I don't think this came up last year, and we almost made it through the
whole season this year without talking about Minnesota recruiting policies,
along with people's expression of their absolute support or distaste for
them.  Regardless of your stance, here's a couple of quotes to help
explain the origin:

John Mariucci (coach in the 1950's)

On being labeled anti-Canadian: "That's wrong. My contention was the
teams we were playing were bringing down 22 and 23 year old Canadians
who were playing Junior A hockey, and competing against our high school
kids. That's what I was fighting, the age deal. We wanted to control the
Canadian kids. I mean I brought in Louie (Nanne). I brought in Murray
Williamson. I could have had my whole team Canadian, but then I would
have destroyed the high school program. If I didn't have a program at the
University for Minnesota kids, where were they going to go?"

Amo Bessone: (former Michigan State Coach)

"Don't forget there were a lot of great Canadians that played Gopher
Hockey. But, back then there were only two places you could get
Americans: Minnesota, and Boston. Mariucci had a gold mine of kids out
there. I used to harass him about taking all the good kids and not leaving
me any to choose from. So he said he would send me a list of recruits. He
would keep the top ten, and I could keep the bottom ten. I tried to recruit
up there, but the Minnesota kids wanted to play for John. It was
incredible, they were loyal as hell to Minnesota. Nowadays, if I were still
coaching, I could recruit out of Detroit. They don't have a high school
program like Minnesota's, but their Junior leagues are the best in the
country. I attribute that incredible high school program to Maroosh
(Mariucci). He was committted to the people, and he just did it all up
there."

Glen Sonmor: (coach in the late 1960's to early 1970's, from Moose Jaw)

"He [John Mariucci] told me 'Glen, if we don't give these kids a chance to
play, promote the Minnesota high school tournament, and get these kids
as accomplished as the Canadian players, they'll have no place to go
when they're finished, and the program will die.' So he had a clause put in
at the U that said the Canadians who were older and were getting paid
couldn't play for Minnesota. He promoted the Minnesota kids, and he
figured the Gophers would take their lumps at first, but he'd get the
program on its feet."

Doug Peterson

On 31 Mar 2002 at 15:53, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> On Sun, 31 Mar 2002, Greg Ambrose wrote:
>
> > I certainly have to defer to you since you were there but I always
thought
> > the 1976 NCAA was in St. Louis.  As I recall, wasn't the BU-Minnesota
> > semi-final marred by some altercation spurred on by the fact that
Minnesota
> > was all US (actually all Minnesota) kids while BU was "tainted" by
> > Canadians?  I recall listening to the game on the radio and hearing a
> > description of a battle between Terry Meagher (in the penalty box)
and the
> > Minnesota trainer (on the bench next to the penalty box).  Perhaps
Sean
> > Pickett can enlighten me as to whether my memory has clouded with
age.
> >
> I'm not Sean but my memory of that occasion was that a Minnesota
player
> spit at Meagher and then Meagher was kicked out of the game for his
> retaliation.  My vitriolic dislike of Minnesota dates back to this
> incident.  Their zenophobic preference for Minnesotans (or whatever
> they're called) reminds me of BC's preference for Americans which,
> thankfully, is not as rigid as it once was.
>
> Arthur Berman
> North Vancouver, BC
>