Minnesota Gophers football Background Information

The Minnesota Golden Gophers football team is one of the oldest teams in the college football history. They compete in the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. They played their first football game in 1882 which tey won over Hamile University. The Badgers and the Gophers have played against each other every year (except the year 1906), totalling 117 games in all. This became the most played rivalry in the division I-A College Football.

The Gophers were most successful during the 1900 – 1919. They won three National Championships one after the other during the years 1934 – 1936, becoming the last team in Dvision I to do so. In the years 1940 and 1941, they won two more National Championships.They then won their sixth National Championship in 1960. In the same year they won the Big Ten Title. In 1961, the Gophers won their first and last Rose Bowl victory. They then won their last Big Ten Title in 1967. It was in 2003 that they had their first 10 win season with a 10-3 record since 1905.

In 200, the Gophers lost 44-41 in overtime against Texas Tech. This was the biggest collapse in the history of Division I-A football, because of which Glen Mason the then coach was fired. Tim Brewster was then announced as the coach on January 16, 2007. The Gophers have been playing in the Hubert H. Humphery Metrodome since 1981. But they will be moving back into campus when the TCF Bank Stadium opens in 2009.