Via a friendly colleague, we have come across a harmless though somewhat amusing oversight in the “2009 Media & Records Book” put out recently by the Gophers football program. In the very back, there is a section of year-by-year results. And under 2008, one game is conspicuously missing: the 55-0 loss to Iowa, the final Gophers game ever at the Metrodome. Now: the game appears in at least three other places in the book, so clearly there is no conspiracy theory here. That, of course, did not stop the Cedar Rapids newspaper from having some fun with it. Writes Mike Hlas on his blog, “The Hlog” (really):

Funny, the Iowa football spring prospectus issued to the media this year told us the Hawkeyes defeated Minnesota last Nov. 22 by the rather decisive score of 55-0.I was at the Metrodome that night, in fact. That 55-0 result jibes with my memory. It sure seemed like Iowa had its facts straight. But today I got a copy of the Minnesota football 2009 Media & Records Book. It lists the Gophers’ all-time results. For 2008 (see the above graphic) it says Minnesota had a 7-6 record, it only lists 12 games. Odd. Why, it’s as if … the Iowa game never happened!

It’s fun stuff, to be sure. Good times with a typo. Everyone knows the game was played. Surely, two Iowans who spent countless seconds basking in the glow of ill-fated, newfound love in a bathroom stall can attest to that. It was no dream!

But it got us thinking about the nature of the Iowa/Minnesota rivalry, which we’ve never really quite been able to grasp. The Wisconsin/Minnesota rivalry, we get for sure. There is venom going both ways. It extends to college and professional sports. There is city pride at stake (Milwaukee and/or Madison vs. Minneapolis/St. Paul). It’s two-sided, mean and fun all at once.

The North Dakota/Minnesota rivalry is much different. It used to start and end with college hockey, and recently there has been a touch of NDSU/Gophers basketball and football thrown into the mix. That said, legions of Minnesota fans adopted the Bison hoopsters at the NCAA regional. Mostly, outside of hockey, it’s a friendly relationship. The majority of North Dakota fans root for Minnesota pro teams. Being a NoDak native, the reason is simple: we don’t have much else. There is very little ammunition. So we get along.

But the Iowa/Minnesota relationship is somewhere in between, and we have a hard time grasping it. Our take is that it seems to be intensely sports-based and a little bit one-sided, with Iowa desperately wanting to make more of it and Minnesota often saying, “Meh. Where’s Wisconsin?” This only intensifies the Iowa feeling of inadequacy, leading folks in the Hawkeye state to pounce on every opportunity to shove it in Minnesota’s face. Hence information in a blog post that, while fun, could easily have been left to a chuckle by the recipient of the book but instead was used — again, in fun — to dredge up the old 55-0 wound.

We welcome your take on the Iowa/Minnesota rivalry, and the others, in the comments.

Fasola-link! The world of typography. Crotch acute or obtuse?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 8:49 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.