Best Ever?

We're now completely finished with the fall sports seasons and what did we learn?

We learned that our fall sports teams had a pretty good fall, that's what we learned.  O.k., an understatement for sure, as pretty good doesn't do what just happened justice.  At all.

Old news to many of you, but just to reiterate - the Maverick football team just completed its most-successful season ever.  13 straight wins to start with.  A Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Southern Division title.  A Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference overall title.  A berth in the NCAA Division II tournament.  A bye in the first round as a result of being the #1 seed.  Win over Northwest Missouri State in a second round game and a vanquishing of Missouri Western in a national quarterfinal game with both games played at historic Blakeslee Stadium. Then a national semi-final game at The Blake with Valdosta State traveling from Georgia to take on the Mavericks.  Crazy to think about it, but MSU hosted three NCAA football tournament games in 2012 and two of those games were in December.  IN DECEMBER! While the Mavericks may have lost to Valdosta to finish 13-1 for the year (Valdosta ended up winning the national title, by the way), the season was anything but unforgettable and certainly unprecedented.

The Maverick women's soccer team, meanwhile also entered uncharted waters by advancing to the NCAA Elite Eight after capturing its first-ever regional championship.  MSU also claimed its first-ever NSIC regular-season title and including a #1-ranking for two weeks in October, was ranked in the top 25 of every poll in 2012.  The Mavericks finished the year with a 17-1-5 overall record. Nicole Dooher was the league's Offensive Player of the Year, Lauren Sommers the NSIC Defensive Player of the Year, Caitlin Graboskie the conference Newcomer of the Year and Peter McGahey the NSIC Coach of the Year. It had never happened before, but this year the Mavericks swept the NSIC postseason individual awards. MSU led the NSIC in virtually every statistical category and set 21 team or individual school records along the way.

The Maverick men's cross country team returned to the NCAA national meet for the first time since 2008 and posted a 20th place finish.  And although the women's cross country team didn't make it to the NCAA meet (they finished seventh at the regional meet after placing 13th at the same meet the year before), at one point they were rated #20 in the nation.

The question has come up as to whether or not this is the best-ever start for the Maverick Department of Athletics. The Directors' Cup standings, which awards points to schools based on how they finish in NCAA competition in order to determine the top athletic departments in the nation, have the Mavericks in sixth place following the completion of the fall sports season. The Maverick football team finished third nationally and women's soccer placed fifth. Throw in men's cross country and MSU had three teams score points nationally this fall.  Since the inception of the Directors' Cup in 1995-96, the previous best for MSU following the fall was a seventh-place rating in 1995-96 (women's cross country was fourth nationally that year and men's cross country was fifth).

MSU has had other great falls prior to 1995-96, when the Directors' Cup standings were inaugurated.  For example, in 1987-88 the men's cross country team finished second and the football team played in a NCAA quarterfinal game.  Based on the system used by the Directors' Cup folks, MSU would have received 160 points in 1987-88, placing it 17th in this year's standings. MSU has been credited with 210 points this year, based on the national finishes of football, women's soccer and men's cross country.  The next-best point total of 164 points for the Mavericks was in 2007-08 when men's cross country was fifth, women's soccer was ninth and women's volleyball was 33rd. MSU was rated 14th following the fall that year based on those 164 points.  You heard it here - a case can be made that this is the best fall ever for Minnesota State Athletics.

It is interesting to note that when the Mavericks finished second in the final Directors' Cup standings in 2008-09 (our best final finish ever), MSU stood 22nd after the fall.

Have a great Holiday Season everyone!  It's great to be a Maverick!

Merry Christmas from the Mavericks

This year's Christmas video from Minnesota State Athletics.

Merry Christmas from the Mavericks

Lot's to be thankful for.  Tremendous student-athletes, welcoming campus, supportive community, fans and alumni.

Wishing you all the joy, hope and wonder of the Holiday Season.

It's great to be a Maverick!

Get Your Ya Yas Out

Senior wide receiver Adam Thielen helped
lead the Mavericks to a 13-1 record this year.

Some quick catching up to do here as classes wind down and we make the final sprint toward Christmas.

Needless to say, the incredible fall our teams have been experiencing has been soaked in success.

