ADVERTISEMENT

Reporting from Minnesota

D

demauroj

All American
Dec 23, 2004
6,164
1,674
113
Cool stadium , compact with nice sightlines.

Minnesota fans were fabulous..... thank you for coming. very interactive and engaging.

The campus is very pretty very few high rises all of there athletic facilities are brick front facades and are beautiful. separate
Arenas for basketball, hockey, and women's hockey. the field house was gorgeous.

Rutgers fans had a nice turnout considering, and very few of us were really upset when leaving.

Mostly it was all the same feeling and saying the same thing "We got our QB" and very upbeat.

I was beyond proud of our boys today, thales played their hearts out and now I understand what Ash meant when he said we are not that far away.

Minnesota is a cool city and I would defiantly come back
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hubcityknights, RRRRUUUU, Rokodesh and 13 others
Thanks for the review. Another away game I'd like to attend, along with Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Why these four? Shorter drive from the West Coast.
 
Glad to hear it was a good trip. Minnesota was one I had circled on my calendar as a B1G away game I couldn't wait to do. Have family there. Unfortunately had a wedding this weekend. And sadly we don't play there again anytime soon
 
Here as well. Fans very friendly to us, saying welcome to the Big Ten and asking if we liked it.
They save their 'hatred' for Iowa and Wisconsin.

They had an open basketball scrimmage after the football game. Lot of new faces for little Pitino.
 
demauroj said:
Cool stadium , compact with nice sightlines.

Minnesota fans were fabulous..... thank you for coming. very interactive and engaging.

The campus is very pretty very few high rises all of there athletic facilities are brick front facades and are beautiful. separate
Arenas for basketball, hockey, and women's hockey. the field house was gorgeous.

Rutgers fans had a nice turnout considering, and very few of us were really upset when leaving.

Mostly it was all the same feeling and saying the same thing "We got our QB" and very upbeat.

I was beyond proud of our boys today, thales played their hearts out and now I understand what Ash meant when he said we are not that far away.

Minnesota is a cool city and I would defiantly come back
Click to expand...
You're a tremendous fan, demauroj!! They don't come better than you, and glad you were treated to some thrilling football today.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RUhobbit and Local Shill
Loved our visit to MN - great city; fans so welcoming and kind ; will definitely return! Go RU...
 
Did the Minnesota band play the bells must ring in the stands for you. I'm not talking prehame either,
 
I had a great time and am looking forward to going back whenever the next time will be. The light rail made it very easy to get around and the people there could not have been nicer. We went to Stub & Herb's last night and the table of Minnesota fans next to us paid for our first round of beers and we had a nice conversation about football and hockey, and on our way into the stadium, a bunch of people welcomed us to Minnesota as we walked by. Lots of breweries easily accessible from the light rail too. Beautiful area these days with all the red and yellow leaves as well.
 
Yet another nice B1G town and fanbase. Very friendly.

Didn't get to see as much of the town as I would have liked.

The Jucy Lucy at Matt's Bar was good. But the Thurman Cafe Burger in Columbus was a much more sublime rendition of the art of the greasy cheeseburger served in a small neighborhood joint.
 
Agree with the posters above. Add in the beautiful weather and it was a perfect day for football.

One thing I did notice was that the stadium was probably one of the quietest buildings I've ever been in. Even when we had a 3rd down play, the crowd was not loud. They cheered politely after they scored and the did the chant in which they spelled MINNESOTA but it was eerily quiet.
 
Also had a great time in the Twin Cities. Minnesota fans were friendly and welcoming. They were curious about Rutgers and asked questions about enrollment, location, first game, etc. I stayed with a friend who lives within walking distance to the St Paul campus. We walked to the shuttle there, and -- get this -- they have dedicated bus lanes from one campus to another. No traffic. We were at the stadium in 10 minutes. Nice stadium. I really liked the way it looks from the street. All around the top they have hall of famers' names in huge letters carved into the wall. Impressive. The concessions were worse than ours.

One woman walked up to me on the way out and said, pointing to her husband who was wearing a Minnesota sweater, "He's a Rutgers grad." So I shook his hand and introduced myself. He said he went to Rutgers long before me (I had told him I graduated in '87) at a time when "Rutgers was a banking school." I just nodded (had never heard that before) and said that this must have been a great game for him being connected to both schools. His wife then adds, "We're so happy you guys are in the Big Ten." And interestingly, "We helped build this stadium. We are so proud of it. My husband is John Lindahl."

Really nice people. They were so thrilled to have Rutgers up there in Minnesota and so proud. Like I said, they approached me. I was just walking back to the bus.

