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!!!