The football team hosted three NCAA play-off games, dispatching Northwest Missouri State and Missouri Western before falling in the national semifinals to Valdosta State (Ga.) this past Saturday. The Mavericks went undefeated, racking up 13 straight wins, before falling to the boys from the Peach State at Blakeslee Stadium.  Historic, indeed.

The women's soccer team, which advanced to the Elite Eight, finished an incredible 17-1-5 on the year.  The Mavericks staged an unbelievable comeback late in the national quarterfinal game at Grand Valley State to send the game into overtime, only to eventually fall in a seven-round shoot-out to the host Lakers.

Character, leadership, family. We heard these words constantly as the teams worked their way through their seasons.  Same thing for the men's cross country team which made it back to the national meet for the first time 2008 and posted a 20th-place finish. The women's cross country team, which made an appearance in the national top twenty poll for the first time in a while this year, finished seventh at the regional meet and with several youngsters leading the way, are trending upward. The Maverick volleyball squad finished 18-11 and spent much of the year in the national top twenty poll. Included was a MSU win over Concordia on September 18th, the program's first win over the eventual national champions since 2002.

And so on it goes with our winter programs now in full swing.  More on those programs the next time, with lots of success there, too, to expound upon.

A few other things we did want to mention.

A big congratulations goes out to softball coach Lori Meyer with the announcement that she has been selected for induction into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013.  Meyer, who has been skippering the Mavericks since 1985, has racked up more than 900 wins during her outstanding career.  Simply no one better.

A couple of notes on former Minnesota State football coaches with Jerry Olszewski being named a finalist for the head job at Augustana and Chuck Martin coaching in the NCAA Division I national championship game as a member of the staff at Notre Dame.  Olszewski, who has constructed a 32-18 mark in the last five years as the head coach at St. Olaf, had two stints on the MSU football staff (1993-97 and 1999-02).  Martin was on MSU's staff as a graduate assistant in '92.

It looks like Bemidji State will be looking for a new director of athletics this spring with the announcement that Rick Goeb's contract will not be renewed.

How 'bout this great play by senior forward Eriah Hayes of the Minnesota State men's hockey team. A lot of people thought it might be ESPN Top Ten Plays of the Day worthy.

Lastly, want to point out that more than 25,000 fans attended MSU home events over the course of the past two weekends with Blakeslee Stadium, Taylor Center, Myers Field House, All Seasons Arena and Verizon Wireless Center all hosting Maverick competitions. 

Truly great and proud to be a Maverick the past 14 days.

Living With the Lockout

Former Minnesota State forward David Backes is part of the
NHL PA negotiating team

Normally at this time of year, the National Hockey League is well into its regular-season schedule.

Teams would have been done with training camp and done with the preseason games. However, with the league owners locking out the players due to the fact that the two sides lack a collective bargaining agreement, two months worth of games have been lost. And while negotiations have been taking place, it appears that things aren't about to change.  NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been quoted as saying that with the two sides deadlocked, that maybe they should step away from the process for a couple of weeks.

We thought we might check in with a couple of former Mavericks who have been affected by this situation.

St. Louis Blues team captain David Backes, who played for Minnesota State from 2003-06, has been heavily involved with the National Hockey League Players Association the last several months as member of the organization's negotiating team.

"(This involves) being at the meetings and having input on which direction we should go," said the Blaine, Minn., native. "We inform those that are not at the meetings and learn about the process and history of negotiations."

He and a number of his teammates also head to the rink where they skate four times a week under the guidance of their own hired coaches, then go to the gym to work out. Backes, who with his wife Kelly assists Five Acres Animal Shelter with Backes' Buddies, currently is in enrolled in six credits of online courses at Minnesota State and expects to complete his degree next fall.

Forward Ryan Carter of the New Jersey Devils, who patrolled the ice for the Mavericks from 2004-06, is riding things out in the Twin Cities.

