It’s football season again, a sport I know nothing about. The game has been described as a healthier alternative to war, and that does make sense to me. Why else would guys violently bang their heads and bodies together over a piece of pigskin?
One thing about football does intrigue me. Why does our neighboring state of Minnesota have a football team with the absurd name of the Golden Gophers? The mascot of the University team is Goldy Gopher. Not many people would rate gophers as macho, charismatic animals. So I did some digging (pun intended) and dug up the origin of this funny moniker.
The nickname for the entire state of Minnesota is “The Gopher State”. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, this came about because of a railroad and a political cartoon. In 1857, the United States government granted land to Minnesota for the purpose of building a railroad. The state had to supply the money for the train itself. Proponents of the train lobbied the state legislature to amend the state constitution to allow the state to issue $5,000,000 in bonds to construct the railroad. Opponents of the train produced a political cartoon of a train car filled with bond holders being pulled by gophers who had the heads of legislators. Each gopher had a heavy $10,000 bag of money around its neck, an obvious reference to digging for cash. The train was built, and shortly after the phrase “Gopher State” was coined and made the official state nickname.
The University of Minnesota got the Golden Gopher name because of a radio announcer. In the 1930s, the football team announced new uniforms featuring gold colored jerseys and pants. At the first game in their new attire, announcer Halsey Hall referred to the team as the “Golden Gophers.” The name stuck. There is not now, nor has there ever been a real animal named a golden gopher.
And this narrative gets even sillier. The Goldy Gopher mascot is not really a gopher. The artwork was based on a thirteen striped ground squirrel, a separate animal from a gopher. Its stripes are the giveaway. Real gophers don’t have stripes. For the record, Minnesota does have real pocket gophers as well as thirteen striped ground squirrels.
I must also note that gopher mascots have invaded the famous Minnesota State Fair. Their names are Fairborne and Fairchild.
Always something new and interesting to learn from the Suitcase Lady blog!
The Tooley detective agency is at it again! Well done Mary. Why don’t you send this to the U of M—or maybe not!
Most interesting! And I shall have to take another look at the “striped gophers” on M’s farm.
Ground squirrels, perhaps.
xxxevie
Thank you for helping us get the real truth over here!!