This was one of those weekends that Beaver fans may never forget. The headlines in the Minneapolis area read “Are The Gophers Really The Underdogs?” and “Beavers For Real”. Don Lucia sang the praises of the Beavers on Sports in the Round. The FSN crew kept calling the Beavers the “Bulldogs” all weekend. And, the Beavers lost their first game of the season.

I spent a couple seasons as the producer for the Gopher Radio broadcasts in the early 2000’s…and I’ve NEVER seen people leaving a Gopher Hockey game early. I did this weekend. BSU came back to win the second game of the series…and BSU got their first win over Minnesota.

All that is great…but this summer blog is all about what happened off the ice. I’ll never forget this trip for another reason.

With the BREC construction still on-going, most road trips the past two seasons have included the staff (coaches, trainers, equipment guys) walking around the various buildings and seeing what they like…and what they don’t like.

On this particular trip, I couldn’t find Tom prior to the second game. I needed to record his pregame interview, and he wasn’t in the locker room…wasn’t in the coaches office…wasn’t chatting with the TV guys…there was no sight of him.

I finally found Tom in the tunnel between Ridder Arena and Mariucci. He had the Mariucci building manager up on a ladder with a tape measure…so that he could get the dimensions of the banners that hang from the rafters! They have some old banners hanging in the tunnel, so Tom saw an opportunity…and took it.

Be it behind the bench, or planning for the BREC, moral of the story is…Tom never quits working!