Awards, gopher coaching, and Wisconsin mining

Congratulations to Waseca County Pioneer writers Jim Lutgens, Eli Lutgens and Deb Bently for the awards they received at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s annual awards banquet. For a newspaper in its first year of eligibility, 10 total awards is an impressive accomplishment. Eli Lutgens has put together an amazing team of writers and staff to produce a quality weekly paper for thousands of readers to enjoy.

I know many residents look forward to reading the Pioneer weekly and enjoy perusing human interest stories, information on art and entertainment, business profiles, Waseca County history and sports information in the newspaper. The Pioneer is always full of many professional, colorful photographs, separating it from other newspapers. If there had been an award for newspaper coach of the year, I think Eli Lutgens would have taken it home.

As it happens, he was named as one of “Editor and Publisher” magazine’s “25 Under 35” in the publishing industry. The magazine introduced its list of selected professionals saying “In some ways, it showcases our future–one that’s inspired, passionate and innovative–reinvigorated by fresh ideas and talent.”

As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy watching the University of Minnesota teams, both boys’ and girls’. If this writer’s opinion matters, the teams which will get the five-star rating are the hockey teams–both male and female. I especially look forward to the border battles–the games against Wisconsin or Iowa. 

The last several years, the U of M has not been very competitive in border battle games. Wisconsin and Iowa consistently beat the U of M in football and basketball. The U of M even held a 20-point lead in men’s basketball the other night against Iowa, then ended up losing. Katilin Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball team are ranked second in the nation and will compete for a national championship. Wisconsin beat us in football and men’s basketball this season; the Wisconsin girls’ volleyball team beat our heralded women’s volleyball team and won a national championship.

Does the U of M need to hire new coaches who can handle the transfer portal, recruit, and offer NIL benefits? Does the U of M need to put better and higher-profile athletes on the big stage? I think I have the answer: the U of M needs a new mascot. Good riddance to the Golden Gopher.

The mascot choice has its roots way back in the early 1800s. At the time, various public figures were presented in political cartoons with gopher heads on their bodies. Gophers–a small prairie rodent–became popular in Minnesota. Bernie Bierman was a great halfback for the Gophers a long time ago and won national championships for Minnesota when he became their football coach. A sportscaster back in 1934 associated Bierman’s players with “golden gophers,” and the team nickname was born.

In Wisconsin, mining was very important back in the early 1800s. Miners would literally live in their tunnels, taking their meals and sleeping there. They became known as “badgers,” animals famous for digging holes and tunnels and, according to Wind in the Willows author Kenneth Grahame, for loving their homes. The badger became the mascot for the Madison, Wisconsin, college football team in the late 1800s. During games, one was customarily placed in a cage on the sidelines next to the team.

Badgers are well-armed creatures. They bear some resemblance to a woodchuck, but are bigger and have huge front claws for digging. An interesting note, badgers practice “symbiosis,” which means they work together with other animals to accomplish mutually important tasks. They team up with coyotes to hunt prairie dogs or gophers. Badgers dig out the prey while coyotes wait at the escape holes. Both parties enjoy delicious meals–at least by badger and coyote standards. Vital point: badgers eat gophers for lunch.

The Iowa teams waited until 1959 to choose their current mascot, the Hawkeye. Herky the Hawk is decorated in black and gold; if you know anything about hawks, you know they, also, enjoy a meal of gophers.

Goldie the Gopher is cute and would make an excellent children’s pet, but let’s be realistic. The U of M must compete with its border rivals. Let’s change our mascot to a flying eagle, or to the largest of the cats, a tiger. It’s time to take our furry, defenseless, cuddly gophers off the menu enjoyed by the Badgers and the Hawkeyes.

Our elected officials have spent a great deal of time presenting us all with a new Minnesota state flag. Now that the task of creating the flag is taken care of, they can go to work on a redesigned, intimidating mascot for the University of Minnesota.