It was not the best of weekends for sports fans in Minnesota. The two-time defending national champion Gopher pucksters were swept by the explosive North Dakota Fighting Sioux, who are likely to take over the #1 ranking in college hockey. It will be interesting to see how Governor Pawlenty will look in a Sioux jersey.
Meanwhile, the Wild went 1-1, downing Calgary on Friday night, before falling to the very hated Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday.
The only bright spot might have been the Gopher football squad recapturing Paul Bunyan's Axe with a last second victory over the Wisconsin Badgers. Of course it was only Wisconsin. Who couldn't beat the Badgers?
The real agony of the weekend was reserved for Sunday, when the recently rotten Vikings were pummeled by the previously pathetic Chargers in San Diego. The Vikings defense once again managed to make an over the hill or mediocre quarterback look like a hall of famer, this time around giving new life to the diminutive Doug Flutie.
I watched this latest embarrassing effort in a local watering hole populated with distraught Viking supporters. My passion for the Purple has ebbed quite a bit in recent years and I no longer live and die with the local eleven as many more "committed" Viking fans do. There were many cries of anguish and wailing and gnashing of the teeth among the faithful on Sunday. The only way it could have worse would have been if they would have been at the game itself.
How bad was it? Just ask long time reader, frequent contributor, and benefactor of Fraters, James Phillips. James was actually on hand to witness the Vikings vomit-inducing performance and he took it quite hard as this photo demonstrates:
While we were a bit disappointed that James was not holding up his 'Fraterslibertas.com' sign when the picture was snapped, we have to admit that purple is his color. You wear it well James.
Finally, one last sports related matter. In order to clear up a misconception held by some about Minnesota hunters, let me clear the air with a few facts. The following statistics are from the 2002 deer seasons:
Number of deer hunters in California: around 180,000
Number of deer killed: 33,311
Number of deer hunters in Ohio: around 500,000
Number of deer killed: 204,652
Number of deer hunters in Minnesota: around 500,000
Number of deer killed: 222,050
Advantage: Minnesota
Addendum: The population of California is about 35 million. Ohio has about 11 million people and Minnesota about 5 million. When it comes to slaying Bambis, we're more than carrying our share of the load.
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