Comments on: MINNESOTA vs. OHIO BRAWL, 1972

By: Ivan

Ivan — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:21:53 +0000

Yeah I remember watching the game, i was about 14 years old and was a fan of Ohio state Basketball,in 1971 as a predominately young team led by Jim Clemons they won the Big 10 and got to the sweet 16 in the NCAA. In 1972 minus a graduated Clemons they were pick to win it again,and was leading the conference by a game over the Minnesota leading to that early showdown in Williams Arena. The buckeyes were leading by a deuce when Witte when’t up for that lay up. as said all hell broke out it was a stigmatic incident that put a damper on the Minnesota program, though not sanction wise.It destroyed the psyche and continuity of the Ohio State program in which they never recovered from! As I recall I believe Minneapolis when’t on to win the Big !0 that year. Racially motivated I don’t know but you have to remember not to far removed from Martin Luther Kings murder,the obliteration of the Black Panther party through violence; the Soldad Brothers incident intertwined with Angela Davis trump charges! The sports world would witness frustrations coming from all end in this may lay on a college campus…

By: Mary Kuhnley

Mary Kuhnley — Sat, 19 May 2012 04:35:29 +0000

I went to the U of M at the time of this disgusting incident. I knew all of the offenders personally. Clyde, Corky, Ron & David Winfield, & his lovely Mother, Arlene. The behavior was unacceptable, to say the least. I am still embarrassed about how the whole situation was handled. Ron is 61 now & on probation for stealing from an elderly woman. David is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, he obviously was a great athlete, drafted, by the pros, in 3 sports! Lack of respectable coaching by Bill Musselman & overall attitude of disrespect for opposing teams surely contributed to the inappropriate behavior of the racially motivated immature players. It was a different time then, so much has changed, but still . . WRONG is WRONG!

By: Jimmie Crum

Jimmie Crum — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:18:03 +0000

May ‘The Barn’ be burned down for this atrocity. Dave Winfield may he rot in hell for beating a prone Mark Wagger numerous times. Jim Brewer should issue a public apology to all of Buckeye Nation as he was also a ‘racial’ culprit. Now, Ron Behagen stole thousands from an old lady with dementia (3/2012). Funny, how thugs repeat animalistic actions.
Why hasn’t anyone asked Dave Winfield some serious questions?? Why are we are chickenshits for letting the media sweep this under the rug.
Maybe we need a barnburner!!!

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.