Seems Lou Holtz threw away the 1923 Jack Trice Minn. game ball

[Kagavi]

This is more background research for another story I'm working on, but I thought some of you would be interested... it seems Minnesota had a bunch of game balls on display for decades, including the 1923 Minnesota vs Ames game ball. When Lou Holtz was hired as the head coach at Minnesota in 1984, he ordered a bunch of the balls to be thrown out during the move to a new football facility. Ole Lou left the following year for Notre Dame and Minnesota was also placed on probation for violations during Lou's time. Seems Lou treated Minnesota history/traditions with the same respect that he did the program.

This is all based on the information of a very interesting guy in Minnesota (who is still alive) who also knew Jack Trice's freshman coach George Hauser... I'll see what else I can dig up.

Thanks Lou!

 

[00clone]

Re: Seems Lou Holtz threw out the 1923 Jack Trice Minn. game ball

Ahhh...I was thinking 'threw out' as in he tossed it into play or something...I was all like...I mean, he's old, but cripes, didn't know he was THAT old.

 

[Farnsworth]

Re: Seems Lou Holtz threw out the 1923 Jack Trice Minn. game ball

Ahhh...I was thinking 'threw out' as in he tossed it into play or something...I was all like...I mean, he's old, but cripes, didn't know he was THAT old.

Haha. I had the same initial reaction.

 

[Kagavi]

Re: Seems Lou Holtz threw out the 1923 Jack Trice Minn. game ball

Ha. I changed the title from "threw out" to "threw away" . . . yeah I don't think he's that old.

 

[isuska]

 

[JBone84]

Yep - still hate Lou Holtz.

 

[Bigman38]

Nothing like destroying a programs history when you're using it as a career stepping stone.

 

[Wesley]

Lou "Lost Balls" Holtz. Now you have our attention.

 

[Danger]

As this occurred in the mid 80s, that ball in particular would have been around 60 years old and would have been a valuable collector's item to many Gopher fans. It may no longer be on display at the Minn football facility but I'll bet it is in someone's basement. A little more digging and you might just find it.

 

[SoapyCy]

That's like The Chiz coming back and tossing the Okie State game ball.

Nothing to see here, folks.

 

[MNCyGuy]

Nothing like destroying a programs history when you're using it as a career stepping stone.

I don't know if he's representative of Gophers fans as a whole (mostly because no one in MN ever talks about them) but my dad is a U of M alum (would have been a student in the mid-70's, Tony Dungy era) and he HATES Lou Holtz.

 

[junckerl]

That's like The Chiz coming back and tossing the Okie State game ball.

Nothing to see here, folks.

That would only be a fair comparison if we had murdered a player during the Okie State game and then for some ungodly reason rehired Mean Gene the letdown machine.

 

[ISU_phoria]

Yep - still hate Lou Holtz.

Lou Holtz, meet Gene Chizik, Gene Chizik, Lou Holtz!


Edit: My bad - way too slow!