So I googled him...
https://www.mnpartners.org/mnsights/articles/who_inspires_us/john__nancy_lindahl/

These people are philanthropists who give tons of money to Minnesota, and he's a Rutgers grad. He seemed quite proud to be associated with RU. I think someone should get right on this.

Minneapolis was cool, but I liked St. Paul better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: redking and STPGopherfan
CoachMagoo said:
Also had a great time in the Twin Cities. Minnesota fans were friendly and welcoming. They were curious about Rutgers and asked questions about enrollment, location, first game, etc. I stayed with a friend who lives within walking distance to the St Paul campus. We walked to the shuttle there, and -- get this -- they have dedicated bus lanes from one campus to another. No traffic. We were at the stadium in 10 minutes. Nice stadium. I really liked the way it looks from the street. All around the top they have hall of famers' names in huge letters carved into the wall. Impressive. The concessions were worse than ours.

One woman walked up to me on the way out and said, pointing to her husband who was wearing a Minnesota sweater, "He's a Rutgers grad." So I shook his hand and introduced myself. He said he went to Rutgers long before me (I had told him I graduated in '87) at a time when "Rutgers was a banking school." I just nodded (had never heard that before) and said that this must have been a great game for him being connected to both schools. His wife then adds, "We're so happy you guys are in the Big Ten." And interestingly, "We helped build this stadium. We are so proud of it. My husband is John Lindahl."

Really nice people. They were so thrilled to have Rutgers up there in Minnesota and so proud. Like I said, they approached me. I was just walking back to the bus.

So I googled him...
https://www.mnpartners.org/mnsights/articles/who_inspires_us/john__nancy_lindahl/

These people are philanthropists who give tons of money to Minnesota, and he's a Rutgers grad. He seemed quite proud to be associated with RU. I think someone should get right on this.

Minneapolis was cool, but I liked St. Paul better.
Click to expand...
Did I ever tell you how smart you are?;-)
 
Loved the whole Minnesota experience. They can give Nebraska fans a real run for the money for the friendliest.

Stayed at The Commons which was so convenient and walkable to the Stadium. Highly recommend the hotel which had a few amusing quirks. The lobby, common areas with fireplaces, computer charging areas/business center were very upscale and refined. Quite spacious. The Beacon Bar was one of the better hotel bars I have been. The rooms were clean, functional and perfectly fine. The amusing part of the hotel was the hallway walls and carpeting. The carpet had the wet quishy feel of a frat room floor and the wallpaper looked like it was left over from a bad 60's/early 70's horror movie. Guessing the remodeling will have the hallways last. Still just a bit jarring as so nice and so dumpy at the same time.

Campus was very cool. Great combination of classical and modern. Beautiful fall day and leaves turning color. It was a chamber of commerce day. Love the modern tram car through campus. Fun Bike riding service like Citi Bike right on campus and great bike trails. One of the coolest things I have ever done on a road rip was renting one of the bikes and riding across the Mississippi Rver! Note to NJ and RU painting a bike lane on the shouler of the road is not a bike path. New Vikings stadium puts the soul less Air Conditioning Duct in the Meadowlands to shame.

Made it to Stub and Herb's, Peaches and Herb, Stab and Herpes, amused by the name which we could not remember or chose to forget. Good college dive bar. Drank the aforementioned Grain Belt Beer. Decent light beer. I am sure many of the craft beer pursists on this board will cringe, but thoroughly enjoyed the, Indeed Brewery Blueberry Kettle Sour Beer. It was very tart. Loved it. Lots of Gophers fans in their Hockey Jerseys pre-game on Friday Night.

Game day the same bar had a minny (see what I did their) outside tailgate pre game on patio and parking lot which was alotta fun. MInny Cheerleaders showed up. Others in the group liked the more "upscale" nicer Sally's bar across the street even more.

Tailgating scene reminded me of Nebraska with the pre-game bars and then hordes of people walking to the stadium. Also makes you really appreciate RU' s tailgating. Still fun in own way. Beautiful day makes up for the awful weather at PSU and Wiscy last year.

The Stadium with its brick facade looked like an old historic football stadium like the old Soldier Field/Harvard Stadium. Architect did an amazing job. Inside the stadium were wonderful wide concourses. One of the best and most modern college stadiums I've been. Like how they spell Minnesota in the seats. Field is close to the fans. Really well done! Had no idea how good Minnesota was in the pre-WWII years winning a bunch of National Championships. Impressed. $8.00 sixteen ounce Leinenkugels beer sold inside the stadium. See RU you really do not have to sell the ridiculously priced $6.00 waters!

