100_Things_Minnesota

The Gopher mascot became synonymous with Minnesota even before it became the country’s 32nd state in 1858.

A satirical cartoon was published a year earlier depicting nine gopher bodies with the heads of territorial politicians pulling a locomotive. The story covered a $5 million bill to expand railroads into western Minnesota. Local residents started identifying themselves as Gophers. Shortly thereafter the University of Minnesota adopted the nickname.

It was another 80 years before a lyrical broadcaster with a mischievous nature added the “golden” touch.

Halsey Hall was born to be a newspaperman. His father, Smith B. Hall, was a reporter who covered Minneapolis. His great uncle, Harlan P. Hall, cofounded the evening St. Paul Dispatch.

In November 1919, when he was 21, Hall’s first byline appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune. His writing career straddled the Twin Cities as Hall left for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and later returned to Minneapolis to cover sports for the Journal.

In the early 1930s, Hall joined WCCO radio just as football coach Bernie Bierman arrived in Minnesota and launched a dynasty. Bierman decided to switch the Gophers’ jerseys and pants to all gold.

“They were a dull gold and not particularly attractive, but that only made the powerhouse teams of the ’30s seem all the more intimidating,” wrote Ray Christensen, Minnesota’s radio play-by-play announcer from 1951 to 2000.

At WCCO, and later crosstown rival KSTP, Hall broadcast three consecutive national championship teams in 1934, ’35, and ’36 during a 10-year run in which Minnesota won five national titles and seven Big Ten championships while losing only 12 games.

During that era of dominance, Hall coined the term “Golden Gophers” describing stars Bronko Nagurski, Pug Lund, and Bruce Smith dashing up and down the field.

Hall was a cheeky storyteller on the air and an after-hours raconteur known for carrying a satchel full of booze wherever he went. Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray once joked that whenever Hall disembarked from an airplane his clinking whiskey bottles sounded like a glockenspiel.

Sports Illustrated described Hall’s friendly delivery and jovial nature in the booth as “redolent of happy days at Grandpa’s house.” He also had an irreverent streak, according to author Stew Thornley, who profiled Hall in 2009 for the Society for American Baseball Research.

One Saturday, as the Michigan Wolverines ran out of the tunnel to play the Gophers, Hall described the scene: “Michigan comes onto the field in blue jerseys and maize pants. And how they got into Mae’s pants, I’ll never know.”

Hall went on to broadcast games for the minor league Minneapolis Millers of the American Association. He was tapped in 1961 to join Herb Carneal and Ray Scott as the original voices of the Twins when the franchise relocated to Minnesota from Washington.

Thornley pointed out that it was Hall in Minnesota who first hollered “Holy Cow!” when describing a big play in a ballgame—not Phil Rizzuto with the New York Yankees or later Harry Caray with the Chicago Cubs.

Hall broadcast Twins games until 1972 but remained on the air at WCCO until his death in 1977. So popular was Hall that in 1979 he was posthumously voted Minnesota’s top sportscaster of the 1970s.

In 1985 the Halsey Hall Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research was named in his honor. Four years later Hall was inducted into the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame.

“Halsey Hall laughed his way through life,” eulogized Dick Cullum, Hall’s newspaper colleague and friend. “And he kept the rest of us laughing, too.”