DULUTH
Dave Lothner felt the magic of 1960 on the first play of his college career. The University of Minnesota sophomore split end caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Joe Salem to open a 42-0 win over Indiana on Oct. 1 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis.
The season would get much better for the football Gophers. They won their first seven games and finished ranked No. 1 in Division I in a coaches' vote held before the Rose Bowl, where No. 6 Washington upset Minnesota 17-7.
Minnesota won the Big Ten title at 6-1 and finished 8-2 overall, an amazing turnaround from a last-place conference finish and 2-7 record in 1959.
"I had three marvelous years with the Gophers and have memories I've cherished for a lifetime," said Lothner, who grew up in Red Wing, Minn., but has lived primarily in Duluth since 1969. "The Minnesota coaching staff addressed us before the 1960 season and said we had the nucleus of a good team. We got off to a good start, our sophomore class helped as much as we could, and you could just feel that we had something good."
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Fifty years later, Minnesota celebrated its last national championship in a two-day ceremony at TCF Bank Stadium on Sept. 17-18. Forty-nine players returned along with 97-year-old coach Murray Warmath. Also on the 1960 roster from the Northland were junior Robin Tellor of Coleraine, and sophomores Peter Bergman of Duluth and Russell Peterson of Virginia, all linemen.
The highlight of the weekend was seeing Warmath. Although he was in a wheelchair and unable to speak, it was an uplifting experience, said Bergman.
"There was a tremendous amount of pressure on Murray to do well after his first six seasons, and before our final game in 1959 he said, 'There's been a lot of talk about buying out my contract after this year, but I'm telling you I'm going to be back,'" said Tellor, 70, a Duluth resident, and starter at guard as a sophomore, junior and senior. "He knew what we had and he knew we had the makings of a good team."
Minnesota went 22-6-1 for three years from 1960 through 1962, including a 21-3 Rose Bowl victory over UCLA after the 1961 season. Yet 1960 was special with players like tackle Bobby Bell, guard Tom Brown, center Greg Larson, running back Bill Munsey and quarterback Sandy Stephens. The Gophers began with a 26-15 win at No. 12 Nebraska and during their opening win streak had three shutouts in four games.
The Gophers reached No. 1 by beating top-ranked Iowa 27-10. They dropped to No. 4 after a 23-14 loss to Purdue, and regained the top spot by beating Wisconsin 26-7 to end the regular season. That unseated Missouri, which finished with a loss to Kansas. The final United Press International poll was released on Nov. 29, 1960 and the Rose Bowl loss was Jan. 2.
"In 1959, we lost five Big Ten games by a combined 32 points. Our upperclassmen could see there was talent out there, especially on defense," said Bergman. "When we beat Nebraska (in 1960), people started to believe. There were eight of the 11 starters in 1960 who went on to play professional football, which is a huge number."
The 1960 team hasn't been forgotten over the past 50 years. They spent more than 90 minutes signing posters in the plaza area TCF Bank Stadium before Minnesota's game with Southern California.
"Each of the players had their own story, and each had to learn how to get along and win together," Dick Larson, a Warmath assistant coach, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "That's maybe the story more than anything else. But many people told me that Murray, at the time, also knew more about all of the aspects of football than any coach in the country, including college and pro (levels)."
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Lothner, 69, is retired from the research branch of the U.S. Forest Service as a scientist and project leader. Tellor, 70, has worked the past 41 years as a representative for Ameriprise Financial. Bergman, 69, who finished his academic career at Minnesota Duluth in 1963 and competed in the shot put and discus in track, was an elementary school principal for 25 years in Duluth before retiring in 1998.
The Duluth News Tribune and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.