"Having a long season last year and playing in the finals through mid June can take its toll on the body two fold," said Carter, whose Devils lost to Los Angeles in last year's Stanley Cup Finals. "Obviously it's a lot of games in high-intensity hockey. And it makes for a much shorter off season and less time to recover. This is part of the reason I have not looked into playing in other leagues throughout this lockout and have decided to make sure that when a season begins that I am healthy and ready to play. Another reason is the quality of skates and workouts that I have been involved in. Fortunately for me I come from Minnesota and the Twin Cities seems to be a hot spot for NHL players to reside. Four to five times a week a group of 30 NHL guys get together for an hour-and-a-half and play. Half the time is spent practicing drills being run by coaches that kindly step in and guide us and the other half is spent scrimmaging. Intensity is high, though there is no bone-crushing contact and the pace keeps us in pretty good shape. To supplement, I spend a few hours a couple times a week in the gym and training on a skating treadmill at Acceleration Minnesota."

Hockey continues on in other venues outside of the world's top league. Several former Mavericks are playing in Europe or in North American minor professional leagues. Forward Kael Mouillierat, who spent most of last year one step below the NHL as a member of the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers, is in Boise enjoying a banner season with the Idaho Steelheads of the East Coast Hockey League. Mouillierat, who spent 2006-10 with Minnesota State and one and half seasons with Idaho before making the jump to the AHL last season, ranks second in the ECHL with ten goals and stands seventh in scoring with 20 points in 13 games. With several former NHLers assigned to AHL-affiliates as a result of the lockout, it's likely that the Edmonton, Alta., native is back in Idaho due to the trickle-down effect.

"Boise is a great city and definitely one of the best places to play in the ECHL," said Mouillierat. "I've enjoyed my time here and have been treated extremely well. Obviously I would have liked to have been back in the AHL, but am happy to back here for another year.  It was a great experience in Bridgeport last season and I was lucky enough to get a chance to earn a full-time role on the team and tried to make the most of it.  I learned a lot in my time there and what it takes to get to and stay at that level, as well as what it takes for guys to make the next step to The Show."

Given his domination of the competition at the ECHL level, it's possible he could be back in the AHL once things are settled at the NHL level.

And depending on how the NHL and the NHLPA continue to work with each other, Backes and Carter could be back on NHL ice soon. But one never knows for sure.

Brad Smith, a 1992 MSU graduate who interned in the Maverick athletic communications office in the early '90s, worked with the Minnesota Wild in media relations and team services from 2000 until the 2004-05 season in which an entire season was lost due to a lockout. No NHL games were played that year and Smith, who also worked for the Minnesota Twins prior to joining the Wild, said that the situation was tough.

"The lockout in 2004 was nerve wracking and awkward in many ways for the front office during that time," offered Smith, who transitioned to a successful real estate career after leaving the Wild.  "There were so many unknowns and so many erroneous reports about was happening with the negotiations ("they're close and an announcement could come tomorrow" and it wouldn't happen).  Even after they announced the official cancellation of the season, there were reports that maybe they would open the season back up. There was a lot of animosity in the front office because they chose to lay some people off, cut different hours for others, etc. A lot of people moved on to different careers at that time, including myself."

Here's hoping the NHL is back up and running soon. It'd be nice to see MSU alums performing in the best league in the world and others continuing on with the goal of getting there.

It's great to be a Maverick!

Hand and Foot

Senior wideout and holder Adam Thielen (left) holds for
Sam Brockshus (right) in MSU's win over MSU Moorhead
earlier this season.

The relationship between a holder and a kicker is one of the more unique ones in sports.  It is one built on trust, one that must be solidified on repetition.   For Minnesota State senior holder (and wideout) Adam Thielen and junior kicker Sam Brockshus, it is one that blossomed over the last three years.

Thielen has served as the primary holder for Brockshus for the better part of each of their careers, minus a few games missed when Thielen was injured and Brockshus’ redshirt season a year ago.  But it is safe to say that for the majority of Brockshus’ 225 points, it has been Thielen putting the ball on the ground for the hold.

“It took a little time for each of us to get used to each other,” said Thielen.  “But it probably took more time for Sam to get used to me than the other way around.  Like anything, we practice it quite a bit, especially during two-a-days.”

Thielen has taken his leadership role seriously this season as he serves as one of four team captains.   

