Minnesota Hockey: #TBT Object Of The Day Wendell Anderson’s Jersey Patch

With Sunday’s passing of former Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson, I thought it was a good time to share one of my favorite items from the MNHS Collection.

MNHS

Wendell played hockey for the Gophers, and I just can’t get over how cool this patch is. Something about the simplicity and the unique Gopher on it. Anyway in researching for this post I tried to figure out what the patch would have looked like on Anderson’s jersey.

Unfortunately no pictures exist, and our collections documents about the patch only state that Gov. Anderson wore it between 1950-1954 (the exact time he was playing hockey, duh).

Thankfully the website Vintage Hockey Minnesota, has a great timeline for the history of Gopher puck jerseys. So without further ado, here are the 3 jerseys the patch could have been on.

Vintage Minnesota Hockey

Vintage Minnesota Hockey

Vintage Minnesota Hockey

The 1954-1958 Away jersey seems unlikely as I believe it didn’t come out until the 1954-1955 season, the year after Wendy graduated. But it has a dope Gopher patch on it as well.

The uneven width stripes on the 1952-1953 are pretty fire, so I would prefer the patch came from that season. It’s also the jersey pictured in the photo the U of M is circulating.

In any event, RIP Wendell.

U of M