Now you everybody has to get in their seats including the students because this is the B1G posters are going to be very disappointed because their fans were no different or better than RU, Student section did not fill up until well into 2nd quarter. I thought RU showing was pretty good (1000?) and even some members of the band. Crowd annouced at 46,000. Really reminded me of Rutgers Stadium. Close to same size. Played alot of the same pumped in music and had the same, "And that's another Minnesota first down" chant. Stadium was beautiful but with one end zone kinda open, far quieter than RU. Think besides the Knight, that the Minnesota Gopher may be the coolest and most fun B1G mascot. Fans were so very friendly and polite. Did get alot of where exactly is Rutgers? questions. Amused like RU they are a bit unsure of both their current football coach and hoops coach too. Lots of wait and see. We are not alone!

Just a neat athletic complex and campus. Wonder what its like in January and February.

Great road trip. Highly recommend. Take Uber not the Airport Cabbies.
 
Last edited:
CoachMagoo said:
Also had a great time in the Twin Cities. Minnesota fans were friendly and welcoming. They were curious about Rutgers and asked questions about enrollment, location, first game, etc. I stayed with a friend who lives within walking distance to the St Paul campus. We walked to the shuttle there, and -- get this -- they have dedicated bus lanes from one campus to another. No traffic. We were at the stadium in 10 minutes. Nice stadium. I really liked the way it looks from the street. All around the top they have hall of famers' names in huge letters carved into the wall. Impressive. The concessions were worse than ours.

One woman walked up to me on the way out and said, pointing to her husband who was wearing a Minnesota sweater, "He's a Rutgers grad." So I shook his hand and introduced myself. He said he went to Rutgers long before me (I had told him I graduated in '87) at a time when "Rutgers was a banking school." I just nodded (had never heard that before) and said that this must have been a great game for him being connected to both schools. His wife then adds, "We're so happy you guys are in the Big Ten." And interestingly, "We helped build this stadium. We are so proud of it. My husband is John Lindahl."

Really nice people. They were so thrilled to have Rutgers up there in Minnesota and so proud. Like I said, they approached me. I was just walking back to the bus.

So I googled him...
https://www.mnpartners.org/mnsights/articles/who_inspires_us/john__nancy_lindahl/

These people are philanthropists who give tons of money to Minnesota, and he's a Rutgers grad. He seemed quite proud to be associated with RU. I think someone should get right on this.

Minneapolis was cool, but I liked St. Paul better.
Click to expand...

Strange. His NEP profile says he holds both a BA and a BS from Minnesota. No mention of Rutgers.
 
knightfan7 said:
Strange. His NEP profile says he holds both a BA and a BS from Minnesota. No mention of Rutgers.
Click to expand...

He may have gone to the Stonier School of Banking for a graduate degree when it was at Rutgers. A lot of the older wealth in Minnesota knows Rutgers through Stonier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: redking
It sounds like some of you had a really good time, which makes me happy. I hope you'll come again. I have family in north Jersey, so I hope to catch a game at Rutgers someday.

I have to agree with you that our turnout and our fan enthusiasm is lacking generally, and this year in particular. We need a few years of notable winning to regenerate the fan base. But this year we have a lackluster slate of home games (nothing personal) and the fan base is skeptical of coach Tracy Claeys. Not to mention an ongoing public relations disaster with radically increased season ticket prices the last few years. So we're struggling to fill the stadium, and you saw the result of that.

But we're proud of our state and our Twin Cities, so when we read your positive visitor reports, our hearts are suffused with joy. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: STPGopherfan and Blitz8RUCrazy
everybody knows my name said:
It sounds like some of you had a really good time, which makes me happy. I hope you'll come again. I have family in north Jersey, so I hope to catch a game at Rutgers someday.

I have to agree with you that our turnout and our fan enthusiasm is lacking generally, and this year in particular. We need a few years of notable winning to regenerate the fan base. But this year we have a lackluster slate of home games (nothing personal) and the fan base is skeptical of coach Tracy Claeys. Not to mention an ongoing public relations disaster with radically increased season ticket prices the last few years. So we're struggling to fill the stadium, and you saw the result of that.

But we're proud of our state and our Twin Cities, so when we read your positive visitor reports, our hearts are suffused with joy. :)
Click to expand...

What you said! The only thing I'll add is when full TCF can be lively. A.D. will need to work some magic on the non diehards.

Welcome Rutgers!
 
The general atmosphere at TCF has been very loud at various points in recent years, and I would include the Michigan and TCU games in that group. The Minnesota fan base has given up, mainly due to huge ticket increases and losing to Iowa and Penn State. Both of those games were considered to be "sure" wins.

