Minnesota Golden Gophers - University Of Minnesota Gophers

The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 23 (11 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Ten Conference.

The Gophers women's ice hockey team is a six-time NCAA champion and seven-time national champion. In women's ice hockey, the Gophers belong to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In all other sports, they belong to the Big Ten Conference. Most of the facilities that the teams use for training and competitive play are located on the East Bank of the Minneapolis campus. There are arenas for men's and women's basketball (Williams Arena) as well as ice hockey (Mariucci Arena and Ridder Arena). The Gopher football team began playing at TCF Bank Stadium in September 2009. The women's soccer team plays on the St. Paul campus in Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.

The Cheerleaders and the Dance Team are also part of the university's athletic department; they are present at events for basketball, ice hockey, and football, and compete for UCA/UDA national titles in the winter. The University of Minnesota spirit squad was the first as sideline cheerleading was invented at the U of M, and it currently prides itself in being one of the largest spirit squads in the country. The U of M spirit squad currently consists of three cheerleading teams (All Girl, Coed, and Smoed), a dance team, Goldy Gopher, and a unique ice hockey cheerleading team.

During the 2006â€"07 academic year, the Golden Gophers wrestling team won the NCAA national championship and the Big Ten team title. The Golden Gophers also won conference championships in men's ice hockey, men's golf, women's rowing, men's swimming and diving, and women's indoor track and field.

Sports sponsored

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Baseball

National Championships (3):

1956, 1960, 1964

NCAA Tournament Appearances (31):

1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016

Big Ten Regular Season Championships (23):

1933, 1935, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2016

Big Ten Conference Tournament Championships (8):

1982, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2010

Men's basketball

Big Ten Regular Season Championships (9):

1906, 1907, 1911, 1917, 1919, 1937, 1972, 1982

NCAA Tournament Appearances (9):

1972, 1982, 1989, 1990, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017

Sweet 16 Appearances (3):

1982, 1989, 1990

Elite Eight Appearances (1):

1990

NIT Appearances (12):

1973, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2014

NIT Championships (2):

1993, 2014

Note: A 1997 Big Ten regular season championship, NCAA Tournament appearances in 1994, 1995, 1997 (Final Four), and 1999, as well as NIT appearances in 1996 and 1998 (Championship) were vacated due to NCAA sanctions.

Women's basketball

NCAA Tournament Appearances (10):

1994, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2015, 2018

Sweet 16 Appearances (3):

2003, 2004, 2005

Elite Eight Appearances (1):

2004

Final Four Appearances (1):

2004

Men's cross country

Big Ten Team Championships (4):

1909, 1914, 1964, 1969

Women's cross country

Big Ten Team Championships (2):

2007, 2008

Football

National Championships (7):

1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1960

Big Ten Conference Championships (18):

1900, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1915, 1927, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1960, 1967

Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest Championships (2):

1892, 1893

Bowl Games (19):

Citrus Bowl â€" 2015

Hall of Fame Classic â€"1977

Holiday Bowl - 2016

Independence Bowl â€" 1985

Insight Bowl â€" 2006, 2008, 2009

Liberty Bowl â€" 1986

MicronPC.com Bowl â€" 2000

Music City Bowl â€" 2002, 2004, 2005

Quick Lane Bowl â€" 2015

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas â€" 2012

Rose Bowl â€" 1961, 1962

Sun Bowl â€" 1999, 2003

Texas Bowl â€" 2013

Bowl game victories: 1962 Rose Bowl, 1985 Independence Bowl, 2002 Music City Bowl, 2003 Sun Bowl, 2004 Music City Bowl, 2015 Quick Lane Bowl, 2016 Holiday Bowl

Traveling trophies

The Little Brown Jug â€" Accidentally left in Minnesota back in 1903 by Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost, it is painted with the victories of the two teams.
Floyd of Rosedale â€" Since 1935 the Gophers and the Iowa Hawkeyes have fought to win this bronze pig. The Gophers won the 2010 and 2011 match up for the pig, upsetting the favored Hawkeyes at TCF Bank Stadium.
Paul Bunyan's Axe â€" Minnesota and the Wisconsin Badgers have passed this trophy back and forth since 1948, although it records the two teams' encounters since 1890.
Governor's Victory Bell â€" The bell was created to commemorate the 1993 entrance of Penn State's Nittany Lions into the Big Ten.
$5-Bits-O-Broken-Chair Trophy - The newest of the five trophies. From a 2014 exchange on Twitter, Goldy Gopher created a trophy with a parody account of the then coach of Nebraska Bo Pelini.

Golf

Gymnastics

Men's ice hockey

National Championships (2 pre-NCAA, 5 NCAA):

1929, 1940, 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002, 2003

WCHA Regular Season Championships (14):

1953, 1954, 1970, 1975, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1997, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013

Big Ten Regular Season Championships (2):

2013â€"14

2014â€"15

Big Ten Tournament Championships (1):

2015

WCHA Tournament Championships (14):

1961, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2007

NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (21):

1953, 1954, 1961, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2012, 2014

Women's ice hockey

National Championships (7):

2000 (AWCHA), 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016

WCHA Regular Season Championships (8):

2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014

WCHA Tournament Championships (7):

2002, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (13):

2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Women's rowing

Big Ten Championships (1):

2007

NCAA Champions in V2

2007

Women's soccer

Big Ten Championships (4):

1995, 1997, 2008, 2016

Softball

Big Ten Regular Season Championships (4):

1986, 1988, 1991, 2017

Big Ten Tournament Championships (4):

1999, 2014, 2016, 2017

Women's College World Series appearances (2):

1976, 1978

Spirit Squads

Dance Team

National Championships (8):

2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Swimming

Men's tennis

Big Ten Team Championships (15):

1910, 1911, 1912, 1918, 1932, 1933, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2015

Men's track

Women's track

Volleyball

Big Ten Championships (2):

2002, 2015

NCAA Tournament Appearances (21):

1989, 1993, 1996â€"97, 1999, 2000â€"13, 2015, 2016

Sweet 16 Appearances (16):

1989, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016

Final Four Appearances (5):

2003, 2004, 2009, 2015, 2016

Wrestling

National Championships (3):

2001, 2002, 2007

Big Ten Team Championships (12):

1910, 1912, 1913, 1941, 1957, 1959, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007

Notable non varsity sports

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Rugby

Minnesota rugby plays Division I college rugby in the Big Ten Universities conference against traditional Big 10 rivals such as Wisconsin and Iowa. Minnesota qualified for the national playoffs in 2008, and finished the 2008 season ranked 7th in the nation. Some of Minnesota's games have been well attended by fans, with the team drawing as many as 6,000 fans to watch the team play at TCF Bank Stadium.

Traditions

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The "Golden" Gophers

The University Mascot is derived from a nickname for the state of Minnesota, "The Gopher State." The original design was based on the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. The state nickname derives from a political cartoon by R. O. Sweeny, published as a broadside in 1858. The cartoon depicted state legislators as gophers dragging the state in the wrong direction. The nickname was associated with the university as early as the publication of the first yearbook in 1888, which was titled "The Gopher". Other early yearbooks included depictions of gophers as well, and the University of Minnesota football coach Clarence Spears officially named the football team the Gophers in 1926. After the radio announcer Halsey Hall began referring to the team as the Golden Gophers due to the color of their uniforms, the team was renamed under coach Bernie Bierman.

School songs

School songs for the university include Minnesota Rouser, Minnesota March, Go Gopher Victory, Our Minnesota, Minnesota Fight, Hail! Minnesota, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.