This coming Saturday, the Scarlet Knights will again try to prove that they belong in the Big Ten (Ha, ha), as they travel to Minneapolis to play the University of Minnesota. Although a great team in the 1930s and the early '40s, and again in the '60s, for most of the last half-century, the Golden Gophers have been terrible, with brief glimpses of hope.
Now, they're 4-2, having just lost in overtime to Paterno State. Maybe they're just what the doctor ordered for RU.
Maybe not.
Before You Go. The Vikings once again play indoors, but you will only be indoors for 4 hours at most. So you should consult the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press websites for their forecasts. They're predicting low 60s for Monday afternoon, and mid-50s for evening. So the legendary Minnesota cold won't be an issue. However, they're calling for a 60 percent chance of rain. Take that into consideration.
UPDATE: A January 30, 2019 article on Thrillist admitted what most of us already suspected: Taking into account that people in Alaska are generally nuts, and don't mind what would, statistically, be worse, Minnesota has the worst Winters of any State.
Minnesota is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.
Tickets. The stadium seats 50,807, less than Rutgers Stadium, and the Golden Gophers do not always fill it. So getting tickets might not be hard. Prices start at $50.
Getting There. It's 1,199 road miles from Times Square in New York to Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis (the spot where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat in the air in the opening sequence of her 1970-77 CBS sitcom), and 1,191 miles from MetLife Stadium to U.S. Bank Stadium. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.
If you order early, you could get a round-trip nonstop flight on United Airlines from Newark to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for under $500. When you get there, the Number 55 light rail takes you from the airport to downtown in under an hour, so at least that is convenient.
Bus? Not a good idea. Greyhound runs 3 buses a day between Port Authority and Minneapolis, all with at least one transfer, in Chicago and possibly elsewhere as well. The total time, depending on the number of stops, is between 26 and 31 hours, and costs $414 round-trip, although it could drop to as little as $274 with advanced purchase. The Greyhound terminal is at 950 Hawthorne Avenue, at 9th Street North, just 3 blocks from Nicollet Mall, 2 from the Target Center arena, and from there just across the 7th Street overpass over Interstate 394 from Target Field.
Train? An even worse idea. Amtrak will make you leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM Eastern Time, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time, and then the Empire Builder, their Chicago-to-Seattle run, will leave at 2:15 PM and arrive at Union Depot in St. Paul (not Minneapolis) at 10:03 PM -- after the game would end, unless there's a lot of overtime. From there, 214 4th Street E., you'd have to take the Light Rail Green Line to downtown Minneapolis. And it's $386 round-trip. And you'd probably have to spent not one but two nights in a hotel.
If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won't need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key, through the rest of Ohio and Indiana.
Just outside Chicago, I-80 will split off from I-90, which you will keep, until it merges with Interstate 94. For the moment, though, you will ignore I-94. Stay on I-90 through Illinois, until reaching Madison, Wisconsin, where you will once again merge with I-94. Now, I-94 is what you want, taking it into Minnesota and the Twin Cities, with Exit 235B being your exit for the University of Minnesota area, and Exit 233A for downtown Minneapolis.
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 and a half hours in Indiana, an hour and a half in Illinois, 2 and a half hours in Wisconsin, and half an hour in Minnesota. That's 17 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, outside Chicago and halfway across Wisconsin, and accounting for traffic in New York, the Chicago suburbs and the Twin Cities, it should be no more than 23 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.
Once In the City. Minnesota was the 32nd State admitted to the Union, on May 11, 1858. MLB's Twins, the NFL's Vikings (who arrived at the same time, 1961), the NBA's Timberwolves (1989), the NHL's Wild (2000), and the NHL's departed North Stars (1967-1993) use the State, "Minnesota," as their geographic identifier, because they didn't want to slight either one of the "Twin Cities."
The State House in St. Paul
As Twins founding owner Calvin Griffith said, with glee and bigotry, when he moved the Washington Senators there, the people of Minnesota are white -- but no longer overwhelmingly so. The Twin Cities' white population is down to 70 percent, as immigrants come in from Latin America and Africa. Minneapolis, in particular, is now 62 percent white, 19 percent black, 11 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian, and 2 percent Native American.
Minneapolis dealt with a race riot on its North Side on July 19, 1967; and the racially-motivated police murders of Philando Castile in suburban Falcon Heights on July 6, 2016. (UPDATE: They have since dealt with the racially-motivated police murder of George Floyd on the city's South Side on May 25, 2020.)
"Minneapolis" is a combination of the Dakota tribal word for water, and the Greek word for city. It was founded in 1867 with the name St. Anthony Falls, and, of course, St. Paul, founded in 1854, is also named for an early Christian saint. In Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue separates the numbered Streets from North and South, and the Mississippi River is the "zero point" for the Avenues, many (but not all) of which also have numbers.
Each city once had 2 daily papers, now each is down to 1: Minneapolis had the Star and the Tribune, merged in 1982; St. Paul the Pioneer and the Dispatch, merged into the Pioneer Press and Dispatch in 1985, with the Dispatch name dropped in 1990. Today, they are nicknamed the Strib and the Pi Press.
The sales tax in the State of Minnesota is 6.875 percent. It's 7.775 percent in Minneapolis' Hennepin County, and 7.625 percent in St. Paul's Ramsey County. Bus and Light Rail service is $2.25 per ride during rush hours, $1.75 otherwise.
ZIP Codes in Minnesota start with the digits 54 and 55; with Minneapolis having 553, 554 or 555; and St. Paul having 550 and 551. The Area Codes are 612 for Minneapolis, 507 for its suburbs, and 651 for St. Paul. Interstates 494 and 694 are the Twin Cities' "beltway." Xcel Energy supplies electricity, and CenterPoint Energy supplies gas.
The University of Minnesota was founded in 1851, before Statehood. In addition to its main campus in Minneapolis, straddling the Mississippi River, it has campuses in the Minnesota cities of Crookston, Duluth, Morris and Rochester.
Notable athletes other than football players include:
* Hockey: 9 players who played at the school under head coach Herb Brooks, and also did so under him on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that won the Gold Medal at Lake Placid, New York: Bill Baker, Neal Broten, Steve Christoff, Steve Janaszak, Rob McClanahan, Mike Ramsey, Buzz Schneider, Eric Strobel and Phil Verchota. Also Thomas Vanek and Phil Kessel.
* Baseball: Hall-of-Famers Dave Winfield and Paul Molitor, plus Terry Steinbach and Denny Neagle.
* Basketball: Hall-of-Famer Kevin McHale, plus Atlanta Hawks star Lou Hudson and Los Angeles Lakers NBA Champion Mychal Thompson.
Notable people from other fields include:
* Politics (representing Minnesota unless otherwise stated): Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey '39 and Walter Mondale '51; Governors Theodore Christianson 1906, Charles M. Dale 1915 of New Hampshire, Harold Stassen '27, Elmer Andersen '31, Robert Crosby of Nebraska '31 (that's 2 different Governors from 2 different States in the same class), Orville Freeman '40 (also Secretary of Agriculture), Wendell Anderson '54, and Tim Pawlenty '83; Senators Humphrey, Mondale, Thomas Schall 1902, Quentin Burdick '31 of North Dakota, Dean Barkley '72, and Ron Johnson '77 of Wisconsin; Attorney General William D. Mitchell 1895; and civil rights leader Roy Wilkins '23.
* Science: Mercury 7 astronauts Donald K. "Deke" Slayton '49.
* Publishing: Captain Marvel creator C.C. Beck '32, Frank & Ernest cartoonist Bob Thaves '46, science fiction writer Poul Anderson '48, People magazine founder Dick Durrell '48, author and radio host Garrison Keillor '66.
* TV journalism: Rick Sanchez '80, Asha Blake and Michele Norris '83 (2 esteemed black female TV journalists in the same class).
* Acting: Eddie Albert '28, game show host Jim Lange '54, and Kimberly Elise '89.
Going In. TCF Bank Stadium, designed to look like the old red-brick horseshoe college football stadiums of the 1920s, is on the campus of the University of Minnesota, across the Mississippi River from most of Minneapolis, 3 miles due east of Nicollet Mall and the homes of the Twins and T-Wolves. The official address is 420 SE 23rd Avenue. (UPDATE: In 2021, it was renamed Huntington Bank Stadium.)
Coming from downtown, you would take the Green Line light rail to Stadium Village stop. If you're going by light rail, you're most likely going to enter via the open west end of the horseshoe. If you're driving, you'll be taking I-94 back across the river, to Exit 235B, and probably parking at the enclosed east end of the stadium. Parking can be had for as low as $5.00. This being Big Ten country, tailgating is encouraged.
The stadium opened in 2009, allowing the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers to play home games on campus as they did at Memorial Stadium from 1924 to 1981. Their alumni were sick of playing in the cold, so when the Metrodome opened for the Twins and Vikings in 1982, they wanted in (figuratively and literally). But, even during winning seasons (which have been few and far between since the 1960s), attendance was lousy. So an on-campus facility was built.
