Seasons
SEASON: 47 | YEAR: 1995
HEAD COACH: GREG ORTALE
Game 471 | January 19, 1995 | Terry Ryan
Vice President of Player Personnel since 1991, Ryan was promoted to become the fourth general manager of the Twins in September 1994 when Andy MacPhail left to become President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Cubs. A native of Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan was drafted by the Twins in 1972. He pitched parts of four seasons in the Twins minor league system before an arm injury ended his playing career.
Game 472 | February 21, 1995 | Vern Mikkelsen, John Kundla
It had been 44 years since Kundla first appeared at Dunkers and 36 years since Mikkelesen had made his first appearance. Surviving members of the Minneapolis Lakers gathered to celebrate the success of the team that dominated professional basketball in the 1950s with Mikkelsen at power forward and Kundla as the coach. Mikkelsen has been a Dunker since 1963.
Game 473 | March 6, 1995 | Clem Haskins
With Big Ten games remaining against Purdue and Penn State, Coach Haskins talked about the possibility of his team's being selected for post-season play. The team was picked, but bowed out in their first game, a loss to St. Louis University.
Game 474 | March 21, 1995 | Nils Hasselmo
The President of the University was making his second and final Dunkers appearance. He was under attack from University faculty for a perceived effort by Hasselmo to challenge the University's long-standing tenure system. Hasselmo left the University in 1997 and became President of the American Association of Universities.
Game 475 | March 31, 1995 | Pat Summitt
Dunker members Linda Mona and Peggy Lucas co-chaired the 1995 Women's Final Four in Minneapolis. Summitt's undefeated Tennessee team lost to the Tournament Champion UConn Huskies 70-64. Summitt took over the Tennessee job in 197 4 and is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history. Her teams have won eight NCAA titles through 2008.
Game 476 | April 18, 1995 | Frank Gilliam
An outstanding college football player at Iowa, Gilliam was a teammate of and played for Bud Grant at Winnipeg in the Canadian Football League. He served as Scouting Director for the Minnesota Vikings from 1971-1975 and as Director of Player Personnel from 1975-1994 when he was named Vice President for Player Personnel. Gilliam was an assistant coach at Iowa when Head Coach Dennis Green played for the Hawkeyes.
Game 477 | May 18, 1995 | Tom Kelly, Jerald Clark, Pat Meares
The Twins made a mid-season appearance featuring two of their newer players. Shortstop Meares joined the team in 1993 and played until 1998. Clark, a veteran outfielder/designated hitter, signed as a free agent in 1995, played only one year and hit .339 with 3 home runs and 15 RBIs.
Game 478 | May 25, 1995 | Kevin McHale, Flip Saunders
With McHale in place, the Timberwolves started to rapidly rebuild their front office. Saunders, a teammate of McHale's at Minnesota, joined the team as its president in May 1995 after a most impressive coaching career. At Golden Valley Lutheran his teams went 92-13. After that he had been named CBA Coach of the Year twice with the LaCrosse Catbirds.
Game 479 | June 7, 1995 | Beth Daniel
In her long career as a professional golfer Daniel won 33 tournaments and one major championship. She and Nancy Lopez dominated the LPGA Tour in the early 1980s. She remained competitive throughout her career, winning her final event in 2003 at age 46.
Game 480 | June 8 | George Steinbrenner
With the New York Yankees in town to play the Twins, Steinbrenner accepted an invitation to re-visit Dunkers. His team was coming back from a long rebuilding process with young players such as Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte joining the likes of Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs, Paul O'Neill and Jack McDowell. The team reached the playoffs in 1995 and won the World Series a year later.
Game 481 | June 27, 1995 | Buddy Mills
In one of the most inspirational stories in Olympic history, Mills, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, S.D., came from behind to win a gold medal in the 10,000 meter run at the Tokyo games. His qualifying time was a full minute slower than favorite Ron Clarke of Australia. His victory is often referred to as "the biggest upset in Olympic history," and the sequence of events was captured in the 1984 movie, Running Brave.
Game 482 | July 11, 1995 | Esera Tuaolo
Selected by the Green Bay Packers in the 1991 draft, Tuaolo played defensive line for the Minnesota Vikings from 1992-1996. He retired from the NFL after the 1999 season to pursue a career as a professional singer. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Real Sports, where he said that he was gay. His book, Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL, was released in 2006.
