Golden Gophers burrowed throughout Jayhawk staff / LJWorld.com

Archive for Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Minnesota, KU football teams facing off

The Jayhawks are preparing to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers. So, who do you cheer for if you're a Gopher living in the land of crimson and blue?

By Lindsey Slater

December 31, 2008

Gophers: No concern to KU fans (or golfers)

When KU takes the field on New Year's Eve, they'll be taking on the Minnesota Golden Gophers. But the mascot doesn't intimidate local golfers or KU football fans. Enlarge video

Photo by Richard Gwin

Bob Timm, curator of the mammal exhibit at KU’s Natural History Museum, has two degrees from the University of Minnesota and knows the history of the school’s mascot, the “golden gopher,” which is actually a ground squirrel.

2008 Insight Bowl

KU will face the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the 2008 Insight Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

The Insight Bowl pits the Kansas University Jayhawks against the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota, but local ties to the Twin Cities run deeper than a football game.

Some Minnesota alumni are even teaching Jayhawks.

Jim Lichtenberg, associate dean for graduate programs and research for the School of Education, was a graduate student at Minnesota from 1969 to 1974. His ties go even further: his grandfather was the president of the university from 1945 to 1960.

“I had great faculty and great friends,” Lichtenberg said. “I eventually got used to the weather. That took about a year.”

Lichtenberg isn’t the only professor who spent time in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Nancy Brady, Val Smith and Robert Timm also have degrees from the University of Minnesota and are current Jayhawks.

Brady is a faculty member in the speech-language-hearing department and plans to attend tonight’s game. She says she’ll know exactly how to pick out Minnesota fans.

“You can tell people from Minnesota because they’ll all have shorts on even if it’s 50 degrees,” she said. Brady received her master’s degree at Minnesota and her doctorate at KU. “They’ll have their white legs and their shorts. It’s really fun.”

Smith is the interim director for the undergraduate biology and human biology programs at KU. He had a stint in Minnesota from 1975 to 1982 to get his Ph.D. And when he moved to Lawrence in the early 1990s, it was a return trip for him. He first came to town in 1968 for his undergraduate work.

“My KU adviser said that if I wanted to go into aquatic ecology, the place to go was Minnesota,” Smith said. “I’d do it over again in a heartbeat. He was completely correct.”

Timm earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. at Minnesota and moved to Lawrence to take over as curator for mammals at the Natural History Museum. He still has family in Minnesota, and he said they aren’t too confident in their team.

“No one was willing to take me up on a bet,” he said.

Timm and the Minnesota alumni described the game as a win-win situation.

“I’m rooting for the Jayhawks, but I do have a pair of gopher socks,” Brady said. “I love Goldy Gopher and Big Jay.” Since her husband is a huge Jayhawks fan, they will be sitting in the KU section.

Meanwhile, Lichtenberg laughed and said, “I’ll root for whoever has won.” Then he added, “I’ll be happy to watch the Gophers play, but I’ll be most pleased if the Jayhawks win.”

While the others were a little torn about whom to root for, Smith had no doubt.

“I like the Gophers, but my heart is with the ’Hawks,” he said.