Things That Matter

Alex Micheletti, Sam Thompson
and Matthew O'Flaherty

We turned MavBlog over to a few of our interns this afternoon.  We asked the three of them to compile a short list of memories during their time here at Minnesota State.  

One of the interns, Sam Thompson (Clive, Iowa), is a sophomore member of the Minnesota State football team.  Alex Micheletti (Eagan, Minn.) is a junior majoring in sports managament and Matthew O'Flaherty (Wabasha, Minn.) is a junior in sports management.

Before heading off to class, Cole Kukowski (Jr., Lewiston, Minn.) also contributed. Here's what they came up with.

1.     The homecoming win against Winona State in front of a record breaking crowd at Blakeslee Stadium.

2.     The Black Out, White Out and Purple Out games during the 2010-2011 men’s basketball season. More than 1,000 students chanting I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN. And they did.

3.     Eating at Buffalo Wild Wings every Wednesday night before a football game. Can’t go wrong with unlimited wings and fries for $10 for a college student.

4.     Road trip to Springfield, Mass., to watch the men’s basketball team play in the 2011 Elite Eight. 

5.     Watching the Mavericks earn the first home men’s hockey sweep in school history against the University of Minnesota.

6.     The first night in the dorms. 

7.     After the road victory against Winona State last year for men’s basketball, we attended a house party in Winona and shouted, “It’s great to be a Maverick”. Then we got kicked out. 

8.     The 27-26 win at Blakeslee against Augustana that was nationally televised on CBS sports.  Great crowd, great win.

9.     Eating gyro’s in Gage.

10.  Running to the north end at Blakeslee to ring the Victory Bell.

11.  Fire alarms going off in the middle of the night.  Not good during the winter months.

12.  Guys puking in the weight room after rope workout.

13.  Watching the 2010 Olympics on tv in the dorms and seeing David Backes rush down the left side of the rink and score against Norway.

14.  Snow football behind Gage.

15.  QBs getting down and dirty.  Jon Daniels blocking on a double reverse vs. Augustana.

16.  Unbelievable Jefferson Mason dunk in Taylor Center against Winona State.

17.   Always amazed by the activity in Myers Field House in the afternoon.  Athletes working hard, preparing for competition.  How does no one get hurt????

18.  Waking up on a Saturday morning, putting on our black maverick sweat suit and walking over to Gage to eat our pre-game meal. Hearing Coach Hoffner give us a speech about the band of brothers we are and how we need to protect and defend Blakeslee Stadium. The time we have for meeting and the time we have to tape our injuries. But most importantly I won’t forget the moments we have every Saturday walking over, hand in hand with my brothers, ready to do battle. 

From the Archives - Keeping up With ?

Sometimes we like to play a game here in the office called "Who is This Guy?"

We did this yesterday after pulling this photo from one of our files and it took a couple of hints for our interns to come with the correct answer. You may or may not recognize the good-lookin' dude on the left.  In the event that you are unable to come up with a name, perhaps it would help if you clicked on the link located HERE. Or HERE.

Yes, indeed, it is the gold-medalist from the 1976 Olympics held in Montreal, Bruce Jenner.  While the current generation would certainly recognize Bruce as Kim Kardashian's step-dad, those of us from an earlier generation will remember him as one of the USA's all-time top athletes.

Jenner competed in the '72 Olympics in Munich where he placed tenth.  After capturing national decathlon titles in 1974 and 1976, he became a world-wide phenomenon in Montreal when he established the decathlon world record with his gold-medal winning performance.

You can see Myers Field House in the background of the photo and Jenner is sporting a Southern Minnesota Relays tee-shirt.  Back in the late 1970's the Maverick track and field program did a speaker series for three summers where it brought in track stars for an event held on campus in which college and high school student-athletes and coaches attended.  Including Jenner in 1977, high jumper Dwight Stones and sprinter Wilma Rudolph also ventured to the Key City during this time.

Sounds likes it must have been a pretty good deal and as Mark Schuck would say "Oh, the good old days!"

National Signing Day (a reasonable facsimile)

Old Betsy standing on guard

Today is National Signing Day and for those of us in intercollegiate athletics, it's the day when the fax machine becomes relevant again.

Editor's note:  the signed letters of intent actually come into the fax machine in the main athletic office while our 1990s-era machine stands stoic, like a sentinel waiting for the phone line to ring so it can spring into action, converting the beeping electronic message onto a sheet of white paper.  About the only things that come through anymore are offers for charter cruise trips or promoters hoping that we will book their tribute bands. Yup. So in the event you're looking for the latest group of guys pretending to be ZZ Top or the Stones, be sure to give us a call.  We've got a fax with their promoter's contact information.

Today we're announcing recruiting classes for football and women's soccer.  These high schoolers will begin at MSU in the fall, forming the bulk of freshman classes for those two sports and hopefully being part of the success others have enjoyed here during the course of four years (or five years if they redshirt) as Maverick student-athletes.  And in football and soccer at MSU we're talking about teams that went 9-3 and 17-3-3, respectively last fall.  The football team, which expects to announce 15 commitments today, came within one win of going to the NCAA tournament and the women's soccer team enjoyed a nice postseason run in getting to the NCAA regional tournament championship game.  So welcome aboard, future Minnesota State student-athletes.  It's great to be a Maverick!