Revisiting Minnesota's 'omission' of a certain 55-0 football result

Sometimes, you stumble on gold. That happened to me in late May when, for reasons I can't imagine, I started leafing through Minnesota's preseason football guide.

I was looking in the back of the book at the year-by-year results, trying to remember how Minnesota wound down its 2008 season. Besides, its 55-0 loss to Iowa, that is. But in the 2008 game-by-game list, that game was omitted. So I wrote the following:

Funny, the Iowa football spring prospectus issued to the media this year told us the Hawkeyes defeated Minnesota last Nov. 22 by the rather decisive score of 55-0.

I was at the Metrodome that night, in fact. That 55-0 result jibes with my memory. It sure seemed like Iowa had its facts straight.

But today I got a copy of the Minnesota football 2009 Media & Records Book. It lists the Gophers' all-time results. For 2008 (see the above graphic) it says Minnesota had a 7-6 record, it only lists 12 games. Odd.

Why, it's as if … the Iowa game never happened!

Let's give Minnesota the benefit of the doubt and say it was just an oversight.

Then again … of all the results the Gophers would most like to banish from its records, wouldn't that Iowa game be the one?

Isn't there a reason Minnesota Coach Tim Brewster said he never wants to step foot in the Metrodome again – because of that game?

But as George Santayana put it so eloquently, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

(In semi-fairness, the Gophers' media guide does have the statistical recap of the 55-0 game on page 93 and notes the result in four other places.  Minnesota had six first-downs and nine punts, if anyone forgot.)

ADDENDUM: The Hlog always assumes all of you good readers have above-average intelligence. Those few who believe Minnesota omitted the score on purpose are overlooking something basic about human existence. Namely, mistakes happen. And sometimes, they have humorous consequences.