He enters this week’s game as MSU’s active leader in receptions (53), yards (804), receiving touchdowns (6) and receiving yards per game (89.3).  In the Mavericks’ 30-20 win at Winona State on Oct. 20, Thielen hauled in ten catches for 128 yards and three touchdowns.  Additionally, he has caught 28 passes over the last three games for 394 yards and five touchdowns.

Ironically enough, Brockshus also recorded one of his best games as a Maverick against the Warriors as well, as he turned in a 12-point effort after nailing all three of his field goal and extra point attempts, including a career-long 47-yarder.  For the season, the Spencer, Iowa native has hit on 15-of-19 field goal attempts and 38-of-39 PATs en route to scoring a team-high 83 points this season.

For both of them they were named the NSIC Offensive and Special Teams player of the week for the effort.

Thielen, a native of Detroit Lakes, Minn., and sophomore offensive lineman and longsnapper Josh Meeker were the only players to have their hands on all 30 points in the win over the Warriors.

When asked about the career-long 47-yarder by Brockshus, Thielen knew it was true without even looking up.

“I knew right away,” said Thielen.  “I can tell the way it comes off my hand, how he kicks it, and by the sound.”

Kickers are known for being a bit quirky, but if there any quirks about Brockshus, they aren’t known, at least to us. 

“Prior to every kick, Adam tells me the same thing,” says Brockshus.  “ ‘Tempo.’ Once he says that, I know we are good to go.  Sometimes he gives me a high five but not much other than that.”

The duo is close both on the field and off it.

“We have a great relationship,” said Thielen.  “He is guy you want to be around.  It makes it easier to be on the field with a guy who doesn’t blame the holder when things go wrong.  And I don’t blame him either.”

“Adam does a great job keeping me relaxed,” said Brockshus.  “Both on the field and off he is very easy going.  He is such a great leader for this team.”

For both of them, their seasons are mirroring their careers.  Thielen ranks second in career receptions (177), third in receiving yards (2,430) and fourth in touchdown receptions (18) while Brockshus ranks second in points scored (225), second in PAT kicks made (123), tied for second in PAT kicks attempted (129), fourth in field goals made (34), and sixth in field goals attempted (47). 

Jamie Pass (left) holds for Kenny Navitsky in a contest
against North Dakota State on Oct. 2, 1993

But they aren’t the only duo ranks so highly amongst the school’s all-time holder/kicker combinations.  Perhaps prior to the Thielen/Brockshus tandem, the most prolific holder and kicker combo was Jamie Pass and Kenny Navitsky.  Pass, who was one of MSU’s most successful quarterbacks, held for Navitsky who is the Mavericks all-time leader in points scored (241), PAT kicks made (136), PAT kicks attempted (147), field goals attempted (62) and tied for the all-time lead in field goals made (35).

Much like Thielen and Brockshus, Pass and Navitsky had a great relationship on and off the field as well.

“He was my best friend and my roommate,” said Navitsky. “A lot of people don’t realize it, but the reason he came in to hold is that I went through a span of holders after Augie Hubbard graduated.  After that I had three different guys during camp and it was a disaster.  Finally, Jamie literally said ‘I am going to hold for you.’  Coach Runkle wasn’t over the moon for it, but he took charge.  His confidence obviously was overwhelmingly contagious. I am a confident guy but Jamie walked on a cloud of confidence and that is huge when you are a kicker, because when you get a good snap and good hold, you have no excuse not to make it.”

Brockshus has his sights set on virtually all of Navitsky’s records, but you wouldn’t know it by talking to him.

“It is hard sometimes not to get wrapped up in records and whatnot,” said Brockshus. “I take the approach that the reason I have scored so many points is purely a direct reflection of how good the teams have been since I have been here and how lucky I have been to be a part of some really good teams that score a lot of points and some great defenses that give the offense and myself good field position.  It (the records) is something I try not to think about too much but it does come up and it has really been an honor to be a part of.”

We're #1 and, um, some other stuff

Peter McGahey has led the Minnesota
State women's soccer team to a #1
ranking for the first time in the program's
history

With several of our programs doing so well this fall, it seems like it's been week after week of each team topping one another in terms of accomplishments.

