdown passes.

The Giants had a firsthand look at McCarthy in the preseason. He completed four of seven passes for 34, with no interceptions. He had moments when he looked hurried and produced no points of what would be a 13-10 preseason opening win over the Giants in New Jersey.

If McCarthy turns out to be an NFL bust, the deal will look like a good one for the Vikings. If he becomes a star in the Big Apple or elsewhere, and the Vikings are still on their marathon search for a franchise quarterback, well, let’s just say the jackals will be howling like never before.

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State of Iowa Tops Minn. in NFL Players; Hawks Outdo U

Posted on September 25, 2026September 25, 2026 by David Shama

There were 21 NFL players who are alumni of Minnesota high schools on opening day rosters earlier this month and six of them are former Golden Gophers. The NFL released extensive data earlier this month about the origins of its players and Sports Headliners identified the following players with high school ties to the state:

Joe Alt, Totino-Grace and Notre Dame; Kayode Awosika, Maple Grove and Buffalo; Yahya Black, Marshall and Iowa; Elijah Campbell, St. Paul Central, and Iowa Western Community College, Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa; Blake Cashman, Eden Prairie and Gophers; Amani Hooker, Park Center and Iowa; Bobby Jamison-Travis, Iowa Western Community College and Auburn; Emmett Johnson, Holy Angles and Nebraska; Jermaine Johnson, Eden Prairie and Georgia and Florida State;

Nick Kallerup, Wayzata and Gophers; Byrce Lance, Marshall and North Dakota State; Trey Lance, Marshall and North Dakota State; Cody Lindenberg, Anoka and Gophers; Boye Mafe, Hopkins and Gophers; Namdi Obiazor, Eden Prairie and Iowa Western Community College and TCU; Ty Okada, East Ridge and Montana State; Trey Pipkins, Apple Valley and Sioux Falls; Brevyn Spann-Ford, St. Cloud Technical and Gophers; Danny Striggow, Orono and Gophers; Jalen Travis, DeLaSalle and Princeton and Iowa State; Treyton Welch, Buffalo and Wyoming.

NFL starters among players who didn’t play at Minnesota are Alt, Black, Hooker, Jermaine Johnson and Travis. Ex-Gophers starting are Cashman and Mafe.

Six of the 21 players listed above played for Minnesota, or about 28 percent. What to make of that?

College football recruiting is a nationwide endeavor for Power Four programs like Minnesota. The Gophers annual recruiting classes consist of players from around a dozen different states that supplement the Minnesotans in the group.

An analysis of many other states likely would show a large number of players from their high schools who didn’t play for the hometown Division I program. Many prep players want to go out of state for college and there is intense competition to land elite local players no matter what part of the nation they’re from.

It’s interesting to note, however, that many of those Minnesotans who are in the NFL weren’t highly recruited or pursued by Power Four programs including the Gophers. Reasonable to suggest the Gophers, led by head coach P.J. Fleck, could bolster roster talent by recruiting more Minnesota natives, knowing many would need development.

That fits with Fleck’s ongoing operating philosophy of running a developmental program. One that puts emphasis on still recruiting high school players rather than purging the roster and bringing to town transfers from other universities.

Fair or not, there’s been a perception for decades that University of Minnesota football coaches could be more thorough in evaluation and willingness to bring state high school players to Dinkytown.

That opinion may gain credibility when the comparison is to the state of Iowa and the Hawkeyes. The Big Ten and neighboring rival Hawks are 8-1 in games against Fleck and are a poster program for identifying and developing talent within their state. The Hawkeyes consistently outdo the Gophers in national rankings and better bowl games.

There were 26 players who were alums of Iowa high schools on NFL opening day rosters. And 12 of them played collegiately for the Hawks, or 46 percent.

That’s even more impressive given that the Hawkeyes have another Power Four program in the state, Iowa State, to compete against for talent, while the Gophers have no such rival.

Although Iowa has a smaller population (about 3.2 million) than any Big Ten state except for Nebraska, it ranks eighth per capita for most players in the NFL.

A relevant note, though, to the Gophers and Hawkeyes comparison is that hockey is an obsession in Minnesota and more of a whisper in Iowa. High school athletes who play hockey in Minnesota may not even participate in football. Or if they do, they choose college hockey careers rather than football.

BTW North Dakota State has won national championships for years with a recruiting pillar of Minnesota high school talent, sometimes players unwanted or under recruited by the Gophers and other Big Ten programs.

Other news from the NFL’s deep dive into its rosters includes:

Texas (192), Florida (185) and California (159) were the leading states in number of players on NFL rosters. Bradenton, Florida, with 22 alums, topped the list of cities producing the most players. Miami was second at 21.

There are now 778 colleges and universities with football programs. There are 17 schools across all NCAA divisions, the NAIA and independents that are launching programs in 2026 or announcing plans for coming years. Since 1978, the number of schools playing NCAA football has increased by 194, growing from 484 to 678.

The NFL report gives pause to the perception pre-college participation in football is declining.

Eleven-player football has 1,043,716 participants and is by far the most popular high school sport for boys or girls. There has been a 7.1 percent since the first survey after the pandemic in 2021-22.

Football is the most popular high school sport for fans. There are approximately 7,000 high school football games on an average Friday night, with about 7-10 million fans in attendance on a weekly basis.

Youth tackle football participation continued to grow in 2025, with more than 3.47 million youth playing. For those playing 26 or more times during the year, there was an increase of 3.9%, reaching more than 2.2 million participants in 2025. The increase was strongest among teens ages 13–17, with participation growing 7.3% year-over-year to more than 1.46 million.

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