Unlike most football stadiums, due to solar and wind patterns, the field is laid out east-to-west, and is made of FieldTurf. The Gophers, who switched to plastic at Old Memorial in 1970 but switched back to the real thing in 1977, haven't played a home game on real grass since leaving Old Memorial in 1981.
Before moving in for the 2014 and '15 seasons, the Vikings played a home game there in 2010, following a snow-caused collapse of the Metrodome roof. The Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears, and it turned out to be Brett Favre's last NFL game. It's also hosted an outdoor game for UM hockey, and on February 21, 2016, it played host to a 6-1 win by the Wild over the Chicago Blackhawks. It hosted a match between soccer teams Manchester City of England and Olympiacos of Athens, Greece.
UPDATE: On October 6, 2017, Thrillist compiled a list of their Best College Football Stadiums, the top 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. TCF Bank Stadium ranked 24th, citing "Its intimate, two-level design," its "view of the Minneapolis skyline," and "some of the more interesting food in college football."
Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. "Old Memorial," seated 56,000 people, and was across University Avenue from where the new stadium now stands. The McNamara Alumni Center and the University Aquatic Center are on the site. The Vikings had played a home game at "Old Memorial" in 1969, due to a conflict with a Twins Playoff game at Metropolitan Stadium.
Across Oak Street from the new stadium's west end, on opposite sides of 4th Street, are the University's basketball and hockey homes. The Gophers play their basketball games at Williams Arena, a classic old barn built in 1928. The 1951 NCAA Final Four was held there, with Kentucky beating Kansas State in the Final. The hockey equivalent, the Frozen Four, was held there in 1958 and 1966.
Across 4th Street from Williams is Mariucci Arena, home of the hockey team that has won National Championships in 1974, '76, '79, 2002 and '03. Named for John Mariucci, a member of the Chicago Blackhawks' 1938 Stanley Cup winners who coached the Gophers. The arena was built in 1993, after the team previously played hockey at Williams.
Legend has it that 4th Street is the "Positively 4th Street" used as the title of a song by former UM student Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan, although, as is often the case with Dylan songs, there is no mention of the title in the song. Whether the "friend" who's "got a lot of nerve" was a fellow UM student, I don't know. It's also been suggested that the 4th Street in question is the one in New York's Greenwich Village.
Food. Considering that Minnesota is Big Ten Country, you would expect their stadium to have lots of good food, in particular that Midwest staple, the sausage. They don't disappoint.
Named for UM's Gopher mascot, Goldy's Grill stands include hot dogs, bratwurst, burgers, chicken tenders, and... cheese curds. A little touch of Montreal -- poutine in the Land of 10,000 Lakes? I hope not!
The open west end has Jax Cafe, including burgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, cheesesteaks, chili, clam chowder and "Buffalo chips." I hope that means potato chips with Buffalo-chicken-style seasoning! The west end also has Famous Dave's barbecue and Dino's Gyros. The stadium also has Subway, Maui Wowie and ice cream stands. That Thrillist article cited Italian meatballs and "French toast sticks."
Team History Displays. Minnesota has won 7 National Championships: 1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941 and 1960. You'll notice that the last of these was in the Ike Age. They've won 18 Conference Championships: 1892 and 1893 in the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest; and, in the League that became the Big Ten, 1900, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1915, 1927, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1960 and 1967. The last 2 were co-championships, so they haven't won the title since the Autumn after the Summer of Love, and haven't won it outright since before Pearl Harbor. The display for these achievements is on the facing of the upper deck at the east, closed end of the horseshoe.
They have 5 retired numbers: 10, tailback Paul Giel, 1951-53; 15, quarterback Sandy Stephens, 1959-61; 54, running back Bruce Smith -- no relation to the Buffalo Bills star, but their only Heisman Trophy winner -- 1940-41; 72, running back Bronko Nagurski, 1927-29; and 78, linebacker Bobby Bell, 1960-62.
Other notable Minnesota football players have been 1932-34 running back Francis "Pug" Lund, in the College Football Hall of Fame but never played a down in the NFL; 1946-49 defensive end Leo Nomellini, later a star with the San Francisco 49ers; 1959-62 defensive tackle Carl Eller, who went on to stay in the Twin Cities and star for the Vikings; 1965-67 tight end Charlie Sanders, later a star for the Detroit Lions; and 1973-75 safety Tony Dungy, who coached the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl win.
Minnesota's biggest rival has been neighboring Wisconsin, and it's even more intense in hockey than it is in football. They've played every season since 1890, and every year since 1907, making it the longest uninterrupted rivalry in FBS.
Minnesota led the rivalry for most of its history, even after they stopped being a college football power following their 1967 Big 10 Co-Championship. But Wisconsin has won the game the last 14 years. Their 31-0 win in Minneapolis last season finally gave them the overall edge, 60-59-8. They will play each other again on November 24, Thanksgiving Saturday.
This rivalry is unusual for another reason: It has not 1, but 2 trophies. The 1st was the Slab of Bacon. Introduced in 1930, it is a piece of black walnut wood with a football in the middle. Inscribed on the ball is a letter which, depending on how it's hung, can be either an M for Minnesota or a W for Wisconsin. The word "BACON" is carved at both ends, so it can be read right-side-up no matter which team has won and "brought home the bacon."
Somehow, this trophy was lost in 1943, after Minnesota won. I should say, "lost," because, when it was found in a storage closet at Camp Randall in 1994, someone had kept inscribing game scores on it through 1970. It's not known why it was stopped then. Maybe the UW employee who did it was fired. At any rate, the Badgers still have the trophy.
They still have it because it was replaced by another trophy. In 1948, Paul Bunyan's Axe was introduced, in honor of the legendary giant lumberjack of the Upper Midwest. The scores of the games are inscribed on its 6-foot-long handle. On the blade, the side with Wisconsin's victories is red with white lettering, while the side with Minnesota's wins is old gold with red lettering, matching
each school's colors.
The handle got filled up with scores in 1999, so a new one was made, and the original was donated to the College Football Hall of Fame, as happens when one of the bands of the Stanley Cup gets filled up, and the oldest remaining band gets sent back to the Hockey Hall of Fame. (Who knows: Given each school's hockey success, someone may have thought of exactly that.) Since the introduction of the original Axe, Wisconsin leads, 43-24-3. (San Francisco Bay Area arch-rivals California and Stanford also play for an Axe, although only the blade remains.)
(UPDATE: Wisconsin now leads 43-24-3, and leads the overall rivalry 61-60-8.)
The tradition is as follows: If the team that won the Axe last year wins it again, they run to their own sideline, pick it up, carry it around the field, and then use it to pretend to chop down the goalposts; if the team that lost last year's game wins it, the Axe holders must let them winners run to their sidelines and take it.
Minnesota first played the University of Michigan in 1892. In 1903, the Wolverines came to Minneapolis to lay the Golden Gophers. Fielding Yost was a bit paranoid, and thought opposing fans might poison his water. So he sent student manager Thomas B. Roberts to buy something and bring it to him. He went to a local variety store and spent 30 cents on a 5-gallon earthenware jug. The game ended in a 6-6 tie.
Afterward, Minnesota custodian Oscar Munson discovered, in his Scandinavian accent, "Yost left his yug." Supposedly, they contacted Yost and said, "Come and win it back." They didn't even try until 1909, when they did win it back.
Ever since, the jug -- which is not little and not brown -- has been painted maize & blue with Michigan's winning scores on one side, and maroon & gold with Minnesota's winning scores on the other, and gone to the winner. Michigan leads the rivalry 74-25-3, including the battle for the Little Brown Jug 70-23-2.
This rivalry means little to Michigan, because they have absolutely dominated it. Michigan went 18-2-1 from 1895 to 1932, 14-2-1 from 1943 to 1959, and has gone 44-4 since 1968, including 18 straight from 1987 to 2004. Minnesota won 9 straight from 1934 to 1942.
Minnesota trails Michigan in the Little Brown Jug rivalry, 74-25-3. (UPDATE: Michigan now leads 75-25-3.)
The neighboring States of Minnesota and Iowa have been playing each other since 1891, and in 1934, things turned nasty over the rough treatment of yet another black player for one of the Iowa schools by Minnesota, Ozzie Simmons.
The rhetoric got really threatening for the 1935 game, and even the Governors got in on it, with Clyde Herring of Iowa saying the Iowa City crowd wouldn't stand for it. He got accused of inciting a riot by Minnesota's Attorney General, Harry Peterson. Peterson's boss, Governor Floyd Olson, decided to lighten the mood, with what is, as far as I can tell, the first friendly bet between politicians representing opposing teams: A Minnesota "prize hog" against one from Iowa. Herring took the bet.
There was no incident at the game, either on the field or in the stands. Simmons walked off the field, receiving handshakes rather than injuries from the Minnesota players. Minnesota won, 13-6, and won their 2nd straight National Championship.
Herring contacted Rosdale Farms outside Fort Dodge, Iowa, and sent the pig to Olson, naming it Floyd of Rosedale for Olson and the farm. Olson then commissioned a trophy to be given annually to the winner of the game, because a 98-pound trophy is easier to move than a several-hundred-pound pig.
