Goldy Gopher: A Vignette

A history of the University's most beloved gopher

Whether he’s busy spinning his head in the endzone of TCF Bank Stadium or scooting around campus on a moped, Goldy Gopher is a national treasure—er, should we say, a University-wide treasure. But where did all of this gopher business begin?

The origin of our golden mascot

Although the Goldy mascot we know and love hit campus lawns in the 1940s, the University’s first tie to gophers came when Minnesota was dubbed the “Gopher state” in 1857.

In the 1930s, the University of Minnesota football team became known as the Golden Gophers, and 1952 brought the first Goldy mascot when an assistant bandmaster bought a fuzzy wool suit and asked one of the marching band members to climb into it. Thus, Goldy Gopher was born.