Where else to stop on the way to a Minnesota-Iowa football game but … Floyd!

Floyd of Rosedale is a traveling trophy, but Floyd stays permanently halfway between Iowa City and Minneapolis.

That Floyd is a northern Iowa town of about 300 people in Floyd County, 8 miles from county seat Charles City. Floyd is 138 miles from the University of Iowa’s campus, 147 from the University of Minnesota’s.

Dozens of Minnesota Gopher fans will stop in Floyd Saturday morning on their way to Iowa City to the Minnesota-Iowa football game. Why? Because it has the same name as the bronzed, 98-pound trophy of a pig that goes to the winner of the rivalry contest.

The original Floyd of Rosedale hog was from Rosedale Farms outside Fort Dodge. It was named after Minnesota Gov. Floyd Bjornstjerne Olson. Floyd, Iowa, was named for Sgt. Charles Floyd, who died in 1804 on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, near what now is Sioux City.

Four years ago, 50 Gopher supporters stopped at Dugan’s Restaurant in Floyd to have lunch with Mayor Trevis O’Connell and other Floyd residents.

Since the Avenue of the Saints was completed, passing by Floyd is on the most-direct route from Iowa City to the Twin Cities. There’s not much to see in Floyd, but that doesn’t stop the group that calls itself the Travelin’ Gophers.

“We’ll maybe run in and have a beer at 10 in the morning,” said Steve Erban of Stillwater, Minn., who is an architect by profession. He and his wife, Dorothy, founded Creative Charters in 1993. They bus or fly Minnesota Gophers fans to all road football games.

Because of the cost of Iowa City-Coralville hotels on a Hawkeyes football weekend, the Travelin’ Gophers will make Saturday’s journey a one-day, up-and-back trip to keep costs down. They’re leaving Burnsville at 6:45 a.m. and plan to return at 11:45 p.m. A long day.

“We’re not ‘elite’ alumni,” Erban said. “But these are real people, real fans.

“Minnesota fans can be like windshield wipers, back and forth. If the Vikings are winning, they go with the Vikings. If the Timberwolves or Wild or Twins are winning, they go with them. We have Gophers fans that are just as good as anybody else’s school’s, but not as many.”

Erban’s groups have made several stops in Floyd over the years.

“The first time, I think, was 10 or 12 years ago,” Erban said. “We stopped at a steakhouse there. I called the owner and she opened the place up at noon. She cooked up something, burgers I think.

“We had two busloads at the time, so there were about 100 of us in downtown Floyd.

“What was weird about it was there was an incident. Somebody in the group was laying in the middle of the street trying to take a picture of a sign. The police came over and wanted to haul him in for disorderly conduct. We said ‘No, he’s just taking a picture.’

“I just think they didn’t like all the Gopher stuff.

“Another time, I went to the back bar to help serve 100 people. I was bartending for about an hour-and-a-half.”

Asked how the Travelin’ Gophers get treated at Kinnick, Erban said “I think it depends on the age. Younger Iowa fans, 40-and-under, are a little more boisterous, rough. The older fans aren’t nearly like the younger ones.

“Minnesota fans aren’t any better in that respect. They do that ‘Who hates Iowa? We hate Iowa,’ chant. That’s the young people. The older people think that’s ridiculous. I know tons of people who won’t ever think about doing that cheer.”

Creative Charters doesn’t advertise, and doesn’t have the need. Word-of-mouth is good enough, and many of the customers go again and again. When the Gophers played at North Carolina in September, the Travelin’ Gophers went to Charlotte Motor Speedway

“Everybody got to ride two laps in a car at 130 miles an hour,” Erban said. “(Former Gophers men’s basketball coach) Tubby Smith is retired and lives in High Point. We went to a big furniture store there, and he came down and addressed 150 of us.”

The Travelin’ Gophers will be in sections 109 and 110 of Kinnick Saturday. Those aren’t the best seats in the stadium. Visiting fans everywhere know that drill. The ones who keep coming back, though, really are the real fans.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com