The football team is undefeated. The Maverick men's cross country team won its first two meets of the year. The volleyball team defeated four-time defending national champion Concordia in a five-set match played before a large and noisy crowd in Taylor Center, etc.   

So you knew it was going to take something truly significant to really cause a stir.  That moment came Tuesday morning when it was announced that the National Collegiate Soccer Coaches Association released information that the Maverick women's soccer program had been rated #1 in the nation. 

Obviously being ranked as the top team in the land is unique, but for coach Peter McGahey and his crew the ranking took on added meaning due to the fact that it's the first time for the program.  That and the fact that at most schools, no matter what the sport, it really doesn't happen every week.

Besides women's soccer this week, recent Minnesota State teams rated #1 include: women's basketball (March 3, 2009. MSU was ranked #1 three times that year), wrestling (Feb. 7, 2008. MSU was rated #1 twice that year), men's basketball (Feb. 1, 2005).Women's soccer is rated #1 for the first time in the program's history.  So besides being the first time for women's soccer, it's also only the fourth time for a MSU team recently and the first since women's basketball back in 2009.

The Mavericks, who stand 12-1-1 on the year, head into this weekend riding a ten-game winning streak and a 12-game unbeaten streak.

As mentioned, a number of teams are enjoying great years.  Besides the #1 ranking by women's soccer, football is #2 in D2Football.com poll/#9 in AFCA poll, volleyball is rated #13, men's cross country ranks #16th and women's cross country is #20th. 

Speaking of cross country, the Maverick men are perfectly positioned for a return trip the national meet, which takes place Nov. 20 in Joplin, Mo.  Prior to that is the NCAA central region meet, which also is scheduled to take place in Joplin on Nov. 3.  The Mavericks are rated third in the region with the top four teams at the national meet receiving auto bids to the national meet.

The MSU women, meanwhile are rated fourth in the region with the top five teams in the region receiving auto bids based on regional meet performances.

Both teams are scheduled to compete at the 2012 NSIC meet this weekend (Saturday) at the Lee Bolstad Golf Course in Minneapolis.  The meet website is located here.

One other thing before signing off this afternoon.  Congratulations to Mike Hastings, first-year head coach of the Minnesota State men's hockey program.  The Mavericks earned a 4-1 nonconference road win at Alabama-Huntsville last Friday in giving the Crookston, Minn., native a win in his debut.

In the event you were curious as to how other MSU coaches did in their first outings as Maverick coaches, here you go...

Lori Meyer (softball): 7-0 loss at lost Texas Tech, 1985
Jim Makovsky (wrestling): 35-8 win over Iowa Central,1993
Matt Margenthaler (men's basketball): 86-76 loss at Wisconsin Parkside, 2001
Nate Owens (women's swimming) 163-64 win at Northern Iowa, 2004
Dennis Amundson (volleyball): 3-2 win over Michigan Tech, 2005
Peter McGahey (women's soccer): 3-2 home win over Metro State, 2008
Matt Magers (baseball): 6-4 loss at Southwest Baptist (Mo.), 2009
Eric Means (women's hockey): 5-2 win at Maine, 2009
 Christie Williams (women's tennis): 9-0 win vs. Bethany, 2012

Next up is new women's basketball coach Emilee Thiesse.  There's an exhibition game at the University of Minnesota Nov. 4, but her first real game as head coach takes place Nov. 16 vs. Black Hills State at a tournament hosted by Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D.

It's great to be a Maverick!

Keeping You Apprised (Updated)

Minnesota State netminder Danielle
Butters was named WCHA Defensive
Player of the Week after the Mavericks
hosted Wisconsin last weekend

The National Hockey League owners may have locked out the players, but that doesn't mean that everything puck-related has come to a complete standstill.

The Minnesota State women's hockey team opened up its 2012-13 campaign this past weekend with a pair of home games with second ranked Wisconsin (the Badgers won Friday's game 3-2 with a shoot-out goal and then claimed a 3-2 win in regulation Saturday).  MSU continues action this weekend with two games at the University of North Dakota.

