Seasons
SEASON: 45 | YEAR: 1993
HEAD COACH: LOU NANNE
Game 436 | January 18, 1993 | Kirby Puckett
An All-Star every year between 1986 and 1991, Puckett was combining off another stellar season in 1992. He hit .329 with 19 home runs and 110 RBIs. In order to prolong his career, the Twins, with Puckett in agreement, moved him from center to right field.
(LtoR) Norm McGrew, Kirby Puckett, Andy MacPhail (physician), Lou Nanne
Game 437 | January 28, 1993 | Herb Brooks
In his National Hockey League coaching career Brooks led four different teams, the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars, New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins. In the 1992-92 season he took over the Devils and coached them to a record of 40-37-7.
Game 438 | March 5, 1993 | Bob Gainey
After his successful debut as North Stars coach in 1991-'93, Gainey took on the additional title of General Manager. Owner Norm Green changed the name of the team from the North Stars to the Stars, and at the end of the 1992-'93 season, changed the name of the team again, this time to the Dallas Stars.
Game 439 | March 30, 1993 | Dave Casper
A native of Bemidji, Minnesota, and a graduate of Notre Dame, Casper built a Hall-of-Famer career as a tight end for the Oakland Raiders. As a Raider, he caught the first touchdown in Super Bowl XI, a 32-14 Raiders victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Late in his career Casper played a single season for the Vikings, where his free-spirited nature clashed often with rookie coach Les Steckel.
Game 440 | April 28, 1993 | Sidney Lowe
A standout point guard at North Carolina State, Lowe led the Wolfpack to the 1983 NCAA National Championship under Coach Jim Valvano. He played for seven NBA teams and finished his eight-year career with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He retired after the 1990 season and became an assistant coach the next year. Halfway through the 1992-93 season he succeeded Jimmy Rodgers as head coach. He held that spot until August 1994, when he was fired in favor of Bill Blair.
Game 441 | May 12, 1993 | Billie Jean King
Founder of the Women's Sports Foundation, King appeared at Dunkers at the invitation of Gopher Women's Athletics Director Chris Voelz. King skipped the breakfast as she made her way from table to table meeting each of the 125 Dunkers in attendance. During her presentation she talked about her televised defeat of Bobby Riggs and how the two of them became friends as a result of that controversial challenge match.
(LtoR) Norm McGrew, Billy Jean King, Lou Nanne, Barbara Brookes
Game 442 | May 24, 1993 | Tom Lehman
A University of Minnesota graduate who learned to golf in Alexandria, Lehman struggled early to make it on the pro tour. He qualified briefly from 1983-1985, but spent most of the next six years playing in golfs minor leagues or foreign tours. He was the top money winner on the Ben Hogan Tour in 1991 and stuck with the PGA from 1992 on. He won his first tournament, the Memorial, in 1994, the same year he finished second in The Masters.
(LtoR) Norm McGrew, Lou Nanne, Tom Lehman, John Lynch (physician)
Game 443 | June 7, 1993 | Vinnie Giles
The 1993 Walker Cup matches were being played at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, and Giles was the U.S. captain. The U.S., which featured Minnesotans Tim Herron and John Harris as well as Giles and Justin Leonard, defeated Great Britain and Ireland 19-5, the largest winning margin in the modern history of the every-other-year event.
Game 444 | June 29, 1993 | Tom Kelly, Jerry Bell, Andy MacPhail, Dave Winfield
One of the great athletes in the history of the University of Minnesota, St. Paul-native Winfield came home to play for the Twins in 1993-'94. On Sept. 16, 1993, at age 41, he collected his 3,000th major league hit off Oakland reliever Dennis Eckersley. Winfield starred in both baseball and basketball for the Gophers and was drafted by Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the American Basketball Association and the National Football League (Vikings), despite the fact he had never played organized football.
Game 445 | July 7, 1993 | Dennis Green
Green was making his third Dunkers appearance in 18 months when he came before Dunkers in July 1993. For the first time in five years the Vikings had a first-round draft choice, and Green said he was thrilled with the team's new additions, which included Ohio State speedster Robert Smith in the first round, Syracuse wide receiver Qadry Ismail in the second round, and Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta, the Miami quarterback, in the seventh round.
Game 446 | July 28, 1993 | Jim Wacker
The 1993 season, in which the football Gophers went 4-7, proved to be the best of the five years under Wacker. Highlight of the season was a bizarre 59-56 home victory over Purdue in which Omar Douglas caught a school-record of five touchdown passes while quarterback Scott Ekkers set another individual record with six touchdown passes in the game.
Game 447 | August 17, 1993 | Cindy Rarick
A native of Glenwood, Minnesota, Rarick attended the University of Hawaii where she won the Hawaii Women's Match Play title in 1978 and the Hawaii Stroke Play Championship the next year. She joined the LPGA tour in 1985. She won five tour events between 1987 and 1991. She was back in Minnesota to compete in the Minnesota LPGA Classic at Edinburgh, an event she had won in 1991. Hiromi Kobayashi won the 2003 event.
Game 448 | August 25, 1993 | Qadry Ismail, Jack Del Rio, Robert Smith
The early years of Smith's career were marked by injuries as he gained just 399 yards his rookie season and 106 yards the next year. Over his seven-year career he became one of the most exciting and prolific runners in Vikings' history. Ismail, nicknamed "the Missile," spent four years with the Vikings and caught 19 passes for 212 yards in his 1993 rookie season. Del Rio, who became head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2003, played linebacker for the Vikings from 1992-1995.
Game 449 | September 8, 1993 | John Harris
Born in Minneapolis and raised in Roseau, Harris distinguished himself in both hockey and golf at the University of Minnesota. He was the second leading scorer on the 1974 Gopher National Championship Hockey team and two months later won the Big Ten individual championship in golf. He won the U.S. Amateur in 1993, the same year he played on the winning U.S. Walker Cup team. A Dunker member since 1989, he joined the Champions Tour in 2002 and won his first Tour event in 2006.
Game 450 | October 12, 1993 | Ariel McDonald, Clem Haskins, Doug Woog
The Gopher hockey team had another outstanding season in 1993-94. Behind the scoring of Jeff Nielson and Brian Bonin, they won the WCHA Playoffs and made it into the Frozen Four, losing 4-1 to Boston University in first-round action in St. Paul. McDonald and Voshon Lenard were the senior guards on the team that lost to Louisville in the second round of the NCAA basketball tournament. All results from the season were voided by the NCAA as part of its sanctions against the Haskins-led program.
Game 451 | October 27, 1993 | Al Shaver, Tim Taylor
Former Yale hockey coach Taylor was the U.S. Olympic coach in the 1994 games at Lillehamer, Norway. Shaver, a Hall of Fame broadcaster, was the radio voice of the North Stars from the day they were born in Minnesota in 1967 until they left for Dallas in 1993. He then broadcast Gopher hockey until his retirement in 1996.
(LtoR) Norm McGrew, Lou Nanne, Tim Taylor, Al Shaver
Game 452 | November 15, 1993 | Tim Tschida
A St. Paul native, St. Thomas graduate and resident of nearby Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, Tschida was the youngest umpire in the American League when, at age 26, he was promoted to the major leagues in 1986.