Seasons
SEASON: 41 | YEAR: 1989
HEAD COACH: BILL WREN
Game 367 | January 18, 1989 | Rick Bay
One of the highest profile athletic directors in the country, Bay resigned his job at Ohio State to protest the hiring of football coach Earle Bruce. The Gopher job was open after the firing of Paul Giel, and Bay's hiring went a long way to quiet the controversy over the firing of a local hero. Bay stayed at Minnesota only three years, but he was credited with modernizing the department while renovating Williams Arena and negotiating to bring the 1992 Men's Final Four to Minnesota.
Game 368 | February 22, 1989 | Mike Lynn
In his years of running the Minnesota Vikings, Lynn also became an influential figure in the National Football League. At the urging of Gov. Rudy Perpich, Lynn, along with Marilyn Carlson Nelson, and Dunkers Harvey Mackay and Dave Mona, was charged with bringing a Super Bowl to Minnesota. Lynn detailed the group's strategy in persuading NFL owners to award Super Bowl XXVI to Minnesota for 1992.
Game 369 | April 7, 1989 | Nils Hasselmo
A long-time member of the University of Minnesota faculty, Hasselmo seemed a calming and logical successor to Ken Keller as University of Minnesota president. He held that job from 1988-1997, and one of his first responsibilities was the hiring of Rick Bay as athletic director.
Game 370 | May 18, 1989 | Walter Cronkite
Once named "the most trusted man in America," Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News from 1962-'81. He was America's source for news on the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Watergate scandal and the Iran Hostage Crisis. He ended his Dunkers appearance the way he closed every evening news show, by taking off his glasses, smiling and saying, "and that's the way it is." The attendance of 155 people was a Dunkers record.
(LtoR) Bill Wren, Norm McGrew, Walter Cronkite, Steve Goldstein (physician)
Game 371 | June 13, 1989 | Mark Rosen, Mark Curtis, Perry Williams, Eric Kinkopf
From time to time Dunkers invited the local television sports anchors to tell us about themselves and how they got to this market. In early 1989 that group included Mark Rosen, Mark Curtis, Perry Williams and Eric Kinkopf.
Game 372 | July 19, 1989 | Jerry Burns
The Vikings were without a first-round draft choice in the 1989 draft, and Burns told Dunkers he thought the team was only a player or two away from being able to compete at the highest levels of the National Football League. Eighty-five days later the team pulled off perhaps the largest and least successful trade in NFL history when they shipped five players and eight draft choices to Dallas for running back Herschel Walker.
(LtoR) Norm McGrew, Steve Goldstein, Jerry Burns, Billy Bye (physician)
Game 373 | August 15, 1989 | John Gutekunst
The Gopher football team improved significantly from the year before, going 6-5 with a pair of Big Ten victories over arch rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. It was the final season for running back Darrell Thompson, who became the Gophers' career rushing leader with 40 touchdowns and 4,654 yards. Thompson joined the Gopher football broadcast team in 1998.
Game 374 | September 1, 1989 | Jim McKay
Best known for his coverage of the Munich Olympics and his role as host of Wide World of Sports, McKay in 2008 received his 12th Emmy Award. He is the only broadcaster to have won Emmys for sports broadcasting, news broadcasting and writing. The father of CBS President Sean McManus, McKay died in June 2008 at age 86.
Game 375 | September 6, 1989 | Irwin Jacobs, Roy Smalley
Smalley, having recently retired from professional baseball, was hired by Jacobs as the head of the Special Olympics World Games, which were coming to Minnesota in 1991. Jacobs, a Minneapolis native, made his fortune buying and selling distressed properties. His FLW Outdoors is the parent company of several nationally televised bass fishing tournaments.
Game 376 | September 22, 1989 | Willie Shoemaker
Shoemaker was the winningest jockey in horse racing history when he came to Canterbury Downs in 1989 to ride as part of his farewell tour. As Canterbury struggled with sagging attendance and purses in 1990 and 1991, Shoemaker came back briefly for an instructional session entitled "Shoe U." The track went dark after the 1992 meet and reopened as Canterbury Park three years later.
(LtoR) Brooks Fields (physician), Willie Shoemaker, Norm McGrew, Steve Goldstein, Bill Wren
Game 377 | October 4, 1989 | Jack Ferriera, Pierre Page
Page was brought in to coach the Minnesota North Stars and held that job for two years, from 1988-1990. His team finished in third place in the Norris Division the first year and fourth place his second year and lost in the first round of the playoffs both years. Ferriera was named general manager on the same day Herb Brooks and his staff were fired in June 1988.
Game 378 | November 8, 1989 | Clem Haskins, Doug Woog
Haskins put together one of his best teams in 1989. With all five starters back and freshman Walter Bond on the bench, the Gophers went 23-9 and lost 93-91 to Georgia Tech in a game that would have sent them into the Final Four. Woog's hockey Gophers, led by Peter Hankinson, Scott Bloom and Ken Gernander, finished second in the WCHA and lost to Boston College in the NCAA quarterfinals in Boston.