#TBT--Historical Gopher Holiday Gift Ideas 2016!

Historic Pictures

If you're reading this, you like historic pictures, I mean who doesn't? Giving historic sports images to the person who has everything says, "bullshit you don't have everything, here is a cool as hell photo to put in a frame and on your wall."

You can buy Gopher images for football, basketball or hockey either from the Minnesota Historical Society or Ebay. From MNHS what you are buying will be a reproduction made from the original, you can buy it online and it'll be shipped to your door. I have several of these and no one knows it's not the real thing, suckers.

If you want an actual print from the 1940s go on over to ebay, collectors are out here selling real photos all the time. Most of these photos come from a guy called John Rogers, who is kind of an a-hole. So I'd advocate you don't buy them.

Memorabilia

Similar to photos most of this stuff will be found at ebay or etsy. Here are a few of my favorites:

• A Vintage U of M padlock (with no key) for the smart price of $369. Say you wanted a University of Minnesota padlock with a key? We'll you're in luck, and strangely it's cheaper than the one that doesn't work at $275.
• These Regents mugs are pretty sweet and right for the price of $5.

  

• Know someone who wears an XL sweater and loves angry buff Goldy? Here is a $45 sweater calling their name.

• Here is the coolest item. Despite the 1997 Gopher basketball not winning a national championship and the NCAA taking away their accomplishments for $39.99 you can have this hat that says otherwise!

  

• Did you ever collect sports cards? Alternatively if you wanted to get me a gift this holiday season, this c.1910 tobacco card featuring the Gophers is hot, $14. 

  

• Finally if you want to ball out for $139 on some homecoming pins from the 1920s, this is a pretty neat collection.

  

BOOKS

Books are always easy gifts because they make everyone seem smart.

Gopher Gold, By Tim Brady is a great collection of stories about the University of Minnesota's history, that would be a good gift for just about any kind of fan.

Football Books:

Gophers Illustrated: The Incredible Complete History of Minnesota Football By Al Papas Jr. Great book for the casual fan. It has illustrations of all of your Gopher heroes, and trophies, along with summaries of some big games in Gopher history.

The Little Brown Jug, The Michigan-Minnesota Rivalry By Ken Magee and Jon Stevens. This is hot off the press, its a coffee table type book with tons of beautiful pictures.

Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski or The Undefeated both by Jim Dent. Both books deal with Gopher greats after they leave Minnesota with Bronko in Chicago and Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma. However Jim Dent is a great writer and does a fantastic job.

Basketball:

Minnesota Hoops: Basketball In The North Star State By Marc Hugunin Not just about Gophers basketball but a good decade by decade account of basketball history in Minnesota.

Hockey:

Eh, sorry guys, all of the hockey books about the Gophers kind of suck. If you know of a good one, holler.

DIY Projects

I can't make shit, but clearly many of you can. If you want to make your own Little Brown Jug check out this article by @KevinZintheTC.

Kevin is also working on a replica of a Dinkytown butcher sign that was stolen by football players before the first Floyd of Rosedale game.

Think I just found my IA project. MT @HipsterGopher: in '35 the gophers didn't bet a real pig, stole a meat shop sign pic.twitter.com/tTgdQfBDdH

— Kevin Zalec (@KevinZintheTC) November 7, 2014

Put my energy into this today based on the sign the 1935 Gophers stole from Dinkytown. Paint up next. pic.twitter.com/7Plcez4tu1

— Kevin Zalec (@KevinZintheTC) November 24, 2014