No offense to Rutgers, but the apathy really hit home Saturday. And for the record the RU fan attendance was stronger than what I have seen from some of the other B10 fanbases. I was impressed by the 16 member traveling band and the overall group.

11 AM games generally are awful, in fact if a TV audience is important, than at least one Big Ten Team in the east should have to play at 9 or 10 AM EST so we the hinterlands or West Coast have something to watch during breakfast. TV and ratings are all that counts, right?

I have noticed that the SEC teams do not get all the SH.T 12AM EST games that the Big Ten seems to accept. This all needs to change to later start times. Why don't all the SEC West Teams play at 11 AM? (12 AM EST) answer: they said FU to that

Oh, by the way about 5,000 of us quit buying season tickets this year after they tried to put a huge increase on us. At least about 10,000 Students showed up, out of the 50K at the U of M. The students showed up on force and that is the only good thing I can say about last Saturday.

 
Last edited:
It was good day for my 76 year old Pops, he got on the plane at 6:30 AM and we arrived about an hour before this pre-game show.

Edit: so you know, the Minnesota fans were packing the West side where the cameras were, and the Missouri fans were in to front:



My dad was a student that traveled to the 1961 Rose Bowl, and I always joked that he might not see another Minnesota Golden Gopher Rose Bowl before he passed, and since he went underground this year, it never happened.

I am sure had he lived he would have been at Maryland last week and would have relished the trip to NJ to see Gopher Football. I used to work in Roseland NJ for AMI so I want to be there!
 
Last edited:
PogeyKahn said:
The general atmosphere at TCF has been very loud at various points in recent years, and I would include the Michigan and TCU games in that group. The Minnesota fan base has given up, mainly due to huge ticket increases and losing to Iowa and Penn State. Both of those games were considered to be "sure" wins.

No offense to Rutgers, but the apathy really hit home Saturday. And for the record the RU fan attendance was stronger than what I have seen from some of the other B10 fanbases. I was impressed by the 16 member traveling band and the overall group.

11 AM games generally are awful, in fact if a TV audience is important, than at least one Big Ten Team in the east should have to play at 9 or 10 AM EST so we the hinterlands or West Coast have something to watch during breakfast. TV and ratings are all that counts, right?

I have noticed that the SEC teams do not get all the SH.T 12AM EST games that the Big Ten seems to accept. This all needs to change to later start times. Why don't all the SEC West Teams play at 11 AM? (12 AM EST) answer: they said FU to that

Oh, by the way about 5,000 of us quit buying season tickets this year after they tried to put a huge increase on us. At least about 10,000 Students showed up, out of the 50K at the U of M. The students showed up on force and that is the only good thing I can say about last Saturday.

View embedded media
Click to expand...
 
That's a home game? INCREDIBLE job by the Minnesota band. The pregame atmosphere is ELECTRIC.
This is what my dreams R for RU-notice Rutgers fans no pregame video (the band and fans ARE the pregame).

I think our programs face some similar challenges. A lack of winning/recent winning, we're not the only game in town (for RU-Giants, Jets, Yankees, Mets, Devils, Rangers, Red Bulls/NYCFC, independent league baseball, Broadway, concerts in NJ, NY and Philly (90 minutes away with all of its offerngs just to name a few). Also for different reasons probably not the easiest schools for recruiting.

Just remember (like our fans), season tickets, donations, yada and funding is a nice chunk why Ohio State or Michigan do as well as they do. Recruits also take note of facilities.

Also remember Minnesota may not show the "w"s sometimes but just by B1G membership both the schools athletic programs and directly or indirectly else REALLY benefit. What's a share now-$21 millior/yeas? Before the Big Ten Rutgers was losing more money than any program in the country (or very close). As R one crew member stated a few years ago (at least) we're relevant. Could have been stuck on the outside of the major conferences.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

bac2therac

Minnesota Epilogue

Replies
29
Views
1K
Men's Basketball
ColonelRutgers
ColonelRutgers
J

Observations from Syracuse

Replies
25
Views
2K
Rutgers Football
thegock
thegock
Ash_Hole

Kirk Ciarrocca is (objectively) a Great hire

Replies
158
Views
4K
Rutgers Football
PSAL_Hoops
P
armenius

Why did Rutgers miss the tournament?

Replies
36
Views
1K
Men's Basketball
bac2therac
bac2therac
bac2therac

GAME 27 WISCONSIN: Give it all you got

Replies
41
Views
2K
Men's Basketball
Greene Rice FIG
G
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT
Top Bottom
Back