Column: Aaron Worm, Behind the Mic

Coming into the weekend, Minnesota sports fans could count all the big wins by the state’s sports teams in 2011 on one hand.

Actually probably with one finger: The Minnesota Lynx’ Game 3 win over Atlanta to win the WNBA title.

Now we can use two fingers after we got an early Halloween treat from the Gophers football team with their 22-21 win Saturday over Iowa.

I will be the first admit, I didn’t give the Gophers a chance coming into the game. I was still a little bewildered, that Jerry Kill got a seven-year deal with a team that was 1-6. But for at least one Saturday we all have to give a lot of credit to coach Kill and the guys for keeping the bacon in Minnesota.

My biggest pet peeve with college football is the lack of a playoff system, but the one thing I really enjoy is rivalry games. No matter what happens the rest of the season, the Gophers players know they beat Iowa for the second year in a row and are keeping the bronze pig, Flyod of Rosedale.

Every rivalry game has a good story behind it. The pig came into play into the Gophers-Hawkeyes matchup in 1935 with a bet between the governors of each state, and Minnesota won 13-7. Iowa Governor Clyde Herring walked a prize-winning pig into Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson’s office to settle the bet. It was a pig from the Rosedale Farms in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and the legend of Floyd began.

The Gophers lead the series 41-34-2 with the win Sunday. I know the Gophers have had some big wins in the series in the past 75-plus years, but I assume Saturday’s ‘W’ has to be one of the best wins for the U against Iowa. In three Big Ten games heading in to the Iowa matchup, Minnesota had been outscored 144 to 31. Minnesota also dropped home games to North Dakota State and New Mexico State. Iowa had won their last two conference games averaging 43 points a contest.

On paper the Gophers didn’t have a chance, but that’s what makes rival games so special.

With all the disappointment the team had gone through this year, the team showed so much heart and determination. When quarterback Marquis Gray sprinted in from 2 yards out on 4th-and-goal in the final minutes to give the Gophers the lead, I think everyone in the state of Minnesota probably jumped up and down (besides the ones in black and gold).

Some of the things I saw online after the win:

On Gophersports.com the quote was “Floyd stays home.”

A fellow radio guy posted a picture on Facebook wearing a Gophers hat saying “For Halloween I am dressed as a winner”

And my favorite on Goldy Gophers’ Facebook page: “IOA, we took the ‘W.’”

Nov. 12 is the next rivalry game when Wisconsin comes to TCF Bank Stadium to battle for the Axe. I hope we take the ‘W’ away from “isconsin.”

 

KATE Sports Director Aaron Worm’s column appears each Monday in the Tribune. He can be heard from 6 to 11 a.m. weekdays on The Breeze.