Game 483 | July 17, 1995 | Dave Stockton
Winner of 25 tournaments on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, Stockton won the PGA Championship in both 1970 and 1976. In 1970 he was paired with Arnold Palmer on the final day and won by two strokes over Palmer and Bob Murphy. In 1976 he sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole to avoid a playoff with Raymond Floyd and Don January. Stockton won the Burnet Classic in Minnesota in 1994.
Game 484 | August 9, 1995 | Johnny Bench
Here to compete in the 1995 Burnet Senior Classic, Bench mostly told stories of his Hall-of Fame baseball career. Generally regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history, Bench was a key member of the Cincinnati Reds 1975 and 1976 World Series Champions, know as "The Big Red Machine." He played his entire 17-year career with the Reds, batting .267 with 389 home runs and 1,376 RBIs. When he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989, he was named on 96.42 percent of the ballots, third highest ever at that time.
Game 485 | August 16, 1995 | Jim Wacker, Jim Zorn
A left-handed quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, Zorn joined Wacker's staff as quarterbacks coach for the 1995 and 1996 seasons. He received some consideration when Wacker was fired after the 1996 season, but did not have his college degree at the time. He went on to be an assistant with Seattle and Detroit before being named head coach of the Washington Redskins in 2008. The 1995 Gophers finished 3-8, losing their final seven Big Ten games in a row.
Game 486 | August 29, 1995 | Tony Dungy, Brian Billick
Vikings head coach Dennis Green had a good eye for talent, and few teams have ever enjoyed the kind of coaching staff the Vikings had in 1995. Both Dungy as the offensive coordinator, and Billick as the defensive coordinator, would become NFL head coaches and lead their teams to Super Bowl victories. Dungy became the head coach at Tampa Bay in 1996 and coached the Indianapolis Colts to a victory in the 2007 Super Bowl against the Chicago Bears. Billick became head coach of the Baltimore Ravens in 1999 and took them to a Super Bowl victory over the New York Giants in his second year.
Game 487 | September 20, 1995 | Mark Rosen, Joe Schmit, Randy Shaver, Jeff Grayson, Jim Rich
It had been only a year since the primary TV sports anchors had visited Dunkers, but again there were several changes in the roster. Mark Rosen (Ch 4), Joe Schmit (Ch 5) and Randy Shaver (CH 11) made return appearances. It was the first appearance for Jeff Grayson (Ch 9) and Jim Rich (Ch 29).
Game 488 | October 19, 1995 | Doug Woog
The Gopher hockey team had another solid season, posting a record of 30-10-2. Behind the scoring of Brian Bonin, Mike Crowley, Erik Rasmussen, Dan Trebil and Ryan Kraft they won the WCHA Playoffs. They opened NCAA post-season play with a victory over Providence before losing 4-3 to Michigan in the Western Regionals. Michigan went on to win the Frozen Four, and Mike Legg's lacrosse-style winning goal against Minnesota is probably the single most often replayed event in college hockey history.
Game 489 | November 7, 1995 | Clem Haskins
The team that was a season away from making the Final Four was starting to take shape with all fiVe starters in place. Courtney James and Sam Jacobson shared the forward spots, John Thomas was at center; and Eric Harris and Bobby Jackson played guard. The team defeated St. Louis in the first round of NIT play before a disappointing home loss to Tulane.
Game 490 | November 17, 1995 | Patty Berg, Donna DeVarona
This was a repeat appearance for both women. Minneapolis-native Berg recalled that she had been the first female guest of Dunkers in 1951 and complimented the organization for having so many women members, most of whom were in attendance that morning. It was her next-to-last appearance in Minnesota. She returned for the Solheim Cup at Interlachen in 2002, announced she had Alzheimer's Disease in December 2004 and died in Florida 21 months later at age 88. De Varona, the former Olympic gold medal winning swimmer, was a spokesperson for the Women's Sports Foundation in 1995.
Game 491 | November 29, 1995 | Murray Warmath
Many of the members of Coach Warmath's Rose Bowl teams of 1961 and 1962 came together on the 35th anniversary of the 1960 National Championship team. Tom Brown and Bobby Bell won the Outland Trophy two years apart, and Greg Larson, Tom Hall, Brown, Carl Eller, Bell, John Campbell and Julian Hook (Dunker since 1986) all were named First-team All Big Ten.