Iowa has won the last 2 games, and 12 of the last 16, but still trails the overall rivalry, 62-46-2. Since the trophy (counting the original pig) was first awarded in 1934, Minnesota's lead is much slimmer, 42-38-2. (UPDATE: Minnesota now leads overall 62-49-2, and for the Pig 42-41-2.)
(Herring, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1936, but lost in 1942, and died in 1945. Olson, a member of the Farmer-Labor Party, a kind of Socialist party that Hubert Humphrey later merged with the State Democratic Party, wasn't so lucky: He was already dying of cancer at the time of the bet, and passed away 9 months later.)
Stuff. Goldy's Locker Room, named for the Gopher mascot, is located under the north stands (the right fork of the horseshoe). The usual team-themed stuff can be found there. There's also a Goldy's outlet at the Mall of America in Bloomington.
In 2009, Al Papas Jr. published Gophers Illustrated: The Incredible Complete History of Minnesota Football. Books have also been published about the Gophers' big rivalries: The Little Brown Jug: The Michigan-Minnesota Football Rivalry, by Ken Magee and Jon M. Stevens; and The Minnesota-Wisconsin College Football Rivalry (with a picture of that rivalry's trophy, the Paul Bunyan Axe, on the cover), by Dave Anderson and Joel Maturi.
Oddly enough, there appears to be no book about the Minnesota-Iowa rivalry. There is, however, a DVD, The Legends of Minnesota, released by the University in 2009.
During the Game. You're Rutgers fans. Not Wisconsin fans. Not Iowa fans. Not Michigan fans. You're Rutgers fans. They're Minnesota fans. They're not going to bother you, as long as you don't bother them. Or make jokes about the cold. Or reference Betty White's Rose character from the fictional town of St. Olaf, Minnesota on The Golden Girls.
Their mascot is Goldy Gopher -- that's Goldy with a Y, not Goldie with an I-E. He rides onto the field on a Segway -- not an ATV like the Phillie Phanatic. You think gophers aren't scary? Then you don't play golf. Actually, that may be a plus for you...
Usually, the school's marching band will play the National Anthem. The fight song is "The Minnesota Rouser," also known as "The Gopher Rouser."
After the Game. Minneapolis is a relatively safe city, and the UM campus even more so. As long as you don't go out of your way to antagonize anybody, you should be all right.
Washington Avenue, 2 blocks south of the stadium, is loaded with fast food joints. The most famous Minnesota sports bar, Stub & Herb's, has been parked on the University of Minnesota campus at 227 SE Oak Street, on the corner of Washington, since 1939, when UM football was not only good, but great. Stadium Village on light rail.
In 1990, Bob Wood published Big Ten Country, in which the Michigan State graduate wrote of going to all 10 schools then in the league in one season (1988). He cited Al's Breakfast, at 413 14th Avenue SE, as having the best breakfast in town; and Annie's Parlour, at 313 14th Avenue SE, as having the best burger. Both are still open, about 7 blocks west down University Avenue from the stadium..
Sidelights. Minnesota's sports history is long, but very uneven. Teams have been born, moved in, moved around, and even moved out. But there are some local sites worth checking out.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Minneapolis came in 23rd.
* U.S. Bank Stadium and site of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Home of the Twins from 1982 to 2009, the University of Minnesota football team from 1982 to 2008, the NFL's Vikings from 1982 to 2013, and the NBA's Timberwolves in their inaugural season of 1989-90, that infamous blizzard and roof collapse in 2010 brought the desire to get out and build a new stadium for the Vikes to the front burner, and it finally led to action. Until then, there were threats that the Vikes would move, the most-mentioned possible destinations being Los Angeles and San Antonio.
The Twins won the 1987 and 1991 World Series at the Metrodome – going 8-0 in World Series games in the Dome, and 0-6 in Series games outside of it. The Vikings, on the other hand, were just 6-4 in home Playoff games there – including an overtime defeat in the 1998 NFC Championship Game after going 14-2 in the regular season.
From October 19, 1991 to April 6, 1992, the Metrodome hosted 3 major events in less than 6 months: The World Series (Twins over Atlanta Braves), Super Bowl XXVI (Washington Redskins over Buffalo Bills), and the NCAA Final Four (Duke beating Michigan in the Final). It also hosted the Final Four in 2001 (Duke won that one, too, over Arizona).
In May 2012, faced with the serious possibility of the Vikings moving without getting a suitable stadium, the Minnesota State legislature approved funding for a new stadium for the Vikings, to be built on the site of the Metrodome and on adjoining land.
In a piece of poetic justice, just as the damn thing was (with considerable ballyhoo) built and completed ahead of schedule and under budget, so did the demolition take place. The people of Minnesota seemed to be proud of its having been built on the cheap and on time, but it served its purpose, to keep the Twins and Vikings from moving for a generation, and now replacement stadiums are achieving the same purpose.
Billy Martin, who hated the place, had the best word on it, though the awkward wording of it may have been inspired in part by his pal Yogi Berra: "It's a shame a great guy like HHH had to be named after it." (Billy's first managing job was with the Twins, at the Met in 1969.)
U.S. Bank Stadium is now open, and the Vikings continued the Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry by beating the Green Bay Packers in its 1st regular season game. Last August 3, it hosted a preseason tour soccer match in which Chelsea beat AC Milan 3-1. It will host Super Bowl LII in February 2018, and the 2019 NCAA Final Four. 900 South 5th Street at Centennial (Kirby Puckett) Place. Metrodome station on Light Rail.
* Target Field. Home of the Twins since 2010, it gives Minnesota's baseball team its 1st true ballpark after a half-century of waiting, rather than the Bloomington ice tray and the Homerdome. The official address is 1 Twins Way, along 3rd Avenue N., between 5th and 7th Streets. It has its own stop on the light rail system.
The Vikings reached 4 Super Bowls while playing at The Met, while the Twins won Games 1, 2 and 6 of the 1965 World Series there, but lost Game 7 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a shutout by Sandy Koufax. (So the Twins are 11-1 all-time in World Series home games, but 0-9 on the road.) The Vikings were far more formidable in their ice tray of a stadium, which had no protection from the sun and nothing to block an Arctic blast of wind.
In fact, the Met had one deck along the 3rd base stands and in the right field bleachers, two decks from 1st base to right field and in the left field bleachers, and three decks behind home plate. Somebody once said the stadium looked like an Erector set that a kid was putting together, before his mother called him away to dinner and he never finished it. At 45,919 seats, it had a capacity that was just fine for baseball; but at 48,446, it was too small for the NFL.
Prior to the 1961 arrivals of the Twins and Vikings, the Met hosted the Minneapolis Millers from 1956 to 1960, and 5 NFL games over the same stretch, including 4 "home games" for the Packers. (Viking fans may be sickened over that, but at least University of Minnesota fans can take heart in the University of Wisconsin never having played there.)
The experiments worked: The Met, built equidistant from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, in the southern suburb of Bloomington, was awarded the MLB and NFL teams, and Midway Stadium, built in 1957 as the new home of the St. Paul Saints (at 1000 N. Snelling Avenue in the city of St. Paul, also roughly equidistant from the two downtowns), struck out, and was used as a practice field by the Vikings before being demolished in 1981.
The NHL's Minnesota North Stars played at the adjoining Metropolitan Sports Center (or Met Center) from 1967 to 1993, before they were moved to become the Dallas Stars by owner Norm Green, earning him the nickname Norm Greed. The Stars reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981 and 1991, but never won the Cup until 1999 when they were in Dallas. Larry Holmes successfully defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World at the Met Center on July 7, 1980, knocking out Minnesota native Scott LeDoux.
The Beatles played at Metropolitan Stadium on August 21, 1965 -- making 1 of only 3 facilities to host an All-Star Game, a Finals and a Beatles concert in the same year. (The others were the Boston Garden and Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964.) Elvis Presley sang at the Met Center on November 5, 1971 and October 17, 1976.
8000 Cedar Avenue South, at 80th Street -- near the airport, although legends of planes being an issue, as with Shea Stadium and Citi Field, seem to be absent. A street named Killebrew Drive, and the original location of home plate, have been preserved. A 45-minute ride on the Number 55 light rail (MOA station).
* Site of Nicollet Park. Home of the Millers from 1912 to 1955, it was one of the most historic minor-league parks, home to Ted Williams and Willie Mays before they reached the majors. With the Met nearing completion, its last game was Game 7 of the 1955 Junior World Series, in which the Millers beat the International League Champion Rochester Red Wings. A few early NFL games were played there in the 1920s, including home games by a team a team known as the Minneapolis Marines and the Minneapolis Red Jackets. A bank is now on the site. Nicollet and Blaisdell Avenues, 30th and 31st Streets. Number 465 bus.
* Site of Lexington Park. Home of the Saints from 1897 to 1956, it wasn't nearly as well regarded, although it did close with a Saints win over the arch-rival Millers. The site is now occupied by retail outlets. Lexington Parkway, University Avenue, Fuller & Dunlap Streets.
