The Annual Gopher Hockey Awards Banquet was very well attended with several
hundred fans and families of players there to wrap up the season.
This was one of the more emotional banquets that I have attended. Larry Olimb,
the senior captain, was unable to keep his composure when he was presented the
MVP award. He thought the award should have been given to Jeff Stolp, our
senior goaltender, or at least shared with him. It was very hard to watch his
short speech. Larry, who is very modest and shies away from any attention,
gave most of the credit for his success to "the other 20+ guys on the team".
Assistant coach Bill Butters, gave the crowd a heartfelt apology for his
involvement in the incident at the Civic Center during the WCHA playoffs.
Each senior had a chance to address the crowd and introduce their
families/friends, and tell their favorite moment as a Gopher. Jeff Stolp
introduced his family and said that when Larry Olimb wanted to share the MVP
award with him was HIS favorite moment. Larry was the last to speak and he was
VERY emotional. Through much throat-clearing and sniffling he managed to give
credit to all his teammates and the coaches. He managed a couple of jokes so
that everyone wasn't sitting there with tears streaming down their faces also.
At one very difficult point, he blurted out, "I'm a communications major," the
crowd roared and he was able to get a few more sentences out before he needed
another break. I haven't been this affected by a speech since two years ago,
when Lance Pitlick (senior captain, who was injured in the December of his
final year and was out for the season), stood up there and openly wept and
talked for 30-45 minutes. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Pit was
done.
At the end of the evening new Athletic Director McKinley Boston, said a few
words and then introduced Doug Woog and presented him with a plaque for
gaining his 200th win as the Gopher coach. Woog also had tears in his eyes as
he talked about not accomplishing all this season's goals. He vowed to go at
it again, with more intensity and better coaching. And to CONTINUE to recruit
only MINNESOTAN players! This was given a l-o-n-g round of applause!
At the end of the banquet, all players that hadn't signed the "Born in the
U.S.A." banner were invited to go do so. I had brought it with me for the first
time in three years. Many people enjoyed seeing it and reading the old
autographs that were on it, including: Robb Stauber, Dave Snuggerud, Dave
Espe, Ben Hankinson, Peter Hankinson, Lance Pitlick, Tom Chorske, Randy
Skarda, Todd Richards and many others. The freshmen and sophomores had never
seen it and it was very popular. So, our season started in Eveleth, parading
down the main drag with the banner and ended with the display of the banner
for all Gopher fans to enjoy.
Erik and Paula and I sat with three of the freshman at our table and it was
very amusing watching them. When Steve Magnusson was being lauded for his first
collegiate goal (there is a description that is announced), he could hardly
wait to jump out of his chair! And none of the three (Brandon Steege, Jeff
Callinan, and Magnusson) ate their tomatoes or the broccoli on their plates.
;-) :-) ;-)
It was a great banquet.
Carol
U of M
Go Gophers!!!
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