From the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Sports: faces and places) this morning:
 
 Gophers' Magnusson suffers freak injury
 
        Steve Magnusson, a freshman <actually he'll be a soph this year> hockey
 center for the Gophers, is recovering from surgery after suffering a freak
 injury while camping last week. Magnusson was in a large group of college
 students camping near Detroit Lakes, Minn., during an annual country music
 festival.
 
       "I had an ax in my hand and I was setting up camp," Magnusson said.
 "Somebody threw me a football, and when I reached for it, I stepped in a hole
 and fell."
 
        Because he had the ax in his other hand, Magnusson said he didn't reach
 out to break his fall, and a small branch penetrated his left ear. He said both
  his hearing and his equilibrium were "fouled up" and he was treated at a near-
 by hospital emergency room.
 
        When he returned home to Anoka, Magnusson's doctor said the stick
 apparently punctured his eardrum and dislodged the three small bones that
 govern equilibrium, and called for immediate surgery. Magnusson said doctors
 told him it will take some time to determine how fully he will recover the
 hearing in his left ear and his full balance.
 ....end material from Strib.....
 
       My guess is that he will be back to normal by the time the Gopher season
 starts, unless there is some complication from the surgery.
 
    I sure wish that the Gopphers would get some GOOD news one of these days!!
 
 -Carol