Goldy Gopher: The history and evolution of the iconic Minnesota mascot

MINNEAPOLIS — He's a quiet guy with a big head and big teeth, and you see him every day at the University of Minnesota.

In this week's Finding Minnesota, John Lauritsen takes us through the long history and evolution of the Goldy Gopher mascot.

"My mom and dad met at the U. My dad's old fraternity brother is Bob Dylan," said best-selling author Ross Bernstein.

It's pretty safe to say that Bernstein bleeds maroon and gold. He also met his wife at the U in the late 80s, but that wasn't his only accomplishment.

After trying out but not making the Gopher hockey team, coach Doug Woog encouraged Bernstein to be Goldy.

"And I said, 'Great, I'll take it.' So, I became a large, smelly rodent," he said. "I was like too fat for the costume, so I wore my hockey uniform."

It was before T-shirt guns, big scoreboards and social media. Bernstein had the time of his life, learning to entertain at hockey games without making a sound — part of a universal mascot code.

"Everyone said, 'Hey, spin your head!' And that just became the thing, and now Goldys have always spun their heads," he said.

But he also got into a little trouble, like when he threw cheese slices at Wisconsin players. The shenanigans inspired him to write his first of 50 best-selling books: "Gopher Hockey, by the Hockey Gopher." That's when he learned that Goldy was an oldie.

"So it goes back to the 1850s when we started as a state. It was originally a 13-striped ground squirrel," he said. "Lots of Gophers in Minnesota, so the university officially adopted them."

WCCO sports announcer Halsey Hall is credited with calling the football team the "Golden Gophers" in the 1930s due to the color of their uniforms.

The jolly Goldy Gopher whom fans see in Stadium Village on Saturdays in the fall is a far cry from the Goldy they saw nearly 100 years ago.

In Bernstein's basement is an evolution of Goldy. The gopher was skinny during the Rose Bowl days of the early 60s, and then he appeared to hit the weight room in the 80s. After legendary football coach Lou Holtz left, the gopher face went from slightly sinister to more family-friendly. That's pretty much what you see today.

"'He kind of looks like a really big chipmunk' is the best way I would describe it to someone," said U student Gwendolyn Williams. "You'll see him around campus once in a while, which is kind of cool."

Nowadays, several Goldys make more than a thousand appearances a year. Win or lose, Bernstein believes it's one of the most iconic and historical mascots in the entire country.

"If you can bring your kid and see the mascot and [they say], 'Hey, I want to go to another Gopher game,' mission accomplished," he said. "That's what it's all about."

A man named George Grooms is actually credited with creating the first Goldy image, but as legend goes he did the tracing based on a chipmunk, not a gopher.

Bernstein says it was the marching band that initially had the rights to Goldy, but that changed over the years.