Comments on: MINNESOTA vs. OHIO BRAWL, 1972

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:13:24 +0000

As an avid Gopher fan at the tme-I was ashamed. We sank to the lowest depths-but we got who we recruited-Behagen, Brewer, Taylor-and to a lesser extent Winfield. All had tough backgrounds and all were given chances by an equally questionable Musselman.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:50:11 +0000

I was at this game-sitting in the third row center court. It was a tough game-both teams were very good and playing hard-too hard and rough. The refs lost control of this game early on and several players-including Witte should have been ejected for their “dirty” play Saw many times when Witte “cleared” out the lane after a rebound by throwing an elbow to the head of a Gopher player-he was no saint. However, when Taylor kneed Witte in the groin after helping him up was way “out of bounds”. The stomping on Witte’s head/face by Behagen and Winfield’s sucker punching players during the onsuing melee was above the line- it should have marked them as questionable human beings-but this is the atmosphere that coach Musselman encouraged. I went to a Gopher Booster luncheon the next week and Winfield was there “in his eloquent” and self denial persona. At this point, I divorced myself from Gopher BB and lost all respect for the low class Dave Winfield.

By: k

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:31:18 +0000

34 Years ago… let it go!

By: kryp44

kryp44 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:33:56 +0000

There is no doubt that this a racially motivated attack as the only players who were injured after being blindsided and sucker punched were white.

By: Rock Randall

Rock Randall — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:42:27 +0000

An elbow on the way to the locker room doesn’t justify the magnitude of the incident. Get a life and face the fact that minnesota should have been banned from athletics for the balance of the year and for all of the following. In today’s environment, all the minnesota players would have gone to jail.

Face it, it’s a blemish on the record of the gophers that OSU alumni won’t ever forget.

By: Marc May

Marc May — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:28:15 +0000

The video should start with Witte elbowing the Minnesota player on the way to the locker room at halftime to put the entire incident in context. Not to justify the events but Witte had a reputation of being enthusiastically physical shall we say. Witte and OSU were notorious for being cheap shot artist, if your gonna do the crime you have to do the time. There were several incidents during that Big Ten season where Witte and company got real dirty and got away with it, pay back …

By: kellyjane

kellyjane — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:18:17 +0000

I was nine years old when this incident happened and somehow happened to see a clip of it on television. I can remember feeling horrified by what I was seeing. I probably didn’t know the words depraved and sinister at the time; but that was definitely the feeling state. I had long forgotten about this, but as an adult came across this video and still feel as shocked and appalled as I did at the age of nine. And the fact that the incident was swept under the rug at the time seems mind-boggling to me now.

By: Joe Heidkamp

Joe Heidkamp — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:04:00 +0000

memory lane, and yes I am from Ohio…I saw this game and could not believe me eyes…..the Minnessota players involved were lowlifes….thugs….whatever you want to say about racism…..who cares….they did this unspeakable act, sucker punching players….chasing them around the court hitting them from all angles…for what?…..because they were loosing, not because of some flimsy excuse later used about a foul in the first half that was not called……DO NOT forget Dave Winfield, the Gophers 6-6 power forward was in on this too….I never forgave any of them…even though Behagen played with Maravich later in the pros…I still hated him

By: Joe delph

Joe delph — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:33:36 +0000

Did Minisota have a player on their roster by name Darnell Martin at the time of incident?

By: rOBERT a. HANSON

rOBERT a. HANSON — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:46:13 +0000

I watched this game on tv. I thought all 4 or 5 Gophers should have been jailed for assault, and probably their coach. The school should have been put on probation with no athletics for a year but nothing ever happened. This was outrageous to Buckeye fans. And to think, The Big Ten Channel picked Dave Winfield as one of their top 50 Icons of the Big Ten.

By: Jake

Jake — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 05:22:24 +0000

I don’t remember reading anything that said the fight was racially motivated. If you think white athletes are less violent than black athletes, I suggest you watch a game of hockey.

By: GERRY SCHULTZ

GERRY SCHULTZ — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:57:21 +0000

The incident, of course, was an appalling one. Not just for Bill Musselman’s stupidity, but for the fact that these black players committed these acts racially.
Luke Witte has proven to be a remarkable man. If this was the only such incident, I too could forget it. But it isn’t.
Tyler Hansbrough was attacked by Duke’s Gerald Henderson.
Steve Nash has been attacked a number of times.
So have a number of other good white basketball players who outplay blacks on the court.
There is an issue here, and it must be dealt with.
Because if it isn’t, there will be another Luke Witte, and one is already too many.

By: BJTA

BJTA — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:20:29 +0000

I went to high school with Luke Witte. He was a class act. He was a good sportsman. This is the first time I ever knew what happened, why his basketball career was cut so short. This is truly sad, and that those people got away with that kind of brutality is absolutely terrible. Luke is a class act, and would never hurt anyone, and that is why, I am sure he did not press charges. He is doing a far greater work now that is for sure. He does not make the money he could have otherwise, but I can just imagine his life/career has been much more worthwhile than the careers of those other players from Minnesota. I am sure they have had to live with that, and continue to live with that. What a great guy Luke truly is.