* Xcel Energy Center and site of the St. Paul Civic Center. Home of the NHL's Minnesota Wild since their debut in 2000, and site of the 2008 Republican Convention that nominated John McCain for President and Sarah Palin for Vice President. (The GOP met in Minneapolis in 1892, renominating President Benjamin Harrison at the Industrial Exposition Building at 101 Central Avenue SE. It was torn down in 1940, and condos are on the site now.)
That building was the home of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1977. The Fighting Saints had played their first few home games, in late 1972, at the St. Paul Auditorium. Elvis sang at the Civic Center on October 2 and 3, 1974, and April 30, 1977. The Civic Center is also where Bruce Springsteen and Courteney Cox filmed the video for Bruce's song "Dancing In the Dark."
The Frozen Four was held at the Civic Center in 1989, 1991 and 1994. It's been held at the Xcel in 2002 and 2011, and will be again in 2018. It hosted the Big Ten Hockey Tournament in 2014 and 2016.
"Minneapolis" is a combination of the Dakota tribal word for water, and the Greek word for city. It was founded in 1867 with the name St. Anthony Falls, and, of course, St. Paul, founded in 1854, is also named for an early Christian saint. In Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue separates the numbered Streets from North and South, and the Mississippi River is the "zero point" for the Avenues, many (but not all) of which also have numbers.
Each city once had 2 daily papers, now each is down to 1: Minneapolis had the Star and the Tribune, merged in 1982; St. Paul the Pioneer and the Dispatch, merged into the Pioneer Press and Dispatch in 1985, with the Dispatch name dropped in 1990. Today, they are nicknamed the Strib and the Pi Press.
The sales tax in the State of Minnesota is 6.875 percent. It's 7.775 percent in Minneapolis' Hennepin County, and 7.625 percent in St. Paul's Ramsey County. Bus and Light Rail service is $2.25 per ride during rush hours, $1.75 otherwise.
Light Rail, Stadium Village station
The University of Minnesota was founded in 1851, before Statehood. In addition to its main campus in Minneapolis, straddling the Mississippi River, it has campuses in the Minnesota cities of Crookston, Duluth, Morris and Rochester.
Notable athletes other than football players include:
* Hockey: 9 players who played at the school under head coach Herb Brooks, and also did so under him on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that won the Gold Medal at Lake Placid, New York: Bill Baker, Neal Broten, Steve Christoff, Steve Janaszak, Rob McClanahan, Mike Ramsey, Buzz Schneider, Eric Strobel and Phil Verchota. Also Thomas Vanek and Phil Kessel.
* Baseball: Hall-of-Famers Dave Winfield and Paul Molitor, plus Terry Steinbach and Denny Neagle.
* Basketball: Hall-of-Famer Kevin McHale, plus Atlanta Hawks star Lou Hudson and Los Angeles Lakers NBA Champion Mychal Thompson.
Notable people from other fields include:
* Politics (representing Minnesota unless otherwise stated): Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey '39 and Walter Mondale '51; Governors Theodore Christianson 1906, Charles M. Dale 1915 of New Hampshire, Harold Stassen '27, Elmer Andersen '31, Robert Crosby of Nebraska '31 (that's 2 different Governors from 2 different States in the same class), Orville Freeman '40 (also Secretary of Agriculture), Wendell Anderson '54, and Tim Pawlenty '83; Senators Humphrey, Mondale, Thomas Schall 1902, Quentin Burdick '31 of North Dakota, Dean Barkley '72, and Ron Johnson '77 of Wisconsin; Attorney General William D. Mitchell 1895; and civil rights leader Roy Wilkins '23.
* Science: Mercury 7 astronauts Donald K. "Deke" Slayton '49.
* Publishing: Captain Marvel creator C.C. Beck '32, Frank & Ernest cartoonist Bob Thaves '46, science fiction writer Poul Anderson '48, People magazine founder Dick Durrell '48, author and radio host Garrison Keillor '66.
* TV journalism: Rick Sanchez '80, Asha Blake and Michele Norris '83 (2 esteemed black female TV journalists in the same class).
* Acting: Eddie Albert '28, game show host Jim Lange '54, and Kimberly Elise '89.
Going In. TCF Bank Stadium, designed to look like the old red-brick horseshoe college football stadiums of the 1920s, is on the campus of the University of Minnesota, across the Mississippi River from most of Minneapolis, 3 miles due east of Nicollet Mall and the homes of the Twins and T-Wolves. The official address is 420 SE 23rd Avenue. (UPDATE: In 2021, it was renamed Huntington Bank Stadium.)
Coming from downtown, you would take the Green Line light rail to Stadium Village stop. If you're going by light rail, you're most likely going to enter via the open west end of the horseshoe. If you're driving, you'll be taking I-94 back across the river, to Exit 235B, and probably parking at the enclosed east end of the stadium. Parking can be had for as low as $5.00. This being Big Ten country, tailgating is encouraged.
The stadium opened in 2009, allowing the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers to play home games on campus as they did at Memorial Stadium from 1924 to 1981. Their alumni were sick of playing in the cold, so when the Metrodome opened for the Twins and Vikings in 1982, they wanted in (figuratively and literally). But, even during winning seasons (which have been few and far between since the 1960s), attendance was lousy. So an on-campus facility was built.
Unlike most football stadiums, due to solar and wind patterns, the field is laid out east-to-west, and is made of FieldTurf. The Gophers, who switched to plastic at Old Memorial in 1970 but switched back to the real thing in 1977, haven't played a home game on real grass since leaving Old Memorial in 1981.
Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. "Old Memorial," seated 56,000 people, and was across University Avenue from where the new stadium now stands. The McNamara Alumni Center and the University Aquatic Center are on the site. The Vikings had played a home game at "Old Memorial" in 1969, due to a conflict with a Twins Playoff game at Metropolitan Stadium.
Across Oak Street from the new stadium's west end, on opposite sides of 4th Street, are the University's basketball and hockey homes. The Gophers play their basketball games at Williams Arena, a classic old barn built in 1928. The 1951 NCAA Final Four was held there, with Kentucky beating Kansas State in the Final. The hockey equivalent, the Frozen Four, was held there in 1958 and 1966.
Across 4th Street from Williams is Mariucci Arena, home of the hockey team that has won National Championships in 1974, '76, '79, 2002 and '03. Named for John Mariucci, a member of the Chicago Blackhawks' 1938 Stanley Cup winners who coached the Gophers. The arena was built in 1993, after the team previously played hockey at Williams.
Legend has it that 4th Street is the "Positively 4th Street" used as the title of a song by former UM student Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan, although, as is often the case with Dylan songs, there is no mention of the title in the song. Whether the "friend" who's "got a lot of nerve" was a fellow UM student, I don't know. It's also been suggested that the 4th Street in question is the one in New York's Greenwich Village.
Food. Considering that Minnesota is Big Ten Country, you would expect their stadium to have lots of good food, in particular that Midwest staple, the sausage. They don't disappoint.
Named for UM's Gopher mascot, Goldy's Grill stands include hot dogs, bratwurst, burgers, chicken tenders, and... cheese curds. A little touch of Montreal -- poutine in the Land of 10,000 Lakes? I hope not!
The open west end has Jax Cafe, including burgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, cheesesteaks, chili, clam chowder and "Buffalo chips." I hope that means potato chips with Buffalo-chicken-style seasoning! The west end also has Famous Dave's barbecue and Dino's Gyros. The stadium also has Subway, Maui Wowie and ice cream stands. That Thrillist article cited Italian meatballs and "French toast sticks."
They have 5 retired numbers: 10, tailback Paul Giel, 1951-53; 15, quarterback Sandy Stephens, 1959-61; 54, running back Bruce Smith -- no relation to the Buffalo Bills star, but their only Heisman Trophy winner -- 1940-41; 72, running back Bronko Nagurski, 1927-29; and 78, linebacker Bobby Bell, 1960-62.
Other notable Minnesota football players have been 1932-34 running back Francis "Pug" Lund, in the College Football Hall of Fame but never played a down in the NFL; 1946-49 defensive end Leo Nomellini, later a star with the San Francisco 49ers; 1959-62 defensive tackle Carl Eller, who went on to stay in the Twin Cities and star for the Vikings; 1965-67 tight end Charlie Sanders, later a star for the Detroit Lions; and 1973-75 safety Tony Dungy, who coached the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl win.
Minnesota's biggest rival has been neighboring Wisconsin, and it's even more intense in hockey than it is in football. They've played every season since 1890, and every year since 1907, making it the longest uninterrupted rivalry in FBS.
Minnesota led the rivalry for most of its history, even after they stopped being a college football power following their 1967 Big 10 Co-Championship. But Wisconsin has won the game the last 14 years. Their 31-0 win in Minneapolis last season finally gave them the overall edge, 60-59-8. They will play each other again on November 24, Thanksgiving Saturday.
This rivalry is unusual for another reason: It has not 1, but 2 trophies. The 1st was the Slab of Bacon. Introduced in 1930, it is a piece of black walnut wood with a football in the middle. Inscribed on the ball is a letter which, depending on how it's hung, can be either an M for Minnesota or a W for Wisconsin. The word "BACON" is carved at both ends, so it can be read right-side-up no matter which team has won and "brought home the bacon."