The Maverick men's hockey squad hosts the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns Sunday at Verizon Wireless Center in an exhibition tilt that is scheduled to get underway at 5:07 p.m.  One thing of note in that game is that Devon Kalinski, the younger brother of former Minnesota State forward Jon Kalinski, is a sophomore winger for Lethbridge.  The elder Kalinski is currently a farmhand with the for the Washington Capitals and is in camp with their American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey.

Other former Mavericks in AHL camps include Travis Morin (Texas),  Kael Mouillierat (Abbottsford), Ben Youds (Rockford) and Tyler Pitlick (Oklahoma City).

The names of former Mavericks appear on several East Coast Hockey League rosters:  Cameron Cooper (Las Vegas), Channing Boe (Las Vegas), Joe Schiller (Las Vegas), Geoff Irwin (Ontario), Andy Sackrison (South Carolina), Zach Harrison (Alaska), Trevor Bruess (Florida) and Rylan Galiardi (Gwinnett).  Defenseman Kyle Peto (Rapid City), forward Adam Mueller (Wichita) and goaltender Austin Lee (Missouri) have hooked up with Central Hockey League teams.

Several others are playing Europe (Andy Hedlund, Kurt Davis, Nick Canzanello, Michael Dorr, Aaron Fox, Steve Wagner and Mike Zacharias) or are awaiting the NHL owners and the NHLPA to find common ground on a new collective bargaining agreement (David Backes, Ryan Carter and Tim Jackman).

Hope to see you at a rink sometime this winter.  It's great to be a Maverick!

Ten Things You Need to Know About the 1987 Football Team

1987 MSU Football team

This week is unquestionably one of the best weeks to be a Maverick.

Not only is it Homecoming, but the annual Minnesota State Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony is slated for Friday, as well.

And, as usual, this year's induction Class is exceptional.  Trackster Dale Bahr was the national indoor 800m champion in 1992.  Goaltender Ken Hilgert backstopped the men's hockey Mavericks to a third-place finish at the NCAA DIII national tournament in 1985-86.  Mankato native Pat Coleman was an All-American and the North Central Conference's Most Outstanding Men's Basketball Player in 1995-86 and besides being one of MSU's all-time top second basemen, Theresa Mackey held several school offensive records when she completed her MSU career in 1993-94.

The MSU football team from 1987 was unique for several reasons and here's the top ten things you need to know about them.

1. The Mavericks ran the option and set a school record for rushing yards in a season with 3,607 yards and total offense (4,212 yards) in 1987.
2. This team went 9-3 and set a school record for wins and games played in a season.
3. This team went 8-1-0 in conference games en route to the school's first North Central Conference title.
4. Sophomore linebacker J.R. Buckley led the team in tackles with a school-record 158 stops.
5. MSU completed only two touchdown passes all season.  Tony Diggs, who led the Mavericks in receiving in '87 with 29 catches, had both TD receptions.  One came in the last regular-season game of the year and one came in the play-off game at Portland State.  No other MSU player had more than eight receptions or had a TD reception.
6. This team was the first football team to participate in the NCAA tournament when it played a quarterfinal game at Portland State.  The Mavericks lost to the Vikings 27-21 in a game that ended controversially when MSU thought it had completed a pass into the endzone. Officials ruled the pass incomplete when the Maverick receiver was stripped of the ball by a PSU defender.
7. MSU's win at North Dakota State snapped a 19-game home field undefeated streak by the Bison.
8. QB Greg Von der Lippe was named the NCC Offensive Player of the Week after leading the Mavericks to a win at Northern Colorado Oct. 3. He was hurt in the game and his MSU career was finished.  Back-up Mike McDevitt stepped in and led the Mavericks to a 5-2 mark in MSU's remaining seven games.
9. The Mavericks had four players with at least 400 rushing yards on the 1987 roster in Dave Scofield (899), Mike McDevitt (799), Tony Jones (525) and Greg Von Der Lippe (437).
10. MSU went 3-8 the next year.

It's great to be a Maverick!

Posit - Kendra and Lisa

A couple of days before Jim Rueda of the Mankato Free Press published his "I was wrong about Kendra" article, which appeared on July 18, we were discussing where Kendra Huettl stacks up compared to other great Mavericks.  Both in this era and previous eras.