Somehow, this trophy was lost in 1943, after Minnesota won. I should say, "lost," because, when it was found in a storage closet at Camp Randall in 1994, someone had kept inscribing game scores on it through 1970. It's not known why it was stopped then. Maybe the UW employee who did it was fired. At any rate, the Badgers still have the trophy.
They still have it because it was replaced by another trophy. In 1948, Paul Bunyan's Axe was introduced, in honor of the legendary giant lumberjack of the Upper Midwest. The scores of the games are inscribed on its 6-foot-long handle. On the blade, the side with Wisconsin's victories is red with white lettering, while the side with Minnesota's wins is old gold with red lettering, matching
each school's colors.
(UPDATE: Wisconsin now leads 43-24-3, and leads the overall rivalry 61-60-8.)
The tradition is as follows: If the team that won the Axe last year wins it again, they run to their own sideline, pick it up, carry it around the field, and then use it to pretend to chop down the goalposts; if the team that lost last year's game wins it, the Axe holders must let them winners run to their sidelines and take it.
Minnesota players claiming the Axe,
a few years ago at the Metrodome
Afterward, Minnesota custodian Oscar Munson discovered, in his Scandinavian accent, "Yost left his yug." Supposedly, they contacted Yost and said, "Come and win it back." They didn't even try until 1909, when they did win it back.
Ever since, the jug -- which is not little and not brown -- has been painted maize & blue with Michigan's winning scores on one side, and maroon & gold with Minnesota's winning scores on the other, and gone to the winner. Michigan leads the rivalry 74-25-3, including the battle for the Little Brown Jug 70-23-2.
This rivalry means little to Michigan, because they have absolutely dominated it. Michigan went 18-2-1 from 1895 to 1932, 14-2-1 from 1943 to 1959, and has gone 44-4 since 1968, including 18 straight from 1987 to 2004. Minnesota won 9 straight from 1934 to 1942.
The two sides of the Little Brown Jug,
neither of which is brown.
Minnesota trails Michigan in the Little Brown Jug rivalry, 74-25-3. (UPDATE: Michigan now leads 75-25-3.)
The neighboring States of Minnesota and Iowa have been playing each other since 1891, and in 1934, things turned nasty over the rough treatment of yet another black player for one of the Iowa schools by Minnesota, Ozzie Simmons.
The rhetoric got really threatening for the 1935 game, and even the Governors got in on it, with Clyde Herring of Iowa saying the Iowa City crowd wouldn't stand for it. He got accused of inciting a riot by Minnesota's Attorney General, Harry Peterson. Peterson's boss, Governor Floyd Olson, decided to lighten the mood, with what is, as far as I can tell, the first friendly bet between politicians representing opposing teams: A Minnesota "prize hog" against one from Iowa. Herring took the bet.
There was no incident at the game, either on the field or in the stands. Simmons walked off the field, receiving handshakes rather than injuries from the Minnesota players. Minnesota won, 13-6, and won their 2nd straight National Championship.
Herring contacted Rosdale Farms outside Fort Dodge, Iowa, and sent the pig to Olson, naming it Floyd of Rosedale for Olson and the farm. Olson then commissioned a trophy to be given annually to the winner of the game, because a 98-pound trophy is easier to move than a several-hundred-pound pig.
Governor Clyde Herring of Iowa (left)
and Governor Floyd Olson of Minnesota,
with the original Floyd of Rosedale, 1935
Iowa has won the last 2 games, and 12 of the last 16, but still trails the overall rivalry, 62-46-2. Since the trophy (counting the original pig) was first awarded in 1934, Minnesota's lead is much slimmer, 42-38-2. (UPDATE: Minnesota now leads overall 62-49-2, and for the Pig 42-41-2.)
Three Gophers, one Pig.
(Herring, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1936, but lost in 1942, and died in 1945. Olson, a member of the Farmer-Labor Party, a kind of Socialist party that Hubert Humphrey later merged with the State Democratic Party, wasn't so lucky: He was already dying of cancer at the time of the bet, and passed away 9 months later.)
Stuff. Goldy's Locker Room, named for the Gopher mascot, is located under the north stands (the right fork of the horseshoe). The usual team-themed stuff can be found there. There's also a Goldy's outlet at the Mall of America in Bloomington.
In 2009, Al Papas Jr. published Gophers Illustrated: The Incredible Complete History of Minnesota Football. Books have also been published about the Gophers' big rivalries: The Little Brown Jug: The Michigan-Minnesota Football Rivalry, by Ken Magee and Jon M. Stevens; and The Minnesota-Wisconsin College Football Rivalry (with a picture of that rivalry's trophy, the Paul Bunyan Axe, on the cover), by Dave Anderson and Joel Maturi.
Oddly enough, there appears to be no book about the Minnesota-Iowa rivalry. There is, however, a DVD, The Legends of Minnesota, released by the University in 2009.
During the Game. You're Rutgers fans. Not Wisconsin fans. Not Iowa fans. Not Michigan fans. You're Rutgers fans. They're Minnesota fans. They're not going to bother you, as long as you don't bother them. Or make jokes about the cold. Or reference Betty White's Rose character from the fictional town of St. Olaf, Minnesota on The Golden Girls.
Their mascot is Goldy Gopher -- that's Goldy with a Y, not Goldie with an I-E. He rides onto the field on a Segway -- not an ATV like the Phillie Phanatic. You think gophers aren't scary? Then you don't play golf. Actually, that may be a plus for you...
After the Game. Minneapolis is a relatively safe city, and the UM campus even more so. As long as you don't go out of your way to antagonize anybody, you should be all right.
Washington Avenue, 2 blocks south of the stadium, is loaded with fast food joints. The most famous Minnesota sports bar, Stub & Herb's, has been parked on the University of Minnesota campus at 227 SE Oak Street, on the corner of Washington, since 1939, when UM football was not only good, but great. Stadium Village on light rail.
In 1990, Bob Wood published Big Ten Country, in which the Michigan State graduate wrote of going to all 10 schools then in the league in one season (1988). He cited Al's Breakfast, at 413 14th Avenue SE, as having the best breakfast in town; and Annie's Parlour, at 313 14th Avenue SE, as having the best burger. Both are still open, about 7 blocks west down University Avenue from the stadium..
If you want to be around other New Yorkers, I'm sorry to say that listings for where they tend to gather are slim. O'Donovan's Irish Pub, in Minneapolis at 700 1st Avenue North at 7th St., downtown, is said to cater to football Giants fans. Jet fans are said to go to the Lyndale Tap House, at 2937 Lyndale Avenue South, but that's 2 1/2 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis. Number 4 bus.
Another restaurant that may be of interest to New York baseball fans is Charley's Grill. It was popular among visiting players from other American Association cities when they came to play the Millers and the Saints. Legend has it that, when the Yankees gathered for spring training in 1961, they were trying to figure out which restaurants in the new American League cities were good, and someone who'd recently played for the Denver Bears mentioned Charley's. But Yogi Berra, who'd gone there when the Yanks' top farm team was the Kansas City Blues, said, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
(That Yogi said the line is almost certainly true, but the restaurant in question was almost certainly Ruggiero's, a place in his native St. Louis at which he and his neighbor Joe Garagiola waited tables as teenagers.)
Well, no one goes there anymore. There is still a restaurant in its space at the Depot Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, but it's now called Milwaukee Road. Downtown, at 225 3rd Avenue South at 2nd Street.
If you visit Minnesota during the European soccer season, as we are now in, Nomad World Pub has been voted the State's best "football pub." 501 Cedar Avenue, in West Bank, about a mile and a half east of downtown. Bus 22 from Nicollet Mall. Brit's Pub is at 1110 Nicollet Mall, and may also be to your liking.
(That Yogi said the line is almost certainly true, but the restaurant in question was almost certainly Ruggiero's, a place in his native St. Louis at which he and his neighbor Joe Garagiola waited tables as teenagers.)
Well, no one goes there anymore. There is still a restaurant in its space at the Depot Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, but it's now called Milwaukee Road. Downtown, at 225 3rd Avenue South at 2nd Street.
Sidelights. Minnesota's sports history is long, but very uneven. Teams have been born, moved in, moved around, and even moved out. But there are some local sites worth checking out.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Minneapolis came in 23rd.
* U.S. Bank Stadium and site of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Home of the Twins from 1982 to 2009, the University of Minnesota football team from 1982 to 2008, the NFL's Vikings from 1982 to 2013, and the NBA's Timberwolves in their inaugural season of 1989-90, that infamous blizzard and roof collapse in 2010 brought the desire to get out and build a new stadium for the Vikes to the front burner, and it finally led to action. Until then, there were threats that the Vikes would move, the most-mentioned possible destinations being Los Angeles and San Antonio.
The Metrodome in its Golden Gophers setup
In May 2012, faced with the serious possibility of the Vikings moving without getting a suitable stadium, the Minnesota State legislature approved funding for a new stadium for the Vikings, to be built on the site of the Metrodome and on adjoining land.
In a piece of poetic justice, just as the damn thing was (with considerable ballyhoo) built and completed ahead of schedule and under budget, so did the demolition take place. The people of Minnesota seemed to be proud of its having been built on the cheap and on time, but it served its purpose, to keep the Twins and Vikings from moving for a generation, and now replacement stadiums are achieving the same purpose.
Billy Martin, who hated the place, had the best word on it, though the awkward wording of it may have been inspired in part by his pal Yogi Berra: "It's a shame a great guy like HHH had to be named after it." (Billy's first managing job was with the Twins, at the Met in 1969.)
U.S. Bank Stadium is now open, and the Vikings continued the Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry by beating the Green Bay Packers in its 1st regular season game. Last August 3, it hosted a preseason tour soccer match in which Chelsea beat AC Milan 3-1. It will host Super Bowl LII in February 2018, and the 2019 NCAA Final Four. 900 South 5th Street at Centennial (Kirby Puckett) Place. Metrodome station on Light Rail.
UPDATE: The NHL will hold its 2022 Winter Classic at Target Field.
* Mall of America and sites of Metropolitan Stadium and the Metropolitan Sports Center. In contrast to their performance at the Metrodome, the Vikings were far more successful at their first home, while the Twins were not (in each case, playing there from 1961 to 1981).
In fact, the Met had one deck along the 3rd base stands and in the right field bleachers, two decks from 1st base to right field and in the left field bleachers, and three decks behind home plate. Somebody once said the stadium looked like an Erector set that a kid was putting together, before his mother called him away to dinner and he never finished it. At 45,919 seats, it had a capacity that was just fine for baseball; but at 48,446, it was too small for the NFL.
Prior to the 1961 arrivals of the Twins and Vikings, the Met hosted the Minneapolis Millers from 1956 to 1960, and 5 NFL games over the same stretch, including 4 "home games" for the Packers. (Viking fans may be sickened over that, but at least University of Minnesota fans can take heart in the University of Wisconsin never having played there.)
The experiments worked: The Met, built equidistant from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, in the southern suburb of Bloomington, was awarded the MLB and NFL teams, and Midway Stadium, built in 1957 as the new home of the St. Paul Saints (at 1000 N. Snelling Avenue in the city of St. Paul, also roughly equidistant from the two downtowns), struck out, and was used as a practice field by the Vikings before being demolished in 1981.
The NHL's Minnesota North Stars played at the adjoining Metropolitan Sports Center (or Met Center) from 1967 to 1993, before they were moved to become the Dallas Stars by owner Norm Green, earning him the nickname Norm Greed. The Stars reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981 and 1991, but never won the Cup until 1999 when they were in Dallas. Larry Holmes successfully defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World at the Met Center on July 7, 1980, knocking out Minnesota native Scott LeDoux.
The Beatles played at Metropolitan Stadium on August 21, 1965 -- making 1 of only 3 facilities to host an All-Star Game, a Finals and a Beatles concert in the same year. (The others were the Boston Garden and Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964.) Elvis Presley sang at the Met Center on November 5, 1971 and October 17, 1976.
8000 Cedar Avenue South, at 80th Street -- near the airport, although legends of planes being an issue, as with Shea Stadium and Citi Field, seem to be absent. A street named Killebrew Drive, and the original location of home plate, have been preserved. A 45-minute ride on the Number 55 light rail (MOA station).
* Site of Nicollet Park. Home of the Millers from 1912 to 1955, it was one of the most historic minor-league parks, home to Ted Williams and Willie Mays before they reached the majors. With the Met nearing completion, its last game was Game 7 of the 1955 Junior World Series, in which the Millers beat the International League Champion Rochester Red Wings. A few early NFL games were played there in the 1920s, including home games by a team a team known as the Minneapolis Marines and the Minneapolis Red Jackets. A bank is now on the site. Nicollet and Blaisdell Avenues, 30th and 31st Streets. Number 465 bus.
* Site of Lexington Park. Home of the Saints from 1897 to 1956, it wasn't nearly as well regarded, although it did close with a Saints win over the arch-rival Millers. The site is now occupied by retail outlets. Lexington Parkway, University Avenue, Fuller & Dunlap Streets.
* Xcel Energy Center and site of the St. Paul Civic Center. Home of the NHL's Minnesota Wild since their debut in 2000, and site of the 2008 Republican Convention that nominated John McCain for President and Sarah Palin for Vice President. (The GOP met in Minneapolis in 1892, renominating President Benjamin Harrison at the Industrial Exposition Building at 101 Central Avenue SE. It was torn down in 1940, and condos are on the site now.)
The Three Tenors -- Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras -- sang at the Xcel Center on December 16, 2002. The place is a veritable home and hall of fame for hockey in Minnesota, the most hockey-mad State in the Union, including the State high school championships that were previously held at the Civic Center.
That building was the home of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1977. The Fighting Saints had played their first few home games, in late 1972, at the St. Paul Auditorium. Elvis sang at the Civic Center on October 2 and 3, 1974, and April 30, 1977. The Civic Center is also where Bruce Springsteen and Courteney Cox filmed the video for Bruce's song "Dancing In the Dark."
The Frozen Four was held at the Civic Center in 1989, 1991 and 1994. It's been held at the Xcel in 2002 and 2011, and will be again in 2018. It hosted the Big Ten Hockey Tournament in 2014 and 2016.
199 Kellogg Blvd. West, at 7th Street, at W. 7th Street, in downtown St. Paul, about 9 miles from
downtown Minneapolis. The Number 94 bus goes straight there from
downtown Minneapolis, in about 25 minutes. The Green Line light rail goes from
Nicollet Mall to St. Paul Central Station. From there, it's a 15-minute walk to
the arena. Total travel time: About 40 minutes.
The arena is the westernmost part of the
RiverCentre complex, which includes the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, the Saint Paul
RiverCentre and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. The Wilkins,
formerly the St. Paul Auditorium, was built in 1932. On May 13, 1956, early in
his career, Elvis Presley sang there in the afternoon, and at the Minneapolis
Auditorium in the evening.
* Target Center. Separated from Target Field by I-394 and 2nd Avenue, this arena has been home to the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves since the team debuted shortly after its 1989 opening. The T-Wolves have only made the Western Conference Finals once, and are probably best known as the team Kevin Garnett and GM (and Minnesota native) Kevin McHale couldn't get over the hump, before Garnett went to McHale’s former team, the Boston Celtics.
The Minnesota Lynx also play here, and have become the WNBA's answer to the San Antonio Spurs, winning league titles in odd-numbered years: 2011, 2013 and 2015. 600 N. 1st Avenue at 6th Street.
* Site of Minneapolis Auditorium. Built in 1927, from 1947 to 1960 this was the home of the Minneapolis Lakers – and, as Minnesota is "the Land of 10,000 Lakes" (11,842, to be exact), now you know why a team in Los Angeles is named the Lakers. (The old Utah Jazz coach Frank Layden said his team and the Lakers should switch names, due to L.A.'s "West Coast jazz" scene and the Great Salt Lake: "Los Angeles Jazz" and "Utah Lakers" would both make more sense than their current names.)
The Lakers won the National Basketball League Championship in 1948, then moved into the NBA and won the Championship in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. In fact, until the Celtics overtook them in 1963, the Minneapolis Lakers were the most successful team in NBA history, and have still won more World Championships than all the other Minnesota major league teams combined: Lakers 5, Twins 2, the rest a total of 0. (Unless you count the Lynx, who make it Lakers 5, everybody else 5.)
They were led by their enormous (for the time, 6-foot-10, 270-pound) center, the bespectacled (that’s right, he wore glasses, not goggles, on the court) Number 99, George Mikan. The arrival of the 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season pretty much ended their run, although rookie Elgin Baylor did help them reach the Finals again in 1959.
Elvis sang there early in his career, on May 13, 1956. The Auditorium was demolished in 1989, and the Minneapolis Convention Center was built on the site. 1301 2nd Ave. South, at 12th Street. Within walking distance of Target Field, Target Center and the Metrodome.
It was later the video-filming site for Minneapolis native Prince's "1999" and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." It's been kept standing as a parking lot. 500 6th Street, downtown.
* Minnesota United. Originally NSC Minnesota and then the Minnesota Stars, this team began play in 2010, and, except for the occasional game moved to the Metrodome for more seats, has played its home games at a 10,000-seat stadium at the National Sports Center in Blaine, about 15 miles north of downtown Minneapolis. 1700 105th Avenue NE at Davenport Street NE. Hard to reach by public transportation: You'll need at least 2 buses, and to then walk a mile and a half.
The team has been promoted from the new North American Soccer League to Major League Soccer, and will begin play in the 2017 season, at U.S. Bank Stadium. Opening in time for the 2018 season (they hope) will be a new 20,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium, in St. Paul, at 400 N. Snelling Avenue, at the intersection of St. Anthony Avenue, just off I-94/U.S. 12/U.S. 52, about a mile and a half south of the site of old Midway Stadium. Green Line light rail to Snelling Avenue.