Whereas JR's column talked about his perception five years ago as to whether or not Kendra, a Mankato native, would be able to have an impact as a softball player with the Mavericks (she did), our conversation was one in which now that her career is over, is there anyone, male or female, who has been as successful on and off the court as Kendra has been?

Kendra is probably the most decorated student-athlete in the history of the school. By decorated we are referring to awards she has won.  And, in fairness to other great MSU student-athletes (of which there are many), the opportunity to win awards nowadays is much greater than it was 25 years ago. There are many more organizations doling out awards, athletic departments are doing a better job of publicizing accomplishments and the web has opened the door for more people to have a say, so current intercollegiate student-athletes have more opportunities to get recognition.

That being said, there's no denying Kendra's greatness as a softball player during her time at MSU which spans the last four seasons (five if you count a redshirt year).  She holds school records for career strike outs and appearances and ranks highly in several other statistical categories as well. And while she was a NSCA Third Team All-America this year, it was her academic accomplishments that seperate her from the rest of the field. Named the Capital One Academic All-American of the Year for DII Softball this year (along with just about every other conceivable award she could win), she had a 3.99 grade point average and graduated with a degree in nursing.   She's one of our all-time top softball players and will be remembered as one of the school's top all-around student athletes.

Her MSU doppleganger, albeit from a different era, is women's basketball player Lisa (Walters) Sukalski. Inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998, Lisa was a silky and graceful forward/center who led the Mavericks to their first-ever women's basketball North Central Conference title and first-ever NCAA tournament appearance as a sophomore in 1985-86.  Lisa, who like Huettl was the national Academic All-America of Year for her sport, MSU's top female student-athlete and the league's top female student-athlete as a senior, owns several of MSU's scoring and rebounding career records. The Henderson, Minn., native epitomized the term student-athlete, combining success on and off the court. And, again not unlike Kendra, one of Lisa's most likable traits was that it was pretty obvious that while she appreciated the awards, her focus was on the team and on her school work.

Lisa, who spent a year playing professionally in Sweden after graduating from MSU, was inducted into MSU's Hall of Fame immediately after becoming eligible following ten years after playing for the Mavericks.

We fully expect that Kendra will follow a similar path.

It's great to be a Maverick.

Back in the Day - Vikings Move to Mankato

University press release announcing that the Minnesota Vikings
would begin holding their
summer training camp in Mankato beginning in 1966

One of the great things about our office is you never know what you'll find and research projects oftentimes get waylaid by something you come upon by happenstance.

This happened a few years ago when I found a box of files that apparently had once belonged to former MSU football coach and athletic director Bob Otto.  The box contained a variety of files not necessarily related to each other, but undoubtedly related to the goings-on within the athletics department during his tenure as men's AD from 1970-83. And, as it turns out, carried over some files from one of his predecessors, John Hodapp.

Hopdapp served as MSU's director of men's athletics from 1964-68 and was here during the time that negotiations took place to bring the Minnesota Vikings to Mankato for summer training camp.  The Vikings had spent the summers of 1961 through 1965 in Bemidji, but as we all know, eventually moved to Mankato for camp in 1966 and have been here ever since.  Eric Stromgren writes in his Up North Sports Report that there's some question as to why camp moved, but alludes to the fact Mankato being closer was one of the primary reasons.

In any event, a plain folder in the box entitled Minnesota Vikings contains a number of documents including training camp contracts, news paper clippings, receipts and various financial statements. There's also correspondence between former Vikings general manager Jim Finks, former Vikings coach Bud Grant, Otto and Hodapp.

While some things haven't changed all that much (with the exception of the one summer that the Vikings were housed in Julia Sears Residence Community, they've always been housed in Gage for example), a couple of things from the first contract stand out. Yes, training camp was longer with the first camp in 1966 running from July 12 through August 31.  And while I don't know what the Vikings pay for lodging and three meals a day now, but back in 1966 the cost was $7.90 per man per day. Also, back in 1966, an attached "special services contract" indicates that the Vikings paid a rental fee of $1,000 for the use of the football fields, locker rooms, showers, equipment room and training room.

Things seemed a lot simpler back then.

Have a great weekend.  It's great to be a Maverick.