Until the MLS edition of MUFC (same initials as Manchester United Football Club, hopefully with less cheating) get underway, the closest MLS franchise to the Twin Cities will be the Chicago Fire, 416 miles away.
* Duluth. Minnesota's largest city outside the Twin Cities region is 155 miles to the northeast, at the western edge of Lake Superior. It was home to the State's 1st NFL team. They played the 1923, '24 and '25 team as the Duluth Kelleys, because they were sponsored by the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store. They played the 1926 and '27 season as the Duluth Eskimos, and featured Hall-of-Famers Ernie Nevers and John "Johnny Blood" McNally.
They played at Athletic Park, which opened in 1903 and served as home of the minor-league Duluth White Sox from 1903 to 1916, and the Duluth Dukes from 1934 to 1940. It seated 6,000, and was replaced by the 4,2000-seat Wade Stadium on the same site in 1941. That was home to the Dukes until 1970, to a new Duluth-Superior Dukes from 1993 to 2002, and to the Duluth Huskies since 2003. In their various leagues, the Dukes/Huskies won Pennants in 1937, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1969, 1970 and 1997. 101 N. 35th Avenue West, about 3 miles southwest of downtown.
The 6,764-seat Duluth Entertainment Center hosted the hockey team at the University of Minnesota at Duluth from 1966 to 2010, one of the better hockey programs (if not as accomplished as their cousins down in Minneapolis). It also hosted the Frozen Four in 1968 and 1981, and Elvis on October 16, 1976 and April 29, 1977. The 6,726-seat Amsoil Arena -- smaller, but much more convenient -- was built next-door in 2010, and UMD moved in. Both are downtown and have an address of 350 Harbor Drive.
* Museums. The Twin Cities are very artsy, and have their share of museums, including one of the five most-visited modern art museums in the country, the Walker Art Center, at 1750 Hennepin Avenue. Number 4, 6, 12 or 25 bus. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is at 2400 3rd Avenue South. Number 17 bus, then walk 2 blocks east on 24th Street. The Science Museum of Minnesota is at 120 W. Kellogg Blvd. in St. Paul, across from the Xcel Center.
Minnesota is famous for Presidential candidates that don't win. Governor Harold Stassen failed to get the Republican nomination in 1948, and then ran several more times, becoming, pardon the choice of words, a running joke. Senator Eugene McCarthy opposed Lyndon Johnson in the Democratic Primaries in 1968, but lost his momentum when Robert Kennedy got into the race and LBJ got out, then ran in 1976 as a 3rd-party candidate and got 1 percent of the popular vote.
Vice President Walter Mondale was the Democratic nominee in 1984, losing every State but
Minnesota in his loss to Ronald Reagan. In the 2012 election cycle, the moderate former Governor Tim Pawlenty and the completely batty Congresswoman Michele Bachmann ran, and neither got anywhere.
Most notable is Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Elected Mayor of Minneapolis in 1945 and 1947, he became known for fighting organized crime, which put a price on his head, a price it was unable to pay off. In 1948, while running for the U.S. Senate, he gave a speech at the Democratic Convention, supporting a civil rights plank in the party platform, a movement which culminated in his guiding the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the Senate as Majority Whip. He ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960, but lost to John F. Kennedy, then was elected LBJ's Vice President in 1964.
He won the nomination in 1968, but lost to Richard Nixon by a hair. He returned to the Senate in 1970, and ran for President again in 1972, but lost the nomination to George McGovern. He might have run again in 1976 had his health not failed, as cancer killed him in 1978 at age 66. His wife Muriel briefly held his Senate seat.
Not having been President (he's come closer than any other Minnesotan ever has), he has no Presidential Library, but there is the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, 301 19th Avenue South, only a short walk from the Dome that would be named for him. Hubert and Muriel are laid to rest in Lakewood Cemetery, 3600 Hennepin Avenue. Number 6 bus. Minneapolis Lakers great George Mikan is also buried there. (Minnesota's greatest native football player, Bronko Nagurski, is buried in his hometown of International Falls, almost 300 miles north, on the Rainy River that forms part of the U.S.-Canadian border.)
The tallest building in Minnesota is the IDS Center, at 80 South 8th Street at Marquette Avenue, rising 792 feet high. The tallest in the State outside Minneapolis is Wells Fargo Place, at 30 East 7th Street at Cedar Street in St. Paul, 472 feet.
Nicollet Mall is a pedestrians-only shopping center that stretches from 2nd to 13th Streets downtown. At 7th Street, in front of Macy's, in roughly the same location that Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards threw her hat in the air in the opening to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, is a statue of "Mare" doing that. However, the show had no location shots in Minneapolis.
Mary's statue was the 1st in a series commissioned by TV Land that now includes Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners outside Port Authority Bus Terminal, Henry Winkler in
Happy Days (a statue known as the Bronze Fonz) in Milwaukee, Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley in The Bob Newhart Show in Chicago, Andy Griffith and Ron Howard as Andy and Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show in Raleigh, Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens in the "witch city" of Salem, Massachusetts (even though Bewitched was set in Westport, Connecticut), and Elvis Presley outside the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu where he played the concert for his 1973 TV special.
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Little House On the Prairie and Orphan Black were set in Minnesota, although not shot there. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle was set in the fictional town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. Of course, being animated, it had no location shots.
The sitcom Coach, which aired on ABC from 1989 to 1996, was set at Minnesota State University. At the time, there was not a real college with that name. But in 1999, Mankato State University was renamed Minnesota State University, Mankato; and in 2000, Moorhead State University became Minnesota State University, Moorhead.
The University of Minnesota was originally a model for the school on the show, but withdrew its support: Although some game action clearly shows the maroon and gold of the Golden Gophers, the uniforms shown in most scenes were light purple and gold. In one Season 1 episode, the Gophers are specifically mentioned as one of the Screaming Eagles' opponents, suggesting that Minnesota State might have been in the Big Ten. Show creator Barry Kemp is a graduate of the University of Iowa -- like Wisconsin, a major rival of the Gophers -- and most of the exterior shots you see of the campus were filmed there. In addition, the main character, Hayden Fox, was named after then-Iowa coach Hayden Fry. No scenes were actually shot in Minnesota, not even Hayden's oft-snowy lake house.
Movies filmed in Minnesota include the baseball films Little Big League and Major League: Back to the Minors, the George Clooney 1920s football film Leatherheads, The Bishop's Wife (1947, later remade as The Preacher's Wife), Airport (the 1970 film that helped inspire the decade's disaster film craze), the Western The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, the Grumpy Old Men movies, Kevin Smith's Mallrats, Juno, and, most memorably due to its use of the Minnesota accent, the Coen Brothers' Fargo (which now has a TV version shot there).
St. Paul is the capital of the State of Minnesota. The Capitol Building is at University Avenue and Capital Blvd. It's a half-hour ride from downtown on the Number 94 bus (named because most of its route is on I-94).
*
Bob Wood, a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and a graduate of Michigan State University, wrote a pair of sports travel guides: Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, about his 1985 trip to all 26 stadiums then in MLB; and Big Ten Country, about his 1988 trip to all the Big Ten campuses and stadiums. (Penn State, Nebraska, and soon-to-be members Rutgers and Maryland were not yet in the league).
The Metrodome was the only stadium that featured in both books, although if either were updated to reflect current reality, it would feature in neither. In Big Ten Country, Wood said, "Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like Minneapolis. How can you not like Minneapolis?... No, Minneapolis is lovely. It's the Metrodome that sucks!"
Thankfully, the Metrodome is gone, the Vikings now play in a new stadium on the site, the Twins also play in a new stadium that actually feels like a ballpark, and the Golden Gophers play in a proper on-campus stadium. From what I understand, Minneapolis and St. Paul are still terrific cities, including for sports. A Rutgers fan should definitely take in a game against the University of Minnesota there.
* Target Center. Separated from Target Field by I-394 and 2nd Avenue, this arena has been home to the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves since the team debuted shortly after its 1989 opening. The T-Wolves have only made the Western Conference Finals once, and are probably best known as the team Kevin Garnett and GM (and Minnesota native) Kevin McHale couldn't get over the hump, before Garnett went to McHale’s former team, the Boston Celtics.
The Minnesota Lynx also play here, and have become the WNBA's answer to the San Antonio Spurs, winning league titles in odd-numbered years: 2011, 2013 and 2015. 600 N. 1st Avenue at 6th Street.
* Site of Minneapolis Auditorium. Built in 1927, from 1947 to 1960 this was the home of the Minneapolis Lakers – and, as Minnesota is "the Land of 10,000 Lakes" (11,842, to be exact), now you know why a team in Los Angeles is named the Lakers. (The old Utah Jazz coach Frank Layden said his team and the Lakers should switch names, due to L.A.'s "West Coast jazz" scene and the Great Salt Lake: "Los Angeles Jazz" and "Utah Lakers" would both make more sense than their current names.)
They were led by their enormous (for the time, 6-foot-10, 270-pound) center, the bespectacled (that’s right, he wore glasses, not goggles, on the court) Number 99, George Mikan. The arrival of the 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season pretty much ended their run, although rookie Elgin Baylor did help them reach the Finals again in 1959.
Elvis sang there early in his career, on May 13, 1956. The Auditorium was demolished in 1989, and the Minneapolis Convention Center was built on the site. 1301 2nd Ave. South, at 12th Street. Within walking distance of Target Field, Target Center and the Metrodome.
* Minneapolis Armory. Built in 1936 for the Minnesota National Guard, the Lakers used it as their home court part-time throughout their Minneapolis tenure, and full-time in their final season in Minneapolis, 1959-60. Ironically, the owner of the Lakers who moved them to Los Angeles was Bob Short – who later moved the "new" Washington Senators, the team established to replace the team that moved to become the Twins.
It was later the video-filming site for Minneapolis native Prince's "1999" and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." It's been kept standing as a parking lot. 500 6th Street, downtown.
* Minnesota United. Originally NSC Minnesota and then the Minnesota Stars, this team began play in 2010, and, except for the occasional game moved to the Metrodome for more seats, has played its home games at a 10,000-seat stadium at the National Sports Center in Blaine, about 15 miles north of downtown Minneapolis. 1700 105th Avenue NE at Davenport Street NE. Hard to reach by public transportation: You'll need at least 2 buses, and to then walk a mile and a half.
The team has been promoted from the new North American Soccer League to Major League Soccer, and will begin play in the 2017 season, at U.S. Bank Stadium. Opening in time for the 2018 season (they hope) will be a new 20,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium, in St. Paul, at 400 N. Snelling Avenue, at the intersection of St. Anthony Avenue, just off I-94/U.S. 12/U.S. 52, about a mile and a half south of the site of old Midway Stadium. Green Line light rail to Snelling Avenue.
Until the MLS edition of MUFC (same initials as Manchester United Football Club, hopefully with less cheating) get underway, the closest MLS franchise to the Twin Cities will be the Chicago Fire, 416 miles away.
* Duluth. Minnesota's largest city outside the Twin Cities region is 155 miles to the northeast, at the western edge of Lake Superior. It was home to the State's 1st NFL team. They played the 1923, '24 and '25 team as the Duluth Kelleys, because they were sponsored by the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store. They played the 1926 and '27 season as the Duluth Eskimos, and featured Hall-of-Famers Ernie Nevers and John "Johnny Blood" McNally.
They played at Athletic Park, which opened in 1903 and served as home of the minor-league Duluth White Sox from 1903 to 1916, and the Duluth Dukes from 1934 to 1940. It seated 6,000, and was replaced by the 4,2000-seat Wade Stadium on the same site in 1941. That was home to the Dukes until 1970, to a new Duluth-Superior Dukes from 1993 to 2002, and to the Duluth Huskies since 2003. In their various leagues, the Dukes/Huskies won Pennants in 1937, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1969, 1970 and 1997. 101 N. 35th Avenue West, about 3 miles southwest of downtown.
The 6,764-seat Duluth Entertainment Center hosted the hockey team at the University of Minnesota at Duluth from 1966 to 2010, one of the better hockey programs (if not as accomplished as their cousins down in Minneapolis). It also hosted the Frozen Four in 1968 and 1981, and Elvis on October 16, 1976 and April 29, 1977. The 6,726-seat Amsoil Arena -- smaller, but much more convenient -- was built next-door in 2010, and UMD moved in. Both are downtown and have an address of 350 Harbor Drive.
Fort Snelling, originally Fort Saint Anthony, was established by the U.S. Army in 1819, where the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers meet, to guard the Upper Midwest. It served as an Army post until World War II. It is now a museum, with historical demonstrations based on its entire history, from the post-War of 1812 period to the Civil War, from the Indian Wars to the World Wars. 101 Lakeview Avenue in St. Paul, across from the airport. An hour's ride on the light rail Blue Line.
Vice President Walter Mondale was the Democratic nominee in 1984, losing every State but
Minnesota in his loss to Ronald Reagan. In the 2012 election cycle, the moderate former Governor Tim Pawlenty and the completely batty Congresswoman Michele Bachmann ran, and neither got anywhere.
Most notable is Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Elected Mayor of Minneapolis in 1945 and 1947, he became known for fighting organized crime, which put a price on his head, a price it was unable to pay off. In 1948, while running for the U.S. Senate, he gave a speech at the Democratic Convention, supporting a civil rights plank in the party platform, a movement which culminated in his guiding the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the Senate as Majority Whip. He ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960, but lost to John F. Kennedy, then was elected LBJ's Vice President in 1964.
He won the nomination in 1968, but lost to Richard Nixon by a hair. He returned to the Senate in 1970, and ran for President again in 1972, but lost the nomination to George McGovern. He might have run again in 1976 had his health not failed, as cancer killed him in 1978 at age 66. His wife Muriel briefly held his Senate seat.
Not having been President (he's come closer than any other Minnesotan ever has), he has no Presidential Library, but there is the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, 301 19th Avenue South, only a short walk from the Dome that would be named for him. Hubert and Muriel are laid to rest in Lakewood Cemetery, 3600 Hennepin Avenue. Number 6 bus. Minneapolis Lakers great George Mikan is also buried there. (Minnesota's greatest native football player, Bronko Nagurski, is buried in his hometown of International Falls, almost 300 miles north, on the Rainy River that forms part of the U.S.-Canadian border.)
The tallest building in Minnesota is the IDS Center, at 80 South 8th Street at Marquette Avenue, rising 792 feet high. The tallest in the State outside Minneapolis is Wells Fargo Place, at 30 East 7th Street at Cedar Street in St. Paul, 472 feet.
Nicollet Mall is a pedestrians-only shopping center that stretches from 2nd to 13th Streets downtown. At 7th Street, in front of Macy's, in roughly the same location that Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards threw her hat in the air in the opening to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, is a statue of "Mare" doing that. However, the show had no location shots in Minneapolis.
The dedication: Bronze Mary at left, Real Mary at right
Mary's statue was the 1st in a series commissioned by TV Land that now includes Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners outside Port Authority Bus Terminal, Henry Winkler in
Happy Days (a statue known as the Bronze Fonz) in Milwaukee, Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley in The Bob Newhart Show in Chicago, Andy Griffith and Ron Howard as Andy and Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show in Raleigh, Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens in the "witch city" of Salem, Massachusetts (even though Bewitched was set in Westport, Connecticut), and Elvis Presley outside the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu where he played the concert for his 1973 TV special.
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Little House On the Prairie and Orphan Black were set in Minnesota, although not shot there. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle was set in the fictional town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. Of course, being animated, it had no location shots.
The sitcom Coach, which aired on ABC from 1989 to 1996, was set at Minnesota State University. At the time, there was not a real college with that name. But in 1999, Mankato State University was renamed Minnesota State University, Mankato; and in 2000, Moorhead State University became Minnesota State University, Moorhead.
The University of Minnesota was originally a model for the school on the show, but withdrew its support: Although some game action clearly shows the maroon and gold of the Golden Gophers, the uniforms shown in most scenes were light purple and gold. In one Season 1 episode, the Gophers are specifically mentioned as one of the Screaming Eagles' opponents, suggesting that Minnesota State might have been in the Big Ten. Show creator Barry Kemp is a graduate of the University of Iowa -- like Wisconsin, a major rival of the Gophers -- and most of the exterior shots you see of the campus were filmed there. In addition, the main character, Hayden Fox, was named after then-Iowa coach Hayden Fry. No scenes were actually shot in Minnesota, not even Hayden's oft-snowy lake house.
Fight on, you Screaming Eagles!
Movies filmed in Minnesota include the baseball films Little Big League and Major League: Back to the Minors, the George Clooney 1920s football film Leatherheads, The Bishop's Wife (1947, later remade as The Preacher's Wife), Airport (the 1970 film that helped inspire the decade's disaster film craze), the Western The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, the Grumpy Old Men movies, Kevin Smith's Mallrats, Juno, and, most memorably due to its use of the Minnesota accent, the Coen Brothers' Fargo (which now has a TV version shot there).
St. Paul is the capital of the State of Minnesota. The Capitol Building is at University Avenue and Capital Blvd. It's a half-hour ride from downtown on the Number 94 bus (named because most of its route is on I-94).
*
Bob Wood, a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and a graduate of Michigan State University, wrote a pair of sports travel guides: Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, about his 1985 trip to all 26 stadiums then in MLB; and Big Ten Country, about his 1988 trip to all the Big Ten campuses and stadiums. (Penn State, Nebraska, and soon-to-be members Rutgers and Maryland were not yet in the league).
The Metrodome was the only stadium that featured in both books, although if either were updated to reflect current reality, it would feature in neither. In Big Ten Country, Wood said, "Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like Minneapolis. How can you not like Minneapolis?... No, Minneapolis is lovely. It's the Metrodome that sucks!"
Thankfully, the Metrodome is gone, the Vikings now play in a new stadium on the site, the Twins also play in a new stadium that actually feels like a ballpark, and the Golden Gophers play in a proper on-campus stadium. From what I understand, Minneapolis and St. Paul are still terrific cities, including for sports. A Rutgers fan should definitely take in a game against the University of Minnesota there.
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